minimalist keyboards - WHY?

nicstreet

08 Jan 2016, 12:37

I think the main blocker for everyone is familiarity. Had we all grown up with 60% boards being the norm and using multiple function layers and chording, we would probably all feel different about full size boards. Software would have been developed with this in mind, and requirements for separate numpads/navblocks wouldn't exist.

I'm slowly becoming accustomed to my 60% but.. still have issues with commands like CTRL-SHIFT-END which has become CTRL-SHIFT-FN-END and my hand often moves to the imaginary navblock.

Perhaps we need more 60% in life? 60% TV remote anyone? or perhaps 60% car pedals, you chord 'brake' by double tapping 'clutch' to put it in brake mode :P

KRKS

08 Jan 2016, 14:32

So after further thinking on the topic, and the layouts of that random thing that I posted and JD45, I arrived to some conclusions. First is literally JD45 with a numrow
Spoiler:
Image

["Esc","!\n1\n\n\nf1","@\n2\n\n\nf2","#\n3\n\n\nf3","$\n4\n\n\nf4","%\n5\n\n\nf5","^\n6\n\n\nf6","&\n7\n\n\nf7","*\n8\n\n\nf8","(\n9\n\n\nf9",")\n0\n\n\nf10","_\n-\n\n\nf11","+\n=\n\n\nf12"],
["Tab\n\n\n\n`","Q\n\n\n\n~","W","E\n\n\n\n↑","R","T","Y","U","I","O\n\n\n\n:","P\n\n\n\n;","{\n[\n\n\n|","}\n]\n\n\n\\"],
[{w:1.25},"Fn","A","S\n\n\n\n←","D\n\n\n\n↓","F\n\n\n\n→","G","H\n\n\n\nHome","J\n\n\n\nPgUp","K\n\n\n\nPgDn","L\n\n\n\nEnd","\"\n'\n\n\nInsert",{w:1.75},"Backspace\n\n\n\nDelete"],
[{w:1.75},"Shift","Z","X","C","V","B","N","M","<\n,\n\n\nPrtScr",">\n.\n\n\nScrLk","?\n/\n\n\nPause",{w:1.25},"Shift"],
[{x:2.25,w:1.25},"Ctrl",{w:1.25},"Alt",{a:7,w:1.75},"",{a:4,w:1.75},"Enter",{w:1.25},"Alt",{w:1.25},"Meta"]
And the second is that plus two keys and a 5x3 block on either side.
Spoiler:
Image

["/\nF10","*\nF11","-\nF12",{x:0.25},"~\n`","!\n1","@\n2","#\n3","$\n4","%\n5","^\n6","&\n7","*\n8","(\n9",")\n0","_\n-","+\n=",{x:0.25},"PrtSc","Scroll Lock","Pause\nBreak"],
["7\nF7","8\nF8","9\nF9",{x:0.25},"Tab","Q","W","E","R","T","Y","U","I","O","P","{\n[","}\n]",{x:0.25},"Insert","Home","PgUp"],
["4\nF4","5\nF5","6\nF6",{x:0.25,w:1.25},"Ctrl","A","S","D","F","G","H","J","K","L","\"\n'",{w:1.75},"Backspace",{x:0.25},"Delete","End","PgDn"],
["1\nF1","2\nF2","3\nF3",{x:0.25,w:1.75},"Shift","Z","X","C","V","B","N","M","<\n,",">\n.","?\n/",{w:1.25},"Shift",{x:0.25},":\n;","↑","|\n\\"],
["+\nCaps","0",".\nMenu",{x:0.25,w:1.25},"Num Lock",{x:1,w:1.25},"Meta",{w:1.25},"Alt",{a:7,w:1.75},"",{a:4,w:1.75},"Enter",{w:1.25},"Alt",{w:1.25},"Fn",{x:1,w:1.25},"Esc",{x:0.25},"←","↓","→"],
[{y:-0.25,t:"#800000\n#000000",a:5,f2:1,d:true},"<i class='fa fa-circle'></i>\nCAPS LOCK",{t:"#ff0000\n#000000",d:true},"<i class='fa fa-circle'></i>\nNUM LOCK",{t:"#800000\n#000000",d:true},"<i class='fa fa-circle'></i>\nSCROLL LOCK"]
I agree that they look a bit weird(especially the big one), but I'm feeling them. And since one of my new year resolutions this year is to at least start making a custom, and making one of these seems like a good idea, I might make a Workshop thread soon.

