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It's alluded to in the article, but I wish keyboard programmability got more attention than switches. I spent a lot of time picking my switches, and I like the

It's alluded to in the article, but I wish keyboard programmability got more attention than switches. I spent a lot of time picking my switches, and I like them. But what I love about my mechanical keyboard (Massdrop CTRL) is the ability to program it. It's surprisingly important to be able to customize keypresses before the OS sees them, especially on Windows. AutoHotKey is decent, but there are a ton of edge cases where your AHK customizations just stop working because some other utility is intercepting keypresses (the most recent one I found: the Win+G Game Bar). Karabiner is pretty good at keystroke customization on macOS because it uses a kernel extension, but even it has a few situations (login windows etc.) where it doesn't work reliably. It's also just so nice to have my customizations work on any machine without any software installs.

psYchotic 6y ago
Would you mind sharing a few of the things you've programmed on your keyboard? I also spent an insane amount of time looking for just the right keyboard for me, which wasn't that easy, as the availability of mechanical keyboards in Europe isn't great, and importing is expensive. My main criteria were: - need to be able to swap switches easily (if I'm spending a decent amount on a board, I don't want to have to get a whole new one if I don't like the switches) - want to be able to program the keyboard, preferably because the board is supported by qmk[1]. I have now owned such a keyboard for over a year, but I've barely started to get into programming it. I'm starting to wonder if I really needed the feature that much, or if I just lack the imagination to find ways to program my board. [1] https://qmk.fm https://qmk.fm
- anotheryou 6y ago
  when modifier held close to home-row: - 10 key pad - arrow keys and delete Also: an exotic keyboard layout, special chars like ¹²³, snippets for email + address, macro recording (not used to it yet though), rebind keybindings if you can't do it in software (window tiling on windows e.g.), scroll wheel on keyboard (scroll/volume/brightness/up and down keys). LEDs to show which layer I'm on. Plan for the future: use LEDs for notifications.
- ripley12 6y ago
  Sure thing, my QMK keymap is here: https://github.com/rgwood/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/massdrop/ctrl/keymaps/reilly/keymap.c https://github.com/rgwood/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards... 1. Remapped capslock to ESC when pressed+released and HYPER when held 2. A 2nd layer for media+volume keys, activated by a custom modifier. 3. Replaced Scroll Lock and Pause with brightness down+up 4. Changed the default LED pattern to static white at low brightness. The CTRL's LEDs are really bright by default! Nothing amazing, but it's great to have these working 100% reliably (especially capslock->escape, it's really hard to get that working perfectly in AutoHotKey).
  - psYchotic 6y ago
    Thanks! I can confirm the brightness of LEDs: I went for the Massdrop ALT (the 60% brother of the CTRL). Although I didn't buy it for the lightshow, it's been a great conversation starter at work. Back to programming the keyboard: all I've really ended up doing is mapping PrintScreen to Fn+P (remember, fewer keys on my board, so no physical PrintScreen). I've also been playing with what qmk calls a "tap dance" [1]. I use it to have my Control key be left control when just pressed once, but when I double-tap it, it becomes Right Control (which the board also lacks a physical key for, and it's useful in VirtualBox). I've also been toying with the idea to program the LEDs to display a ripple effect, where everytime you press a key, a ripple of light spreads out. Maybe something like that already exists, but I'd like to try programming it myself, if time permits. [1] https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_tap_dance https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_tap_dance
anotheryou 6y ago
Also what I like most. honestly I prefer rubberdome over mechanical, but I don't wast to go back to AHK and carabiner (win at home, mac at work...).

psYchotic 6y ago

Would you mind sharing a few of the things you've programmed on your keyboard? I also spent an insane amount of time looking for just the right keyboard for me, which wasn't that easy, as the availability of mechanical keyboards in Europe isn't great, and importing is expensive. My main criteria were: - need to be able to swap switches easily (if I'm spending a decent amount on a board, I don't want to have to get a whole new one if I don't like the switches) - want to be able to program the keyboard, preferably because the board is supported by qmk[1]. I have now owned such a keyboard for over a year, but I've barely started to get into programming it. I'm starting to wonder if I really needed the feature that much, or if I just lack the imagination to find ways to program my board. [1] https://qmk.fm https://qmk.fm

anotheryou 6y ago
when modifier held close to home-row: - 10 key pad - arrow keys and delete Also: an exotic keyboard layout, special chars like ¹²³, snippets for email + address, macro recording (not used to it yet though), rebind keybindings if you can't do it in software (window tiling on windows e.g.), scroll wheel on keyboard (scroll/volume/brightness/up and down keys). LEDs to show which layer I'm on. Plan for the future: use LEDs for notifications.
ripley12 6y ago
Sure thing, my QMK keymap is here: https://github.com/rgwood/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/massdrop/ctrl/keymaps/reilly/keymap.c https://github.com/rgwood/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards... 1. Remapped capslock to ESC when pressed+released and HYPER when held 2. A 2nd layer for media+volume keys, activated by a custom modifier. 3. Replaced Scroll Lock and Pause with brightness down+up 4. Changed the default LED pattern to static white at low brightness. The CTRL's LEDs are really bright by default! Nothing amazing, but it's great to have these working 100% reliably (especially capslock->escape, it's really hard to get that working perfectly in AutoHotKey).
- psYchotic 6y ago
  Thanks! I can confirm the brightness of LEDs: I went for the Massdrop ALT (the 60% brother of the CTRL). Although I didn't buy it for the lightshow, it's been a great conversation starter at work. Back to programming the keyboard: all I've really ended up doing is mapping PrintScreen to Fn+P (remember, fewer keys on my board, so no physical PrintScreen). I've also been playing with what qmk calls a "tap dance" [1]. I use it to have my Control key be left control when just pressed once, but when I double-tap it, it becomes Right Control (which the board also lacks a physical key for, and it's useful in VirtualBox). I've also been toying with the idea to program the LEDs to display a ripple effect, where everytime you press a key, a ripple of light spreads out. Maybe something like that already exists, but I'd like to try programming it myself, if time permits. [1] https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_tap_dance https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_tap_dance

anotheryou 6y ago

Also what I like most. honestly I prefer rubberdome over mechanical, but I don't wast to go back to AHK and carabiner (win at home, mac at work...).