3 ms·

I love the design, but wow, that keyboard is unusable. I know it looks cool but it's going to need so many layers to be practical that it becomes... impractical

I love the design, but wow, that keyboard is unusable. I know it looks cool but it's going to need so many layers to be practical that it becomes... impractical.

lytedev 4y ago
It's only missing the extra pinky column for my preferences (6 keys), but I know plenty of programmers who love layouts like this (see CRKBD/Corne 5x3)
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  Did I miss the space bar?
  - WesleyLivesay 4y ago
    Probably one of the thumb buttons that are dark blue.
  - JohnTHaller 4y ago
    And the enter key. I'm betting on key combos for them.
    - micromacrofoot 4y ago
      nah usually they're the keys where your thumbs are and aren't hidden behind a layer because they're so commonly used... so the bottom left down arrow is the spacebar and the bottom right up arrow is enter
  - mewse 4y ago
    It's pretty common to use one or both of the innermost thumb buttons on the bottom row as the space bar, for this style of keyboard (you often have to learn to partly ignore the labels on the keycaps, when your keyboard is this minimal). (I use both of the innermost thumb buttons as a space bar on my split keyboard, with the left one also acting as a layer shift which gives me arrow keys on hjkl while holding it down. If you're a vim user, this arrangement becomes second-nature startlingly quickly, I found) I'm on a 42-key keyboard; two 6x3 halves plus three thumb keys on each side. I would dearly love to try living with a (5x3+3)*2 keyboard for a week but I just can't see how I would replace the outside columns; I just need my tab, shift, control, and quote keys too much, and I'm pretty doubtful about the prospects of putting those keys onto separate layers or otherwise chording them. (backspace and enter are likely to be issues as well, although I could maybe adapt to ctrl-h and ctrl-m for those the same way I've adapted to ctrl-] for escape. And now that I've mentioned it, I could do tab on ctrl-T. So that brings down the number of extra keys I need to just shift, control, and quote. I guess I could do 'shift' with a hold of z or / and a tap of the opposite-side key to be capitalised. Not sure what I'd do about quote or enter, though.)
mcluck 4y ago
It's about the size of my Ergodox and I only use 2 additional layers for most things
- opan 4y ago
  The ergodox has significantly more keys.
WesleyLivesay 4y ago
Maybe 3-4? Once you get used to it you probably save so much time by never having to move your hands.
- rgoulter 4y ago
  I'd say with layouts like this (and, say, the Dvorak keyboard layout), the more significant benefit is comfort rather than speed.
skyfaller 4y ago
I admit it's a little small for my tastes at only 36 keys, but I do a lot of typing on an Planck EZ with 47 keys which is only 9 more keys... ok actually that's a significant percentage of the keys, this is ~20% smaller. I enjoy typing with layers, but I find it annoying when a keyboard gets too different from a normal laptop keyboard because it makes it harder to type on anyone else's computer. This might be a bridge too far for me, but I can see how someone with slightly different preferences / habits from me would love it.
- folkrav 4y ago
  Great board but in retrospect, I do enjoy a dedicated number row, as they get way too often combined in chord shortcuts like Ctrl+Alt+1 to hide them for my usecases. I own a Planck, but in retrospect I should have went with the Preonic. Planck is a little bit much in terms of layer dancing for me, made it work with my Iris which has a number row (on top of the small thumb cluster). All in all, I still find 40% to be on the annoying to use side. But I really love that those boards even exist in the first place, so many possibilities.
regularfry 4y ago
It's 8 keys less than on my atreus, which I run with 3 layers, not all of which are full. I can see how I'd get there from here.

I love the design, but wow, that keyboard is unusable. I know it looks cool but it's going to need so many layers to be practical that it becomes... impractical.

lytedev 4y ago

It's only missing the extra pinky column for my preferences (6 keys), but I know plenty of programmers who love layouts like this (see CRKBD/Corne 5x3)

JKCalhoun 4y ago
Did I miss the space bar?
- WesleyLivesay 4y ago
  Probably one of the thumb buttons that are dark blue.
- JohnTHaller 4y ago
  And the enter key. I'm betting on key combos for them.
  - micromacrofoot 4y ago
    nah usually they're the keys where your thumbs are and aren't hidden behind a layer because they're so commonly used... so the bottom left down arrow is the spacebar and the bottom right up arrow is enter
- mewse 4y ago
  It's pretty common to use one or both of the innermost thumb buttons on the bottom row as the space bar, for this style of keyboard (you often have to learn to partly ignore the labels on the keycaps, when your keyboard is this minimal). (I use both of the innermost thumb buttons as a space bar on my split keyboard, with the left one also acting as a layer shift which gives me arrow keys on hjkl while holding it down. If you're a vim user, this arrangement becomes second-nature startlingly quickly, I found) I'm on a 42-key keyboard; two 6x3 halves plus three thumb keys on each side. I would dearly love to try living with a (5x3+3)*2 keyboard for a week but I just can't see how I would replace the outside columns; I just need my tab, shift, control, and quote keys too much, and I'm pretty doubtful about the prospects of putting those keys onto separate layers or otherwise chording them. (backspace and enter are likely to be issues as well, although I could maybe adapt to ctrl-h and ctrl-m for those the same way I've adapted to ctrl-] for escape. And now that I've mentioned it, I could do tab on ctrl-T. So that brings down the number of extra keys I need to just shift, control, and quote. I guess I could do 'shift' with a hold of z or / and a tap of the opposite-side key to be capitalised. Not sure what I'd do about quote or enter, though.)

mcluck 4y ago

It's about the size of my Ergodox and I only use 2 additional layers for most things

opan 4y ago
The ergodox has significantly more keys.

WesleyLivesay 4y ago

Maybe 3-4? Once you get used to it you probably save so much time by never having to move your hands.

rgoulter 4y ago
I'd say with layouts like this (and, say, the Dvorak keyboard layout), the more significant benefit is comfort rather than speed.

skyfaller 4y ago

I admit it's a little small for my tastes at only 36 keys, but I do a lot of typing on an Planck EZ with 47 keys which is only 9 more keys... ok actually that's a significant percentage of the keys, this is ~20% smaller. I enjoy typing with layers, but I find it annoying when a keyboard gets too different from a normal laptop keyboard because it makes it harder to type on anyone else's computer. This might be a bridge too far for me, but I can see how someone with slightly different preferences / habits from me would love it.

folkrav 4y ago
Great board but in retrospect, I do enjoy a dedicated number row, as they get way too often combined in chord shortcuts like Ctrl+Alt+1 to hide them for my usecases. I own a Planck, but in retrospect I should have went with the Preonic. Planck is a little bit much in terms of layer dancing for me, made it work with my Iris which has a number row (on top of the small thumb cluster). All in all, I still find 40% to be on the annoying to use side. But I really love that those boards even exist in the first place, so many possibilities.

regularfry 4y ago

It's 8 keys less than on my atreus, which I run with 3 layers, not all of which are full. I can see how I'd get there from here.