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

08 Jan 2016, 17:57

dwasifar wrote: […] How's that for a first post?
Long :lol:

Well, long, but founded and well written.
Welcome to DT!

maxi

08 Jan 2016, 19:14

Chyros wrote: OK, so I'm really curious about this now. What is it with wanting to have tiny keyboards?

People pay several times more to get an SSK as opposed to a normal Model M. They pay top dollar to get rare space-saving versions of keyboards. Someone undertook the Herculean effort to recreate Kishsavers, a spared-no-expense venture (I've seen the unit cost). HHKB users do with only 60% of their buttons and they love it, others think even that's too much and they painstakingly custom-cuild their own 40% layout.

To me, this is baffling. There aren't a lot of keys I don't use on a keyboard myself, so paying MORE to get LESS sounds very strange to me. I own very few <100% keyboards, and I actually think that the bigger a keyboard is, the cooler it looks. Now I'm not here to convince people to use big keyboards (not that I could if I wanted to), but I really want to know. Therefore, I pose the question; tiny keyboard users, what is it that you like so much about small form factors?

Personal preferences matter, but cannot be object of discussion.

The actual advantage of a smaller KB is it helps avoiding potential wrong postures.
We found ourselves in a wrong or poor posture when we overload muscles, tendons, etc. or we worsen breathing or blood circulation.

Wrong postures express become dangerous if maintained for prolonged time.
Unfortunately a wrong posture often is not revealed by a discomfort, so if the posture isn't fixed, the consequent damage will evolve towards more serious outcome. This is the most common scenario regarding slipped discs.

Coming back to KB, the postural advantages given by a compact one regard mainly wrists, shoulders and back.

A thick KB can induce wrists in an extended posture. Solution: a thinner KB or a wrist support.

If you use mouse intensively, a large KB may unbalance your body. Let's see two possible situations:

Keys should be centered to torso, so if you have a big KB, two wrong postures can occur:
A) centering letter keys to the torso: mouse is too far, to use it you will open too much the shoulder angle. Many people suffer a pain in a short time.
B) centering letter keys to the torso with mouse in front of you: the KB distance will lead you to a hunch posture, and pain in your back and/or neck.
C) Aligning keyboard and torso centers will make mouse use safer, but the letter keys will cause unbalanced right arm and twisted back.

That's why workmen (who usually move) mock clerks for their fatigue complaints, but hardly would accept to work in an office: repetitive strain injures RSI exist and if you are not aware of it, consequences may be serious.

These are my argumentation pro compact KB, also if in my opinion mouse is a bigger danger and there is a poor awareness of it.... all profit for pharmaceutical industries :-( but this is another issue...

User avatar
Linkert

09 Jan 2016, 08:20

Here's why my full size ISO G-80-whatever Cherry board mostly sit in the closet. For me it's all about the balance between centered alpha keys and centered mouse on the mouse pad.

The Poker board or the Wasd TKL gives me enough keys to get through my computing needs. Why would I use a board that forces me into a weird position where either the alpha keys end up too far to the left of center position or the mouse pad and mouse ends up too far to the right?

The poker II ANSI is my daily driver. There's a custom printed ISO Wasdkeyboard TKL on it's way to replace the Poker II, seems like a good in-between.

I could also make a loose comparison to machine tools (full kb) VS. hand tools (tkl/60%). A lot of the time, mostly all the time, I prefer using hand tools at work. Less noise, light weight, dust stays more concentrated, ergonomic, less violent and therefore safer. For most things we do at work it's just as effective, and in some cases even more effective.
The minimalist aspect is beautiful when it works ;)

(fancy-illustration-measurements-from-real-world-monitor-mouse-keyboard-derp)
Alpha position VS mouse pad access
Alpha position VS mouse pad access
keybooord2.png (17.01 KiB) Viewed 5596 times

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

09 Jan 2016, 09:31

So you have a problem with the mouse?
Why not solve the mouse problem then, instead of just alleviating it?

centering problem solved.jpg
centering problem solved.jpg (112.51 KiB) Viewed 5576 times

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matt3o
-[°_°]-

09 Jan 2016, 09:37

none of the pointing devices I've tried so far have the precision I need while doing certain type of graphics (not even a wacom tablet is capable of pixel precision like a mouse does)

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Muirium
µ

09 Jan 2016, 10:19

Yup. As much as I'm a keyboard guy at heart (dur) I do love my mouse. They're an amazing implement when used well. Which means infrequently and only when their precision is required.

