60% home keys (KBT Pure?)

[nullstring]

I am thinking about getting one of the 60% keyboards. Either homebrewing a PCB or getting a KBT Pure or both.

I use the home keys quite alot. Home and End are some of my best friends.
What is GH's experience with transitioning over to a keyboard with these keys only available with the Fn modifier?

I can see it working out alright in most cases, but it seems like trying to use shift + home could be a little tedious.
I often use Shift + home, Shift + end, Shift + Ins, Shift + arrow keys. Shift + Page up/down isn't out of the question either.
Alt + Home, Alt + End are also in the mix, but I currently do this with two hands already, so I don't see any issue with this.


In any case. I'd love to hear thoughts.

[bisl]

just got a KBT Pure in the last couple days and I too use Home/End a TON. That said, I'm finding it hard to adjust--they're on fairly unintuitive keys (Fn-, and Fn-.) which doesn't feel at all like it does when using a 104 so your muscle memory is going to be a total wash. I have opinions about the second layer on the Pure requiring you to shift your right hand, as well.

Secondly--what do you use your home and end for? Given that all the useful editing keys are on the second layer, and the Fn is only on the right, you might be in a pickle if Select-to-Home and Select-to-End are the commands you're looking for, since the only shift available to you (LShift) has a second-layer command for Ctrl-Alt-Del. This means that while it's possible to execute Fn-Shift-Home and Fn-Shift-End, you'll need to be sure to have the Shift depressed before you hit the Fn key or else you'll get a fun surprise that (on windows) takes like 5-10 seconds to recover.

Personally I like the board's construction (I got reds) and I like the idea, but without the ability to program the second layer I wouldn't recommend it.

[jdcarpe]

You could homebrew a Dox KB (original Dox, not ErgoDox). I always thought that design was brilliant, and didn't know why it was never produced as a group buy or something, like the Phantom.

[bisl]

You don't have a link to that, do you? I searched "dox kb" and nothing came up; maybe something to do with the downtime earlier this year?

[jdcarpe]

Sure...

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=19227.0

[nullstring]

Secondly--what do you use your home and end for? Given that all the useful editing keys are on the second layer, and the Fn is only on the right, you might be in a pickle if Select-to-Home and Select-to-End are the commands you're looking for, since the only shift available to you (LShift) has a second-layer command for Ctrl-Alt-Del. This means that while it's possible to execute Fn-Shift-Home and Fn-Shift-End, you'll need to be sure to have the Shift depressed before you hit the Fn key or else you'll get a fun surprise that (on windows) takes like 5-10 seconds to recover.

Oh god, that's retarded. Thank you for the heads up.

You could homebrew a Dox KB (original Dox, not ErgoDox). I always thought that design was brilliant, and didn't know why it was never produced as a group buy or something, like the Phantom.

I was thinking about doing a Dox homebrew, but it still has the issue of non-dedicated home keys.
Even with a layout I get to choose, I'm not sure I'll be able to adjust.

[bisl]

I was thinking about doing a Dox homebrew

Yeah, I was thinking about it as well, but I think I'm just going to wait for ErgoDox to finish up. Counting the dayshours!