Generic split keyboard, with central keypad and w/o thumb pads

[Snarfangel]

I haven't put in the thumb pads yet, or figured out which main keys need to be taller (double sized), or even what layout I should pick (though I'm leading toward the  MTGAP version here: http://mathematicalmulticore.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/introducing-the-thumb-keys/). Here is the current layout I'm playing with, though:

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 42678[/ATTACH]

The home row would be even with the 1 2 3 row of the numpad. The most notable features (other than the aforementioned split and central number pad) are:

1. Putting plus and times on the right side of the keypad, and minus/divide on the left. That makes the numpad shorter and wider, hopefully allowing thumbpads to be added easily without too much cramming.
2. Putting a lock key that needs to be hit in tandem with number (for numlock), scroll (scroll lock), and caps (capslock). I *hate* accidentally hitting numlock and capslock. Plus, you can add shift (shift lock), and even alt and ctrl to the mix, assuming you had need of long stretches of alt  and ctrl codes. And you could put the numlock/scroll lock/capslock lights immediately above or underneath the appropriate key, making it clearer which one was set.
3. Leaving scroll (scroll lock) and pause/break for legacy purposes, even though I almost never, ever use them.

Comments are welcome, and feel free to copy, edit, cut, paste, alter, fold, spindle, and/or mutilate the image to your heart's content. It's more of a doodle than a definite proposal at this point, anyway, but kind of fun.

[bogboar]

While this would be well sexy, I feel I must rain on your parade somewhat with a question. Why do people put so little emphasis on the mouse (or trackball) that they are willing to put up with wide keyboards like this?

[alaricljs]

What's the issue with a wide keyboard?  There are some split boards that enough people are interested in have rather well separated that there are chair-arm mounts for the 2 halves.

[Snarfangel]

While this would be well sexy, I feel I must rain on your parade somewhat with a question. Why do people put so little emphasis on the mouse (or trackball) that they are willing to put up with wide keyboards like this?

Actually, I was contemplating putting a touchpad in the center, below the missing thumb pads. You could, however, put a trackball there (I saw a Kinesis mod here on the boards that looked pretty cool).

On the other hand, consider a current standard keyboard. To move from the home row to a right hand mouse, you have to move your hand over the arrow keys and number pad. With a split keyboard where the number pad is in the center, the mouse is immediately to the right of your normal hand position, cutting down movement a fair amount. As an experment, put your right hand on the number pad of a standard keyboard, then move to the mouse. Then do the same thing with your hand over the normal JKL; home keys.

Edited to add: Here is the link to a cool Kinesis mod, adding a central trackball: http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?17582-My-Kinesis-Keyboard-mod

[bogboar]

I wonder if it would be something to have a keyboard similar to the Kinesis, but with one of the thumb clusters switched out for a trackball.

[boli]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I'd miss the thumb cluster a lot, both of them feel very important. I'd absolutely love a pointing device nearbly though, which is why I'm currently experimenting with a Trackpad in the center, a RollerMouse in front, and soon a trackball on the right of my Kinesis to find what works best for me...

[sordna]

I like your split keyboard concept. It has a mainstream / classic look, unlike the rather intimidating Kinesis/Maltron.
Your keyboard with its straight lines and right angles looks like something Apple could produce as their ergo scissor keyboard! Just add 2 space bars and send it to them :-)  It will change the keyboarding world if they do it!

[bogboar]

I have to say I really like the idea of having function keys in sets of three. It should make them easier to recognise: only one is ever in the middle of a set.

But on another hand, does anyone ever really use Scroll Lock? And Pause/Break – I know it has some programmer uses, but if I'm not wrong they're damned rare and even then an unneeded gimmick. Doesn't Ctrl-C do the same thing? And, well, Num Lock... I don't know about you, but I think it creates too much confusion to be good. I've more than once accidentally deleted everything I wrote in a post because my numlock was in the wrong state. Separate keys for arrow keys and page navigation would make more sense.

I think arrow-keys in particular would do great under the middle-finger in the main typing area. Like so:

Code: [Select]


QWERT
ASDFG
ZX↑VB
\←↓→

[sordna]

Pause is good when you want to catch those fleeing BIOS messages during bootup. Very useful in the (rare) cases it's needed.