Kbdfr's beloved RollerMouse wouldn't likely suit me at all. I work a lot while on the couch or at a little table in a public space. And I'm spoiled with pixel perfect movement and multitouch gestures / momentum scrolling. For me, the little mouse is another space saver with excellent performance. My Magic Mouse and HHKB are a solid duo. While I leave the trackpad (where bigger is better) on my standing desk, beside whatever beast of a keyboard I've got back on the home front.

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Linkert

09 Jan 2016, 11:56

I do have my grievances with the mouse but it's still the only pointing device that gets the job done in a versatile and precise manner.

On my linux machine I barely touch the mouse and it's an amazing experience. But I have my OS X machine, a very mouse-dependent OS, certainly for graphics and some of the games I enjoy.

Trackballs and roller-this-and-that just don't do it for me. Every time I try to kill the mouse I feel my computing experience being choked instead.

In the end, removing the mouse is not a solution, it just moves the problem elsewhere.
Last edited by Linkert on 09 Jan 2016, 11:59, edited 1 time in total.

maxi

09 Jan 2016, 11:59

kbdfr wrote: So you have a problem with the mouse?
Why not solve the mouse problem then, instead of just alleviating it?

centering problem solved.jpg

Actually big KB worked well till mouse appeared, and nowadays software demand an intensive mouse use.
So I agree with you, the real issue is the mouse.
A roller mouse is an interesting solution, and I guess adapting to it doesn't require no long time.
but some say its precision is not so good, and some tasks may be affected by this.
(I never tried one but it seems to be foolishly expensive).

It would be great having a modular KB, especially thinking about companies where different tasks are present:
accounting, customer service, designers, commercials... starting from the basic everyone may add the modules that fulfill their specific needs, placing right or left.

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Chyros

09 Jan 2016, 13:15

Linkert wrote: Here's why my full size ISO G-80-whatever Cherry board mostly sit in the closet. For me it's all about the balance between centered alpha keys and centered mouse on the mouse pad.

The Poker board or the Wasd TKL gives me enough keys to get through my computing needs. Why would I use a board that forces me into a weird position where either the alpha keys end up too far to the left of center position or the mouse pad and mouse ends up too far to the right?

The poker II ANSI is my daily driver. There's a custom printed ISO Wasdkeyboard TKL on it's way to replace the Poker II, seems like a good in-between.

I could also make a loose comparison to machine tools (full kb) VS. hand tools (tkl/60%). A lot of the time, mostly all the time, I prefer using hand tools at work. Less noise, light weight, dust stays more concentrated, ergonomic, less violent and therefore safer. For most things we do at work it's just as effective, and in some cases even more effective.
The minimalist aspect is beautiful when it works ;)

(fancy-illustration-measurements-from-real-world-monitor-mouse-keyboard-derp)
keybooord2.png
Thank you, that's actually a very useful scheme! I see how big keyboards impact mouse placement.

It might also explain why I don't mind fullsize boards not as much, then. I use a (matless) laser mouse, and being a gamer who plays a lot if shooting games I'm used to extremely high mouse sensitivities (my mouse barely even moves generally).

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zslane

09 Jan 2016, 19:05

Being centered with the monitor is largely irrelevent for me. I have dual 24" monitors at work and so being "centered" is pretty meaningless. Once you get used to not caring where the center of two monitors are, you soon stop caring where the center of one monitor is (my home setup). An inch off of center here or there is inconsequential to usability and productivity; I consider that another OCD-driven straw man.

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Muirium
µ

09 Jan 2016, 19:35

Translation:
zslane wrote: Being centered with the monitor is largely irrelevent for me. I have dual 24" monitors at work and so being "centered" is pretty meaningless. Once I got used to moving the goalposts of the argument and introducing some other setup the people who disagree with me do not use, I soon stopped caring where the center of one monitor is (my home setup). An inch off of center here or there is inconsequential to me; I consider this straw man I'm weaving to be another straw man.
The centre line really does make a profound difference *for me*. I stand at a narrow standing desk, with one single 4k display. So my chosen oddball setup is very different to your chosen oddball setup!

But I don't doubt there are some people who are just fine looking way over to the left, or even right, the whole time they use their computer. Their choice. Even if it's wrong to me.

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Hypersphere

09 Jan 2016, 21:17

For some time, I had two 24" monitors, but it never quite worked for me to be centered on a narrow gap between the two. More recently, I switched to a triple-monitor setup, with a 27" display in the center and a 24" screen on each side. This works quite well for me with the obvious distribution of items -- those for central focus in the middle and more peripheral items on each side.

