The Best Keyboard Ever - $8.99

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 10:28:32AM -0400, Giles Orr wrote:
> Microsoft puts the number "6" with the left hand.  The Smartboard puts
> the "6" on the right hand where it should be, so I believe their
> layout is "correct."

The letter n is on the wrong side by some touch typing standards.

> I'm a big fan of both the split between the hands and vertically
> straightening the rows: standards are wonderful, but slavishly
> adhering to them when the reason for them died years ago (ie. the
> typewriter) is foolish.  Especially when changing the layout is
> ergonomically better.  And if you're going to keep the keyboard flat,
> then fanning they keys as they get farther away makes sense to me.

Some people have been typing for a long time.  Changing the angle of
the keys now is just too late.

> Personally, I own two Kinesis keyboards - one for work and one for
> home, they're the ones I use most.  They took a long time to adjust to
> (weeks), but are fantastic.  I imagine that the Smartboard would take
> a couple days to adjust to, but the improvement in comfort would be
> noticeable.  Making the adjustment to either keyboard is unlikely to
> significantly damage your ability to type on a normal keyboard, so I
> don't think it's a problem.  However, I wrote Smartboard off years ago
> for much the same reason as Andrej: I had one of their hard-wired
> Dvorak keyboards and the build quality didn't match the price.  I
> think it died in less than two years.
> 
> I also own several IBM Model M keyboards, and prefer that key feel
> over anything, including my expensive Kinesis keyboards.  I wish the
> Kinesis had buckling springs ...  <sigh>  But ultimately the Kinesis
> layout wins over key-feel, and the Kinesis keys are still quite good.
> 
> If you're shopping for deviant keyboards, take a look at
> http://www.ergocanada.com/ - their selection is possibly the best in
> the world.  Their prices aren't the best (but aren't bad), but they're
> Canadian and their support is excellent.  I bought both my Kinesis
> keyboards through them and will do it again if I need another.
> 
> I hesitate to recommend it at this point, but there's also the
> "altkeyboards" mailing list:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/altkeyboards/ , meant for this kind of
> discussion.  I'm hesitant because, while it was a hotbed of activity
> in the late 90s and early 2000s, it's currently stagnant and near
> death.  But the archives may be of interest.

Strangely, I have never had any confort issues with the standard PC104
keyboard.  I have no need for a split personally.  Some people probably
do.  My requirements are that the keys are in the place I expect them
to be.  I don't like small function keys, I don't accept changes to the
layout of the inverted t cursor keys or the block of 6 keys above them
(logitech made some keyboards that had no insert key.  What a pain given
some applications require that key to work).  I can deal with the
back slash being either left of the backspace (small backspace key) or
above enter (so normal height enter rather than double height enter).
Putting it at the right side of shift or even lower is not acceptable. :)

Of course I also run wiht the netherlands international macintosh USB
keyboard layout, since it is 100% US, but adds lots of extras using altgr
(right alt) and level5 shift (right control).  I then use the menu key
as compose.  This gives me all the letters I ever wanted trivially.

I never liked clicky IBM keyboards.  Too much effort to press keys
(which makes me too slow).  My personal keyboard choice for years has
been keytronic KT800.  I can't find them locally anymore though.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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