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I've been using it for a few months now. I didn't know how to touch-type before it arrived and I forced myself to learn. Without that, this keyboard is not very

I've been using it for a few months now. I didn't know how to touch-type before it arrived and I forced myself to learn. Without that, this keyboard is not very useful. That said, after learning to touch type, I found some layout decisions surprisingly intuitive. Most notably, it turned out that having arrow keys on my home row is a great idea. Only after I got used to that did I realize how annoying it is to leave the home row on a normal keyboard. Still not sold on escape and fn keys. I believe that it would've been better if had an extra row for those, but I might learn to appreciate that too in the future.

kbenson 8y ago
> Most notably, it turned out that having arrow keys on my home row is a great idea. Those are the original vi cursor movement keys, so when you're in command mode you can move around without leaving the home row (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...). Tried and true for multiple decades. :) Edit: Actually, it's not the same as vi cursor movement keys, since it uses i for up, instead of having them all on the home row. I didn't notice that originally, but anamexis comment reminded me. :/
- anamexis 8y ago
  > (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...) This is correct! The vi editor was originally created on a ADM-3A terminal which had the arrow keys on HJKL. http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys...
brazzledazzle 8y ago
I have a decent keyboard with a small form factor but I can't get over having to toggle the mode of the keyboard to turn on the arrow keys when I need them (which is annoyingly often in macOS) or using a modifier key. I wish I hadn't had such a hard time getting the WASD keys to work as toggle-able arrow keys because I felt like my muscle memory there could have helped bridge the gap. I should give it another go because I otherwise really like that keyboard.
- krupan 8y ago
  Make the left space bar a function key. Makes it way easier to get at those secondary functions
- ztjio 8y ago
  I know exactly how you feel which is why I feel this is the best compact customizable keyboard around: https://kbdfans.cn/products/gk64-mechanical-keyboard-64key https://kbdfans.cn/products/gk64-mechanical-keyboard-64key No gimmicks, just compact with the right keys and 3 hardware programmable layers so you don't have to mess with OS specific settings if you don't want to.
shpx 8y ago
If you're on macOS, you can move around without reaching for the arrow keys on a regular keyboard using emacs style movement keys. https://jblevins.org/log/kbd https://jblevins.org/log/kbd Chrome changed something a couple months ago and now some of these do the wrong thing so you have to use Safari.

kbenson 8y ago

> Most notably, it turned out that having arrow keys on my home row is a great idea. Those are the original vi cursor movement keys, so when you're in command mode you can move around without leaving the home row (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...). Tried and true for multiple decades. :) Edit: Actually, it's not the same as vi cursor movement keys, since it uses i for up, instead of having them all on the home row. I didn't notice that originally, but anamexis comment reminded me. :/

anamexis 8y ago
> (and I suspect it was originally used on systems without arrow keys...) This is correct! The vi editor was originally created on a ADM-3A terminal which had the arrow keys on HJKL. http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys...

brazzledazzle 8y ago

I have a decent keyboard with a small form factor but I can't get over having to toggle the mode of the keyboard to turn on the arrow keys when I need them (which is annoyingly often in macOS) or using a modifier key. I wish I hadn't had such a hard time getting the WASD keys to work as toggle-able arrow keys because I felt like my muscle memory there could have helped bridge the gap. I should give it another go because I otherwise really like that keyboard.

krupan 8y ago
Make the left space bar a function key. Makes it way easier to get at those secondary functions
ztjio 8y ago
I know exactly how you feel which is why I feel this is the best compact customizable keyboard around: https://kbdfans.cn/products/gk64-mechanical-keyboard-64key https://kbdfans.cn/products/gk64-mechanical-keyboard-64key No gimmicks, just compact with the right keys and 3 hardware programmable layers so you don't have to mess with OS specific settings if you don't want to.

shpx 8y ago

If you're on macOS, you can move around without reaching for the arrow keys on a regular keyboard using emacs style movement keys. https://jblevins.org/log/kbd https://jblevins.org/log/kbd Chrome changed something a couple months ago and now some of these do the wrong thing so you have to use Safari.