I just want The Wheel.
One of Jobs’ many failures was not getting this into market.
There’s a dude developing out a neat split keyboard that’s ergo but you are typing in like chunks of words or something.
Looks like your fast af once used to it.
Each finger goes up down left right i believe. Can’t remember the name!
It’s quite refined looking.
Pretty sure you’re talking about the Svalboard. I don’t think it uses chunks of words though. Each finger has access to 5 keys and you can map any layout. https://svalboard.com/
But maybe you’re thinking of stenography where you have fewer keys but you press them in combinations (chords) instead of individually. That looks crazy fast. https://youtu.be/7jVXrX5TDk4 https://www.artofchording.com/introduction/#stenography
Do you mean the CharaChorder? I thought about getting one in the past bit it looks like a super steep learn curve and I’m not sure if I’m willing to subject myself to it.
YES, thank you.
My brain was stuck on chroma, which made no sense, lol.
I thought the exact same thing, but the thing is, i switched to a trackball mouse and I will never go back…
So some times it’s worth it.
Split keyboard + a tiling window manager made my life better
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A good tool improves the way you work. A great tool improves the way you think.
May I introduce to you, the Banana Board. A keyboard that works by squeezing a banana shaped device.
😏
Fuck, I don’t want to be a keyboard pervert, but these are some good points
Imagine playing Dwarf Fortress in a recliner with a pair of these.
As someone who has only played since the Steam version, I don’t know how you people did it with the ASCII graphics and lack of mouse support.
Hmmm… I see a balding fat dude wearing a lot of Cheeto dust on his shirt
I built and configured an Arkenswoop some time in 2023. It’s really nice. However… I have gotten quite fast on a conventional keyboard just by using it over the years, and re-learning that is just so tedious. Every time I try, something with a deadline comes up, and I switch back “temporarily”.
Anyone have experience overcoming this?
I’m going through this currently trying to find a privacy respecting Android keyboard.
Latest effort is Futo, recommended by a coworker. So far, I don’t like it.
As a fellow Futo user: it’s not great out of the box. My biggest recommendations are:
- under Languages and models, download all the voice models (if you use those), transformers, and wordlists you can for your languages
- if you use multiple languages, set the check on “multilingual typing” for ALL of those languages
- this is probably the biggest one: in text prediction -> Advanced Parameters, DRASTICALLY change the values. The original ones are 3.4 and 4.0 for LLM strength and autocorrect threshold, mine are currently set at 28.5 and 0.8, respectively. This takes the autocorrect from “occasionally working” to “as good as SwiftKey” for me.
- Keyboard and Typing -> Long Press -> Show hints. Could not find that for ages so thought I’d add it here.
Also, two super useful shortcuts: you can press the space-bar and move your finger around to move the pointer; and the same for backspace to fine-control what to delete.
Hope this helps, but if not… What additional gripes do you habe with it?
This seems like a good starting point. Thank you for the recommendations; I’ll reach out with potential future gripes.
I switched to a new key layout and was slowed down for like a month, and almost every day I could literally feel myself speeding back up. It was such a cool experience, and one that I imagine has beneficial like neural effects, that sometimes I think about switching it up just for fun.
I’d suggest just sticking with it. I now use English, German, and my custom Workman layout at home without any issue switching between them. Practice makes perfect and cause a bunch of work and fun things encourage typing a lot, practice comes easy and getting back to your normal speed happens quickly.
Picking a new layout like Workman or Dvorak where you can feel the benefits, plus a split keyboard’s ergonomic benefits, and I think anyone would struggle to go back (assuming they do it for a month and give it a fair shake).
That sounds great. I think I’ve given it more than a month overall, but probably never longer than a week at a time. Guess I’ll have to have my SO hide my normal keyboard lol
Ya, I personally didn’t swap between two different ones during that time and I remember the first time u went back to a single board qwerty keyboard I struggled for less than an hour and then the muscle memory kicked in. I think my wires get crossed when I jumped between the two while learning and I decided to just stick with the one until I had “recovered” and that really helped.
Good luck!
