more speculation on what the perfect keyboard would be like

[paperclippy]

My OT says that the perfect keyboard would be one that drastically changed configurations every hour, so you wouldn't get stuck in a repetitive pattern too long. I have been saying for a long time that keyboards need to come in different sizes depending on the size of your hand.

So my OT and I joke that I have "enteritis" -- inflammation along the pinky side of my right wrist, caused by reaching for the enter key. It occurred to me that shift and control are also ones that require extension of your pinky. In many disciplines, you avoid using that finger heavily because it is the weakest finger -- for example, I might find a new fingering for a piece of violin music so I could use a different finger. So why is it that when I'm typing I am constantly pressing things with my little finger? I type with the "proper" alignment -- index fingers on F and J and the rest lined up next to them. If I then look at my left hand, there aren't too many characters to the left of my pinky. I primarily use it for control and shift, and I swapped my control and caps lock to make it even easier. I actually use my ring finger for Q and tab which I suppose is a little unusual. Then if I look at my right hand, there are a whole bunch of keys lined up to the right of my pinky! I use my pinky for enter, ', shift, |, control, and shift, and when I'm writing a lot of code my pinky will often be on the shift key while my ring finger is on { or }. Why should there be so many more keys that I use my pinky for on the right side? Why should pinkies be used for such frequent characters as enter, shift, and control?

I will admit I don't know where they should go instead, since obviously the letters are all used pretty frequently. I wouldn't mind replacing the row of number keys with them though . . . I always use the number pad for number entry anyway. OTOH that's a bit hard to reach.

Comments

[mbrubeck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, remapping Caps Lock to Control helps a lot. I can't really work without that anymore. I also use Dvorak, which further reduces finger movement. And I like that my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard has extra =, parentheses, and backspace keys above the numeric keypad.

Other minor things: I put my mouse on the left side, mainly because it's a shorter reach. And I use programs like Vim, Quicksilver, Launchy, and the shell that mostly eliminate mousing. I'm thinking of getting a desktop keyboard that has a built-in pointing device that can be reached while my fingers are still on the keys.

Dvorak moves the symbols around as well as the letters (diagram). I end moving my whole hand to hit to type brackets and brace, but it's nice having the hyphen/underscore key closer to my fingers.

Also, you should switch to Python or Ruby (or some other language with dynamic or inferred types). Fewer lines of code, and less punctuation. :)

[omega697.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear on most of those points, esp Caps Lock/Ctrl. I fought that one for a long time, but now that I've done it, I just can't fathom going back.

One more thing I might suggest is getting used to using the left shift key when doing braces and such. It's not something I have done yet, but trying to hit two keys simultaneously with the same hand seems to take its toll.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to use the left shift key more. Actually what I've been trying to do is to always use the shift key on the opposite side from the letter, though I'm not always successful.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried Dvorak yet. From what I've read QWERTY makes you use your left hand more for common characters and Dvorak relies on your right hand more, and I'm left handed. It might be something to try in the future though, maybe if I have a keyboard where I could pick up the keys and rearrange them to help me learn. Right now I have my favorite split keyboard, which has some of the keys shaped funny so they can't be swapped.

I also have the 3M ergonomic mouse (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ergonomics/home/products/ergonomicmouse/), which is molded to fit my right hand, so I can't move it to the left. I used to use a touchpad that is built into my keyboard (right below the arrow keys), but having the mouse buttons directly below the touchpad leads to a lot of crossing your thumb underneath your palm, which is bad. I do try to avoid mousing if possible though, but I have trouble remembering a lot of keyboard shortcuts.

Haha, I would switch languages, but I don't think my boss would approve. :P Although C# does now have "var" which is pretty much an inferred type.

[mbrubeck.livejournal.com]

One way to learn without physically swapping keys is to download an image of the layout, and keep it open in a window near the bottom of your screen.

[darienjax.livejournal.com]

Some fancy keyboards (read: expensive and very non-traditional) have Enter, Backspace and/or other keys on the thumbs, which helps reduce reach a lot. Using both thumbs just for spacebar is a real waste, since they're strong fingers.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty handy. My split keyboard is different from many in that the space bar actually extends the entire way across, and yet I find myself pressing it with both thumbs at once, which is entirely unnecessary. My keyboard does have some special buttons inside the split section (an extra tab, backspace, and button to activate mousekeys), so I've been thinking about mapping enter to one of those.