2 ms·

I'll advice against keycap labels and printing a cheat sheet. Relying on them will feel better, but it's a crutch and you'll learn faster if you force yourself

by lawn 3y ago

I'll advice against keycap labels and printing a cheat sheet. Relying on them will feel better, but it's a crutch and you'll learn faster if you force yourself to do it the hard way of remembering. And before you mention it, the layout I use is quite complicated, and I still think it's much better to learn without any aid: https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2022/09/06/the_current_t-34_keyboard_layout/ https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2022/09/06/the_current_t-34...

__mharrison__ 3y ago
I would definitely advise creating a cheat sheet. But probably not want for the reasons you are thinking. Custom/mechanical keyboards are a rabbit hole and you might end up with a few of them, each configured slightly differently. You might want to know how to come back to them (especially if they have blank keycaps or extensive layers).
samatman 3y ago
Seems sort of irrelevant if one is already a touch typist. Personally, I find labeled keycaps pleasant for a few reasons: One is that I have a glowy keyboard, which is aesthetically enjoyable to me (or I wouldn't have one), and it wouldn't be as much fun if the LEDs were just shining up through identical dots. Also, I find it useful to re-register my fingers. I added Braille dots to all the alphabetic keys, so I can also do this by touch, but a quick glance down also does the trick. For whatever reason, checking that my pinky will hit p is the most common case here. Last, I find it helpful with chords, especially when I add a new one to the firmware. Layers as well. I do intend to converge on what my other two layers do, but there's been some churn, and it's easier to remember what a key does on a particular layer when it has a distinct symbol. Modified key commands which I frequently use are part of the muscle memory, but when I'm adding a new command to the repertoire, precisely where the key finger needs to go once the modifying finger has hit command/control/meta isn't kinesthetically obvious at first. Note that this is from a baseline of touch typing, so I naturally stop double-checking things once I've done them enough. If you don't touch type, do yourself a huge favor and learn. Some people find blank keycaps helpful here, especially if they have many years of whatever ad-hoc system they use to type with. Some people aesthetically prefer no keycaps as well. Also functionally: it's just easier for them to think about a key geometrically rather than symbolically. I don't think there's a one-for-all answer on this.
- lawn 3y ago
  > Seems sort of irrelevant if one is already a touch typist. My comment was made with the context of learning a new layout (or a new keyboard or learning to touch type).

by lawn 3y ago

__mharrison__ 3y ago

I would definitely advise creating a cheat sheet. But probably not want for the reasons you are thinking. Custom/mechanical keyboards are a rabbit hole and you might end up with a few of them, each configured slightly differently. You might want to know how to come back to them (especially if they have blank keycaps or extensive layers).

samatman 3y ago

Seems sort of irrelevant if one is already a touch typist. Personally, I find labeled keycaps pleasant for a few reasons: One is that I have a glowy keyboard, which is aesthetically enjoyable to me (or I wouldn't have one), and it wouldn't be as much fun if the LEDs were just shining up through identical dots. Also, I find it useful to re-register my fingers. I added Braille dots to all the alphabetic keys, so I can also do this by touch, but a quick glance down also does the trick. For whatever reason, checking that my pinky will hit p is the most common case here. Last, I find it helpful with chords, especially when I add a new one to the firmware. Layers as well. I do intend to converge on what my other two layers do, but there's been some churn, and it's easier to remember what a key does on a particular layer when it has a distinct symbol. Modified key commands which I frequently use are part of the muscle memory, but when I'm adding a new command to the repertoire, precisely where the key finger needs to go once the modifying finger has hit command/control/meta isn't kinesthetically obvious at first. Note that this is from a baseline of touch typing, so I naturally stop double-checking things once I've done them enough. If you don't touch type, do yourself a huge favor and learn. Some people find blank keycaps helpful here, especially if they have many years of whatever ad-hoc system they use to type with. Some people aesthetically prefer no keycaps as well. Also functionally: it's just easier for them to think about a key geometrically rather than symbolically. I don't think there's a one-for-all answer on this.

lawn 3y ago
> Seems sort of irrelevant if one is already a touch typist. My comment was made with the context of learning a new layout (or a new keyboard or learning to touch type).