I have had to use swedish (various), english, american, french and german keyboards, I have to look at the keyboard when I type :-/
Maybe I should just go DVORAK or something and always carry one with me…
As somebody who fully switched to Dvorak about 10 years ago, it has its benefits, but man oh man, does it bring out the shitty programmers who don’t realize that anything other than US QWERTY exists.
I’ve used plenty of ergo keyboards and fancy layouts, but as soon as I try to use a regular keyboard I have to re-learn how to type and it really halts any productivity.
This sort of thing may be nice if you only ever use one computer or you’re willing to pack around your keyboard.
Even still, I never liked ergo boards enough to think it’s worth the effort, especially considering being useless on other keyboards once I’m used to ergo.
Now I just stick to a 75% or TKL. Keeps me versatile.
TKL FTW BTW!
I don’t have this experience, I am briefly confused for a second and then it’s fine, are you sure this lasts more than like 30 seconds?
When I’m forced into a qwerty situation it’s not just 30 seconds, I simply can’t touch-type qwerty and my current qwerty skills are way slower than 25 years ago where I had reached peak seven-and-a-half-fingers hunt-and-peck performance. In principle I should know where all the keys are, still, I can’t find them without looking. Somewhat similarly, I don’t really know where keys are with dvorak when my fingers aren’t on the home row but I am faster finding them on a touch display than finding qwerty keys. Also dvorak is nice on the smartphone your thumbs alternate more often.
I was the lucky owner of a rare FingerWorks Touchstream keyboard for many years. If you don’t know it, it’s the precursor to the keyboards used in Star Trek Enterprise.
It’s a keyless keyboard. Two large flat mousepads with a keyboard layout printed on top, and you type by pure touch. There’s no mouse; the surface just cleverly detects when you are doing mouse gestures. Or a lot of other gestures.
Trekkie joke aside, it’s actually the magic tech that made the iPhone possible. Of course Apple didn’t invent anything, they bought existing future tech.
I miss that keyboard. They still sell on ebay, for 1400$!
You mean I can have all of the worst aspects of modern smart phone keyboards with my desktop? Sign me up!
That sounds awful though. There’s a reason why touch pads are so unpopular in cars, there’s no tactile feedback to the buttons. Part of learning to type is getting a feel for the keys.
Many, many moons ago (must have been around 2006?) I managed to procure a FingerWorks. It was magic, like holding a piece of computing history!
It allowed a lot of the gestures we take for granted, to switch applications or workspaces, to go back a page, etc. But it also had really cool stuff. You could bind gestures like twisting your fingers clockwise to open a file (just like opening a jar!) or counterclockwise to close it. Pinch and zoom for copy and paste.
I was only able to get a hold on a Dvorak copy. And because the key labels were printed on the board, you couldn’t really change the layout. Getting used to a split layout, no keys and Dvorak at the same time was too much and I had to sell it again. But I’ve been using split keyboards ever since!
I think one of my favorite keyboards ever was a Microsoft “Natural” keyboard. I think they were available in the mid ’90s or so. Not quite a real split keyboard, but the ergonomics were great. I think I gave it away…it was great for typing, but I wanted a simpler keyboard for gaming.
Fun fact: that’s Elijah Wood and it’s his first film role
As long as it’s got mech switches and can run a qwerty layout I’m happy
Hear me out, take the optic sensor from a mouse and put it on the bottom of one of those boards. Then you wouldn’t have to move your hand to use a mouse.
Where’s the rest of the keys? Also these things give off Nintendo Power Glove vibes.
It uses layers, the same way a phone keyboard has a separate layer for numbers and symbols. Holding down one of the three thumb keys on either side activates a new layer. Since you can use your thumb and fingers at the same time, there’s no lose in typing speed. Indeed, the layout puts numbers and symbols closer to the home row on a layer than using a physical number number.
For all symbols, you would have needed a shift-modifier to access those before. With this design, the symbols are closer but use a layer switch key instead of a shift key to access them.
Everyone who uses a phone keyboard has learned a new compact keyboard layout. It’s not so hard.
I love the Power Glove… It’s so bad.
Every Power Glove sold should have come with one complimentary Fred Savage
