Tag: inputdevices

Low-key keyboards are a fad
When I realized that I needed a split ergonomic mechanical keyboard, I dove deep into the space, searching for something that could work for me. I quickly found the ZSA family of keyboards, but they were completely outside my budget. I also ran into the Kinesis Advantage and Advantage360, but not only were they also completely outside my budget, I also didn't like the straight up and down wrist angle of the Advantage, and the thick, tall design of the 360, nor the thumb cluster design that looke...
Why I Prefer Keyboard-Driven Interfaces
This is not a controversial position to take, I think among the computer programming set. However, I think it deserves a little more of a centralized, rigorous defense, instead of the general appeal to "common sense" and preferences that usually happens. Especially in response to some critiques of this preference which I'm going to respond below. I prefer keyboard-driven interfaces to mouse-driven interfaces for three predominant reasons. Imagine that instead of having a keyboard to enter text, ...
XBows review: the perfect hacker's keyboard?
The XBows Knight Plus that I am typing this on right now is quite possibly the best single purchase I have ever made in my entire life, hands down. In this review I'll catalog the things I like about it, the things that could be improved but are generally fine, and the things that I don't like about it. I did pick up my XBows Knight on eBay for 300 MSRP, so that may be biasing my opinions with regard to whether it's worth it, but I really don't think so -- while many of the XBows's features aren...
XBows review: the perfect hacker's keyboard?
The XBows Knight Plus that I am typing this on right now is quite possibly the best single purchase I have ever made in my entire life, hands down. In this review I'll catalog the things I like about it, the things that could be improved but are generally fine, and the things that I don't like about it. I did pick up my XBows Knight on eBay for 300 MSRP, so that may be biasing my opinions with regard to whether it's worth it, but I really don't think so -- while many of the XBows's features aren...
You don't want a small keyboard
You need a split ergonomic mechanical keyboard
If your primary job, hobby, or both involves typing, you need an ergonomic keyboard. Period. Traditional keyboards were not designed with humane ergonomics in mind. They were designed around the technical constraints of 19th century typewriters, and then that layout was ported forward and forward until we've now ended up with a miniature version of it on our damn smartphones. There are many inherent design flaws in the traditional keyboard, but here are a few:If you spend hours a day, almost eve...
You need a split ergonomic mechanical keyboard
If your primary job, hobby, or both involves typing, you need an ergonomic keyboard. Period. Traditional keyboards were not designed with humane ergonomics in mind. They were designed around the technical constraints of 19th century typewriters, and then that layout was ported forward and forward until we've now ended up with a miniature version of it on our damn smartphones. There are many inherent design flaws in the traditional keyboard, but here are a few:If you spend hours a day, almost eve...
A Total Amateur's Guide to Ergo Keyboards
You're probably here because you work an office job that has you typing a lot, and you can already feel the beginning twinges of pain, numbness, tingling, or a heavy weight in fingers or hands whenever you use your computer, and can feel the sense of impending doom encroaching on you. Or maybe you're smart, and you're looking to prevent it before it happens. That's good! Office workers are prone to occupational injuries just like any other kind of laborer, even if we do tend to be safer than blu...
Key arpeggios versus key chords
It is my strong opinion that arpeggiated key bindings -- key bindings where you press multiple single, un-modified keys in a sequence, as you would in things like Emacs god-mode or Vim -- are vastly superior, ergonomically, to key chords -- like you would use in traditional GUI applications, or in vanilla Emacs. This is for a few reasons. One might be tempted to bring out the stenographer's keyboard as a counterexample to my statements, but that's not so. The stenographer's keyboard reaches its ...