ergodox useability question

[kolonelkadat]

Ive been on the fence about the ergodox for like 3 or 4 years now. Im curious what the community thinks of them now.

I am a software engineer. So I spend a good deal of time with the F keys and some others that the dox just doesnt have. I know it has multiple layers,  but if it requires adding another key to the chord maybe it isnt worth it. Or maybe its so worth it I could get another keypad for all my special key needs.

Tldr is the crippling loss of ~30 keys made up for in other ways?

 Also do keycap groupbuys still commonly offer ergodox kits?

[jbondeson]

Also a software developer (C# and JavaScript mostly) and I work on either an ergodox infinity or a little 60% (AEK variant).  Frankly, the 60% is harder to compensate for than the ergodox. The biggest issue I've run into on the ergodox is simply getting a comfortable layout for all the symbols, but after some messing around with it I think I have something workable.

One of the biggest things that helped was to move the backspace over one thumb button to the right on the left hand side so my thumb is naturally on the Fn key and only a small movement to the backspace key. I'm tempted to do the same for the the spacebar on the right and move enter to an f-layer.

Due to the cost of an ergodox vs a 60% it may make sense to try a cheap 60% and see if you can live with that before you jump completely in on ergodox. But if you do make the leap I'd suggest you go full-in on the ergodox and only use it for several weeks because your head is going to get in the way when changing the layout. I'm finally now able to switch back and forth between the two without it causing my brain to lock up.

[Data]

Gamers know those feels, too.  Function row is kind of a big deal in games sometimes.

Here's how I'm dealing with it at home: get a programmable keypad and assign F-keys to it.  The 'Dox is great but you really start to miss some of those keys (I'm looking at you, number pad) when it comes to certain typing tasks.  True, there are layers, but they aren't a direct replacement for dedicated keys in an "oh ****" need-it-now situation or without tripping up your workflow (which is, admittedly, a training/practice thing).

Note that if you're doing a lot of chording with the F-row, Windows (especially) doesn't like to do modifiers across multiple input devices.  So "Alt+F4" would only be read as "F4" if you're hitting both keys on separate keyboards.   In that case, you're stuck using layers.