Space thumb and Shift

[ianxblog]

This thread is for only curious purposes.

Im wondering what thumb you guys use to hit your spacebar. Left hand thumb, right hand thumb, or both?
Also, what shift key do you use? Left Shift, Right Shift, or both?

I personally use my left hand thumb to hit the spacebar and I use the left shift for caps.
If I had to choose a never used key on my keyboard I don't know if I would choose right shift or pause/break.

[plainbriny]

This thread is for only curious purposes.

Im wondering what thumb you guys use to hit your spacebar. Left hand thumb, right hand thumb, or both?
Also, what shift key do you use? Left Shift, Right Shift, or both?

I personally use my left hand thumb to hit the spacebar and I use the left shift for caps.
If I had to choose a never used key on my keyboard I don't know if I would choose right shift or pause/break.

I am using ErgoDox, and I use my left thumb for space. The same key is assigned as shift.
Tap will give space, hold it and it will function as shift.
No pinky finger for shifts ever!!
Using TMK firmware has enabled such dual-role keys. They are now a must-have if I ever consider a new keyboard.

[davkol]

I used to use both thumbs on non-split keyboards, never learned to alternate them though. However, since I got the ErgoDox and Kinesis Advantage, it's only the right thumb.

[jacobolus]

On a “standard” keyboard, I use left thumb for space, and right pinky for most capital letters [but use left pinky for shifted symbols on the right half of the keyboard].

On any keyboard where I have control of the mapping, I try to use a thumb for shift, left thumb for space, right thumb for delete.

[hoggy]

How about using the space bar as spaceand shift?  Take it one step further and use the space bar as space and shift into another layer - SpaceFN layout - http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51069.0

[Oobly]

Right thumb for Space, both left and right shifts depending on if the shifted letter is a left hand or right hand one.

Now I use right thumb for space, enter, alt and ctrl. Left thumb for shift, backspace, tab and layer.  DIY ergo board.

[SonOfSonOfSpock]

I starting using both shifts about a year ago to even out the usage of my pinkies. It was pretty easy as far as changes go. For space, I use my right thumb only. Horrible shine on my space bar as a result.

[pyro]

I went from only using the left shift to using both shifts correctly, then to using TAB and /? keys as shift keys to only using left shift mapped on capslock.

From all of these I found TAB and /? as shift keys the most convenient, but /? is too important a key to lose or remap to a location that's harder to reach.

ps
I also used a thumb key as shift for a while, which was pretty nice, too, but this only works on keyboards with thumb keys. Remapping space to both shift and space (hold to shift, press down and release without extra keys for space) slowed down typing too much for me.

[FoxWolf1]

Left shift only. In fact, I very rarely if ever use the right-side modifier keys. Also, I usually press the left side mods, including shift, with my thumb, not my pinky.

Right thumb only for the space bar.

[Zeal]

Left shift for everything, right thumb for space while typing, WASD + Left thumb when gaming.

[Tony]

I touch type with alternative Shifts (opposite side of the key to be SHIFTed), but use only left thumb for Space bar.

[yasuo]

you want space+shift when press is space when you hold is shift

[1pq]

Left shift only. In fact, I very rarely if ever use the right-side modifier keys. Also, I usually press the left side mods, including shift, with my thumb, not my pinky.

Right thumb only for the space bar.

Left shift for everything, right thumb for space while typing, WASD + Left thumb when gaming.

Me too xD

[nomaded]

On a normal, staggered keyboard, I hit space with my right thumb, and alternate shift, unless I'm typing a word in allcaps, then I just hold shift down with my left pinky; I swap the capslock key for control.

For the last several weeks, I've been trying to alternate shifts with my thumbs, on an ErgoDox. Today, I finally gave up on that experiment, because I found my thumbs confusing the shift keys with space and backspace (right thumb gets space and enter; left thumb gets backspace, delete, and control). It was happening enough that it was annoying me. Now, I need to get used to having shift on my pinkies again.

And for an additional datapoint, on a TECK, I have space on my right thumb, backspace on my left thumb, enter usually on my right thumb. I alternate shift with my pinkies, and only hit control with my left pinky.