Recommodation for german/english typeset and coding

[sharkbyte]

Hey everybody!

What a great site and community here 

I want to by a mecha keyboard for a little more than occasional web-browsing. I read a lot but there are some points I don´t get my head around, so I figured "what the heck, go register". Below I will add a short list to sum up the points. But I´m looking for a keyboard light enough to travel, with the ability to switch between two different typesets, german and english. German utilizes three additional characters as well as the "z" quite heavily, making it very hard to write german on an english layout. On the other site are all brackets activated by "caps" or even "AltGr" on the number row, which sucks while writing small shell scripts etc. My perfect keyboard needs to fulfill my needs for writing german, english and code comfortably. Would be great to programm it to Dvorak or something else.

Must have:
- easily transferable between different systems (windows/linux, most likely not mac)
- programmable keys (macros would be nice)
- fully replaceable keys, need blank ones
- MX switches (for the price), I lean toward clear but think I could also life with brown
- detachable cable

Not necessary:
- Dedicated function keys and numpad
- lights (caps, num etc.)

Probably nice to have, can´t tel:
- dedicated arrow keys

Should not have:
- Bright lights
- astronomic pricetag   )


I tend to buy form QTan as his prices on ebay are the best offer I can find here in germany. I could also wait and look for some great offers on ebay or in the forum marketplaces here or on deskthority.
Leopold FC660M , KBT pure pro 67 or Keycool 84 are the models which seem to fit my needs, but I can´t tell if they offer fully programmable keys.

[IvanIvanovich]

Any keyboard will type in whatever language you have selected in the operating system. For example I frequently use US and RU layouts and switch between them by pressing alt+shift. Keep in mind that when using language layouts meant for an ISO keyboard on ANSI you will loose the <> key or whatever else appears between shift and z/y. On the opposite using US layout on an ISO board that 'extra' key will either do nothing or \| which may be less annoying.
That said, you could go for an ISO 88key Ducky which are available from some European e-tailers which should fit most the requirement well. There are very few mass produced MX keyboards that are full user hardware programmable and most of them are very expensive like those from Access-IS (unless you find them in used market).

[sharkbyte]

Thanks Ivan for your reply.

I  changed the requirements in between  Figured that the dedicated arrow keys are not a "Must Have". I only use them to highlight paragraphs or larger modules to move them around. I think I could spare them. This would make the KBC Poker 2 also interesting. I read some reviews, but what do you think of it personally?

[IvanIvanovich]

I used to love Poker before I built GH60. Perhaps the Ducky mini will also be of interest to you then, since it is available in Europe and comes in ISO.

[tp4tissue]

Ergodox dude... nothing comes close.

[sharkbyte]

You talked about european e-tailers, but quite honestly I can´t find any. Are there any names crossing your mind?

Don´t have the money for an ErgoDox, sadly.

[IvanIvanovich]

Teraset carries them, some others I think but I don't recall them all.

[xandr]

I'm a native german and I found the "English (US) International" layout in windows is easily adaptable to as a german if you still need to type umlauts a lot but want easily accessible square and curly braces for coding. Might be worth looking into so you don't have to switch layouts all the time.

[sharkbyte]

Hey xandre,

thanks for your reply. I´m considering to learn the dvorak or colemak layout, or to modify them for my purposes. My research now revealed that there or only 2-3 fully programmable KB´s, like the KB Poker II or Ducky Mini. I have multiple systems ranging from Win7 to some flavors of linux. It would be just so much more convenient to change layouts on the "hardware" side compared to sustain multiple layouts on multiple boxes.

As I´m right between my PhD study and my first job, the problem is more on the amount of time i can invest in research and the rising expectations that come along with that. I should focus more on the fact that I´m nearly broke  )

Over here in germany I get a cherry G80 for 50-60 € everything else is at least 20-30 € above. Something like Ducky´s at least 140€. I have to convice myself to A) wait a few more months or B) life with a cherry board 

[IvanIvanovich]

If your budget is slim, there is nothing wrong with starting out on a G80. It was my first MX board and I still have a huge love affair with G80 line. No question they are much better than same cost keyboards of the rubberdomes over membrane variety.

[sharkbyte]

An advantage is, I do can get the G80-3000LQCEU-2 with clear switches

[davkol]

Yup, G80s are easy to mod. They have cases big enough to fit a Teensy-based converter as well, you could get programmability this way.

Speaking of German, do you know about the Neo layout?

[sharkbyte]

Yeah, I´ve read about this layout. Going to test it anyway.

The G80-1800 looks very interesting, especially the price of 26€ with shipping for a refurbished one. A shame only beige are available, aside from eBay.

Are you 100% sure about the teensy controller? I´ve read the particular thread, but there wasn´t any example of this mod. Very interesting..... Ivan, can you say something about that?

Thinking about buying 1-2 and dye the case with spray colors, or so. 

I definitely like the layout of the 1800. Should look pretty "swag" with blank keycaps