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Muirium
µ

09 Jan 2016, 21:20

Indeed. If I ever go multi display, it'll be something along those lines. My 24" 4K display is about the right size to be a nice portrait side screen to a 5K iMac.

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Linkert

09 Jan 2016, 23:19

zslane wrote: Being centered with the monitor is largely irrelevent for me. I have dual 24" monitors at work and so being "centered" is pretty meaningless. Once you get used to not caring where the center of two monitors are, you soon stop caring where the center of one monitor is (my home setup). An inch off of center here or there is inconsequential to usability and productivity; I consider that another OCD-driven straw man.
I weren't clear about the reasoning behind centering myself in front of the monitor.

It's not really about having it centered just for the sake of "clean lines all across the desktop" (grid system/swiss design-esque type thing) whilst making sure my pose fits the imagined photo of me taken from behind sitting in front of my clean desk in my clean room (spontaneous word-womit-reaction to the mention of 'OCD-driven straw man')..

I've been sitting in front of the computer like some Quasimodo look-alike for the entirety of my early teen years, up to around the age of ~22, being half way to 26 years old right now. I changed my ways, let's put it like that.

If you have a dual monitor setup I assume you probably move your focus between the two monitors now and then? (non-static neck) If I were positioned at an angle with just one monitor, I would most likely experience quite some neck tension within a couple of weeks :)

I always make sure I take a moving break now and then.

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Hypersphere

09 Jan 2016, 23:22

@Mu: I highly recommend going to a multi-monitor setup. You can find a number of studies showing enhanced productivity realized from using multiple monitors compared to single large monitors with comparable numbers of pixels. There is something different going on in the brain when you are looking at two windows on the same screen versus two different screens.

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fohat
Elder Messenger

10 Jan 2016, 00:25

Fortunately, I have the luxury of a large wide desk (solid wood, my father's desk built in the 1950s) so I use 2 monitors (each cheap and smallish), a battleship keyboard, and mice on both sides.

I strongly recommend 2 monitors (internet open on one and actual "work" on the other) with the secondary one being a $10 yard sale piece of obsolete junk if need be.

The 2nd mouse allows conventional mousing with the right and secondary mousing (eg navigating inside a spreadsheet) with the left.

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Muirium
µ

10 Jan 2016, 00:30

Cheaping out on a display is second only to cheaping out on a keyboard. I banished visible pixels along with scissor switches and pad printed ABS! Damn glad of both.

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seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

10 Jan 2016, 00:37

Muirium wrote: Cheaping out on a display is second only to cheaping out on a keyboard.
No no come on now your exaggerating vastly and remember many of us are not Apple users where the hardware has exotic names like retina and thunderbolt. :lol: I tell you my HP ZR24w IPS is no crappy display, minus the 4k retina of course. :mrgreen:

dwasifar

10 Jan 2016, 01:13

I also typically use two monitors, but one is facing me while the other is off to the right. The one facing me is the active work window, whereas the one on the right contains the reference material I'm using to do the work. That's an oversimplification, of course, but it's mostly true. This is probably another reason it doesn't bother me so much that my full size keyboards push the mouse so far to the right, because my attention is often over in that direction anyway.

At work I am obliged to use Windows, but at home I use Linux with the MATE desktop. On the Linux boxes, the mouse wheel scrolls whatever window the pointer is over, whether or not that window has focus. This makes my dual-screen layout much more productive, so I found a little freeware utility that makes Win7 do the same thing. If I had a double-wide monitor, I probably wouldn't center it; if I did that, the work window would occupy the center of the screen area, splitting the remaining space into less-useful halves. Either that, or I'd have to keep the work window off-axis, which sort of defeats the point of having the expensive wide-wide monitor in the first place.

I have a co-worker who right now is shopping for ultra-high-resolution monitors to try to reproduce his dual monitor experience without having the gap right in front of him. He's frustrated because our work laptops won't support that much resolution.

dwasifar

10 Jan 2016, 01:15

Linkert wrote: I've been sitting in front of the computer like some Quasimodo look-alike for the entirety of my early teen years, up to around the age of ~22, being half way to 26 years old right now.
So you plan to continue hunching for another 9 years until you turn 22? :D :lol: :D :lol: :P

davkol

10 Jan 2016, 01:24

dwasifar wrote: I have a co-worker who right now is shopping for ultra-high-resolution monitors to try to reproduce his dual monitor experience without having the gap right in front of him. He's frustrated because our work laptops won't support that much resolution.
That's one of the smaller problems. I could go on a lengthy rant about screens, but lets save it for now. I'll just dully note, that I have two heavy-duty 20" IPS monitors in portrait, resulting in a nice 2400×1600 desktop, they cost me €80 together (new old stock)… and the closest upgrade (= a single 30" 2560×1600 screen) costs five times as much used, while the rest is stinking 16:9 or worse.

