Keyboard Repeat Rate in OS X, Linux, and Windows

[Hypersphere]

Until recently, I've never paid any attention to keyboard repeat rate settings in any OS I use, which includes Mac OS X, Linux (currently Linux Mint 17 Xfce in my case), or Windows (currently Windows 7 -- don't plan to use 8.1; waiting for Win 10).

This situation changed today as I was finishing my evaluation of a Kul ES-87 with Cherry mx Red switches. People frequently report that mx Reds are too light for them, and they get lots of accidental key presses from just resting their fingers on the keyboard. I am accustomed to relatively heavy switches, and so I was surprised by the lack of spurious strings of letters.

It turns out that I was using the keyboard with Mac OS X (Yosemite). I had not realized that since OS X Lion, the Mac has a built-in blockade of repeated key presses, at least for the letter keys. For example, if you press and hold the letter "e", you get "e" appearing on the page, but in a callout cloud above the letter, there appears 7 numbered choices of "e" with various diacritical markings; choose number 4 and you get e with an umlaut, ë. If instead you want the letter to repeat when held, eeeeeeeee...., you need to open a terminal and enter the following:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Log out, log in, and the now you get "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" when holding down the key.

To get the non-repeat with accepts option back again, you simply enter the following:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

Log out, log in, and now the default behavior returns, with a non-repeating letters and accent options.

In linux, it appears that repeating letters are the norm, but you can change the repeat rate in the keyboard preferences.

I haven't tried this in Windows 7, but I understand that repeat rate can be set in options.

With repeated letters activated in OS X, I found that mx Reds did indeed have a light touch. The default setting in OS X had saved me from myself.

No doubt everyone else knows all this, but it was a revelation to me.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

MX red definitely won't give you repeated presses from normal typing. In your case, you're not getting a callout cloud from resting your fingers either, so how does that work? You rest your fingers for brief periods that are shorter than the callout cloud trigger period?

I don't get how anyone can trigger keys from resting their fingers on them. If I put my whole hand right across the keyboard sideways I might catch something, but who does that? Anyone whose hands are so heavy that they exert more than the preload of a Cherry switch must have bones made of lead or something. If I rest my hands on my keyboard (which I never do anyway) I don't even have enough weight on any finger to get past the preload of an MX blue switch. I have to actually plonk down my hands hard to register anything.

[Hypersphere]

Don't know, but I've seen many posts from people complaining aaaaaaaaaabout itttttttttt.......

[Muirium]

Callout cloud, eh? I think it's called a popover, like on iOS. In any case, they look like this:

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 11.25.24 pm.png (13.07 KiB) Viewed 3341 times

I find I have to hold a key down for a full second for it to appear. Escape dismisses it of course.

To answer Daniel: I'm sure that people who rest their hands on keys don't think they're pressing them with their muscles, so blame accidents on hand weight vs. light switches. But I bet their fingers are in fact squeezing a bit, in partial activation. We're creatures of unconscious cues that can often signal our intentions to an observer before we've quite decided on them ourselves!

I'm a hovering typist too, so have no problem with reds or any other light or high activating switch. And so OS X's diacritical popovers are something I rarely see. Ønly when typing "Dånish".

[Hypersphere]

In the US, a "popover" is "a light, hollow roll made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding". (Wikipedia).

Popovers_2.jpg (12.41 KiB) Viewed 3336 times

[Muirium]

Yeah, and a window is a hole in a wall filled with glass…

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios ... index.html

[xwhatsit]

That's one of the biggest frustrations I have whenever I sit down in front of an OS X machine; the repeat rate is so slow. Of course you can probably adjust it somewhere, but man! It always makes whatever I'm using feel like a laggy piece of crap.

I like a fast repeat rate and a short delay. xset r rate 300 is the way to go. Then again I favour heavy clicky switches where I'm unlikely to accidentally trigger a press; Model F/Beamspring/Thinkpad scissor switches. I really do struggle with my cow-orkers variable weight Topre for that reason (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa).

[jacobolus]

Personally I hate that keys repeat, period. If I need to type a character more than about 4 times in a row, I’m doing something wrong.

However the newly inconsistent behavior of held down keys in OS X is also stupid.

[jacobolus]

I don't get how anyone can trigger keys from resting their fingers on them.

Have you ever tried this on MX red switches? That they will very easily accidentally actuate is the reason I think MX red is too light. By contrast, linear MX switches with "62g"–"67g" after-market springs, white space invader switches, or green Alps switches are all in the range of acceptable (i.e. neither too light nor oppressively heavy) linear switch weights. Adding a loud solenoid should also be quite helpful. [Though personally, I’d just as soon skip linear switches altogether.]

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just tried it on my Poker II. The one key I whack if I'm not careful plonking my hands down as a test is space, and it could be argued that space should have a heavier switch anyway. (The weight of space might also be overcoming some of the switch's preload — it seems a tiny bit easier to press.)

Otherwise, no, I'm still confused as to how anyone's resting weight is enough to trigger switches. I guess they must put their hands down hard on the keys.