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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: megarat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 12:51:28

Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: megarat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 12:51:28
Hey all,

It looks like a new model to the HHKB Pro line was just released:  the HHKB Pro JP:

http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/direct/hhkb/detail_hhkb-pro-jp.html

I knew they had a Lite JP model, but this is (apparently) completely new.  Check out the blistering number of keys, including the full-size arrow keys (!).

(http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/direct/hhkb/images/goods-xl/pdkb420b_xl.jpg)

Of course, this makes one (or at least me) speculate about whether a Pro 3 is coming out soon ...
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: xsphat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 13:45:12
Nice find, but my god what a terrible layout for non-Japanese users!

I hope version three doesn't take ques from this one — the arrow keys are a waste and the right shift key is the same style as on a lot of the netbooks, which is why I may never own an Eee PC.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: megarat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:08:26
Did you notice the layout of the punctuation characters, especially with the shifted number keys?  E.g., the parentheses on shift-8 and shift-9 (instead of shift-9 and shift-0).  Is that a back-tick sharing the same key with the "@"?

I especially like the single-quote on shift-7, and the double-quote on shift-2.  It's making me reminisce, in a you've-come-a-long-way-baby kind of way, about the layout of my Atari 1200XL, from twenty-five years ago.

With all those mysterious keys jammed into such a dense package, it looks like something a space cadet (or an APL programmer) would use.  Or maybe something stolen from the set of "The Matrix".
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: Korbin on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:08:50
It's really strange that they didn't put japanese characters on the keys as well as english like other japanese boards.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:23:19
Quote from: megarat;10753
Did you notice the layout of the punctuation characters, especially with the shifted number keys?  E.g., the parentheses on shift-8 and shift-9 (instead of shift-9 and shift-0).
That's standard japanese layout. We have the shift-8 and shift-9 parentheses too.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: xsphat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:37:42
Quote from: lowpoly;10762
That's standard japanese layout. We have the shift-8 and shift-9 parentheses too.


More like shift 9 & 0 for us in the US ... shift 8 is ampersand.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:41:48
Quote
Here in Germany we have the shift-8 and shift-9 parentheses too.

Fixed.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: megarat on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:51:45
Quote from: lowpoly;10766
Here in Germany we have the shift-8 and shift-9 parentheses too.


Out of curiosity, what do you have for shift-0?  (The HHKP Pro JP appears to be blank.)
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 11 November 2008, 14:56:34
=
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 11 November 2008, 15:01:26
Some japanese keyboards have the ~ character on shift-0.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: D-EJ915 on Tue, 11 November 2008, 16:08:51
very nice, I actually like the Japanese layout not because I use the keys for their intended use but it gives me quite a few for extra bindings :D
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: wellington1869 on Tue, 11 November 2008, 16:35:06
Quote from: D-EJ915;10779
very nice, I actually like the Japanese layout not because I use the keys for their intended use but it gives me quite a few for extra bindings :D


do you use autohotkey? I was thinking about using a japanese keyboard in taht way. I have a ton of hotkeys. The only thing I didnt like was the space bar being so short as a result. And some of they keys I use regularly being in wonky places tho I suppose I could remap those too.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: lam47 on Tue, 11 November 2008, 18:00:56
I wish these were not so expensive.
I have to have a 2 row size return or I hit whatevers above it.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: philodox on Wed, 12 November 2008, 08:30:22
Quote from: xsphat;10765
More like shift 9 & 0 for us in the US ... shift 8 is ampersand.
Shift 8 is asterisk on all my keyboards. :)
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: D-EJ915 on Wed, 12 November 2008, 11:09:15
Quote from: wellington1869;10780
do you use autohotkey? I was thinking about using a japanese keyboard in taht way. I have a ton of hotkeys. The only thing I didnt like was the space bar being so short as a result. And some of they keys I use regularly being in wonky places tho I suppose I could remap those too.

I use xmodmap for x windows on unix/linux

one of the things I dislike about the japanese layout is the underscore is shift-lowest-right key and the equals is also a shifted key.  Having @ as its own key is very nice though, in fact I mapped the key directly to the left of control to it on my sun keyboard
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: xsphat on Wed, 12 November 2008, 12:37:52
Quote from: philodox;10835
Shift 8 is asterisk on all my keyboards. :)


I'm dumb, you're right. Ampersand is shift+7. Thanks for the correction.
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: djones on Wed, 12 November 2008, 17:22:26
The english layout has too few modifiers on the space bar row, and now that new japanese layout board has waaay too many! Could I get something in between?
Title: New HHKB Pro JP
Post by: fkeidjn on Wed, 12 November 2008, 20:31:21
Quote from: webwit;10784
Well you won't mis-hit it now, that return key is HUGE! Hmm, looking at the design (http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/lineup/pdkb420w.html), they should have made the Fn keys a bit bigger, those are weird bits of free space now and it would make them easier to hit. They also made the mistake of moving the left Fn as far away as possible to the left. Note how the Z is more to the left compared to western keyboards. This might f*ck up touch typers.


Or they could have just used that space for the spacebar.