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These keyboards look interesting but how does "space" work on it and how long did it take you to learn the non-qwerty parts of the layout (like space, hyphen, b

These keyboards look interesting but how does "space" work on it and how long did it take you to learn the non-qwerty parts of the layout (like space, hyphen, brackets, and tilde)?

Symbiote 6y ago
Every single key is completely configurable, so you can have space wherever you want (or in multiple places). That said, it's pretty normal to put it under directly under the thumb, on the side you normally use for space. I use an ErgoDash, essentially a flat version of the Dactyl Manuform, and have this layout [1]. Enter is under my right thumb, but if I hold down that key it becomes Ctrl. I could already touch-type, but it took a week or two of average use to get used to all the changes. Basic typing was quicker, but touch-typing `, [], = and the function keys took longer. [1] http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/501437fce9123ecdaa15e9d15ec325b4 http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/501437fce9123e...
- sleepybrett 6y ago
  Generally space in under the right thumb, backspace the left. I've seen some people swap this around, but for my brain there is no way to reckon with that. I primarily use a dactyl day to day, but that's just a split version (with pretty much the exact same layout) as my kinesis advantage. That said, I like to play the occasional videogame and the advantage and dactyl just don't work well for that. So I keep a 65% board around on my desk to swap out. It has a split spacebar, left bs, right space... which means in every game ever I just rebind 'jump' to backspace :)
tharne 6y ago
As others have pointed out, it's fully programmable so you can have whatever layout you want. That being said, it took me about 3-4 weeks to get used to the keyboard to the point where I wasn't frustrated all the time and about 2 months to get back to my regular typing speed. One big benefit - I was developing carpal tunnel and about 6 weeks after switching to the dactyl, all pain was gone.
Bedon292 6y ago
For me, space is under the natural resting place of my right thumb. Enter on the left. And then the closer on each is backspace on right, delete on left. As well as layer toggling. It didn't take me too long to get used to the locations of most keys, but tweaked it over time. My weird one is I have `~ where caps lock would traditionally be. I use it a lot for code blocks in slack and things like that. And it really screws me up on another keyboard now where its not there. And then the bottom 4 on each hand, I really don't use much, volume toggles, win key and stuff like that. I need to figure out what else to do with them.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  Two of my "bottom four" are Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PgDown. That's previous/next tab in web browsers, my terminal, IDE etc, and really useful when keyboarding and when mousing.

These keyboards look interesting but how does "space" work on it and how long did it take you to learn the non-qwerty parts of the layout (like space, hyphen, brackets, and tilde)?

Symbiote 6y ago

Every single key is completely configurable, so you can have space wherever you want (or in multiple places). That said, it's pretty normal to put it under directly under the thumb, on the side you normally use for space. I use an ErgoDash, essentially a flat version of the Dactyl Manuform, and have this layout [1]. Enter is under my right thumb, but if I hold down that key it becomes Ctrl. I could already touch-type, but it took a week or two of average use to get used to all the changes. Basic typing was quicker, but touch-typing `, [], = and the function keys took longer. [1] http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/501437fce9123ecdaa15e9d15ec325b4 http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/501437fce9123e...

sleepybrett 6y ago
Generally space in under the right thumb, backspace the left. I've seen some people swap this around, but for my brain there is no way to reckon with that. I primarily use a dactyl day to day, but that's just a split version (with pretty much the exact same layout) as my kinesis advantage. That said, I like to play the occasional videogame and the advantage and dactyl just don't work well for that. So I keep a 65% board around on my desk to swap out. It has a split spacebar, left bs, right space... which means in every game ever I just rebind 'jump' to backspace :)

tharne 6y ago

As others have pointed out, it's fully programmable so you can have whatever layout you want. That being said, it took me about 3-4 weeks to get used to the keyboard to the point where I wasn't frustrated all the time and about 2 months to get back to my regular typing speed. One big benefit - I was developing carpal tunnel and about 6 weeks after switching to the dactyl, all pain was gone.

Bedon292 6y ago

For me, space is under the natural resting place of my right thumb. Enter on the left. And then the closer on each is backspace on right, delete on left. As well as layer toggling. It didn't take me too long to get used to the locations of most keys, but tweaked it over time. My weird one is I have `~ where caps lock would traditionally be. I use it a lot for code blocks in slack and things like that. And it really screws me up on another keyboard now where its not there. And then the bottom 4 on each hand, I really don't use much, volume toggles, win key and stuff like that. I need to figure out what else to do with them.

Symbiote 6y ago
Two of my "bottom four" are Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PgDown. That's previous/next tab in web browsers, my terminal, IDE etc, and really useful when keyboarding and when mousing.