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zslane

10 Jan 2016, 02:10

The more I think about it, the less my comment about large application space (across dual monitors, for instance) is going to resonate in this thread. We're talking about a population that really likes its tiny keyboards, which means a population that is probably working with tiny monitors, like on laptops, much of the time. Now even though I can't stand to do serious work on a laptop, I know that a lot of people have turned to laptops as their main computer. And when your only window into your virtual workspace is a 15" display, being centered with it is going to feel more urgent.

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bhtooefr

10 Jan 2016, 04:41

I'll just note that my primary machine right now is a MacBook Pro Retina (with a 15.4" screen, running at native), and my ideal keyboard would be something along the lines of a ThinkPad T60 keyboard with Alps switches and Bluetooth.

However, I may well be using my next primary machine with a 40" 4K display on a VESA arm. However, I will often not be sitting at my desk, so a small (lappable) wireless keyboard will still be useful.

dwasifar

10 Jan 2016, 05:13

zslane wrote: The more I think about it, the less my comment about large application space (across dual monitors, for instance) is going to resonate in this thread. We're talking about a population that really likes its tiny keyboards, which means a population that is probably working with tiny monitors, like on laptops, much of the time. Now even though I can't stand to do serious work on a laptop, I know that a lot of people have turned to laptops as their main computer. And when your only window into your virtual workspace is a 15" display, being centered with it is going to feel more urgent.
I think that's right. My work machine is a laptop, but I have a docking station through which I connect the two monitors. The docking station has a PS/2 keyboard port which fortunately has enough oomph to drive a Model M. So most of the time the laptop is closed and behaves as a desktop, but every so often I have to take it to meetings and suddenly its built-in keyboard becomes important.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a laptop with the trackpad centered on the laptop body instead of centered between my hands when I'm on the home row. Like this:

Image

It constantly throws me off and I wind up typing one key to the right of where I should be. Fortunately my work gives us Dell Latitudes, which place the trackpad properly and have reasonably decent keyboards as laptops go.

Maybe I should open another thread, titled Trackpoints - WHY? Never could get used to them, but people who like them apparently don't want to use anything else.

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Muirium
µ

10 Jan 2016, 05:23

My current main machine is also a 15 inch Retina MacBook Pro, too. A real workhorse. With a pretty well matched keyboard:

Image

Back at home, I run a 24 inch 4K display. At 180 pixels per inch, it is that mind-bendingly "exotic" thing that Seebart mentioned: Retina. Which is simply "the pixels are too small to see in actual use". So I actually run it beyond its native resolution. I can't see the difference, and my Mac Pro and Radeon 7850 handle it no sweat.

Image

That was just the day it first arrived. It's been on top of my standing desk ever since.

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Linkert

10 Jan 2016, 09:47

dwasifar wrote:
Linkert wrote: I've been sitting in front of the computer like some Quasimodo look-alike for the entirety of my early teen years, up to around the age of ~22, being half way to 26 years old right now.
So you plan to continue hunching for another 9 years until you turn 22? :D :lol: :D :lol: :P
Änglich längiauge are very hard plz ^^

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bhtooefr

10 Jan 2016, 15:42

Normally, I would do the 24" 4k thing, but seeing as I want to actually use the thing at native from a distance, I'm going to be forced into a bigger panel. (Basically, I normally use my MBPR kinda close and not at a desk, and this will be a desktop with the monitor on an arm so I can aim it at wherever I am.)

ReleaseCandidate

10 Jan 2016, 15:52

zslane wrote: The more I think about it, the less my comment about large application space (across dual monitors, for instance) is going to resonate in this thread. We're talking about a population that really likes its tiny keyboards, which means a population that is probably working with tiny monitors, like on laptops, much of the time.
No. Have been using 2 Monitors for more than 20 years (two 24" at home and work rigth now) and my tiny keyboards are still centered at the gap between the monitors.

Oh, and trackpoints are _way_ better than trackpads.

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