gemini://ew.srht.site/en/2022/20220420-re-keyboards.gmi

> But a keyboard is something I use every day for hours, so it is OK to get a decent one, and my fingers are getting arthritic.

I grew up on old DEC and HP keyboards. Probably with mechanical switches, but maybe not. The keyboards at the institute, where I spent the time writing my thesis were loud, tacky, with long strokes (several mm). They were heavy and sturdy.

With every new job keyboards became lighter, more fragile, and ultimately unpleasant to type. The worst offenders imho are chiclet keyboards on many notebooks. I abandonded more recent Thinkpads in favour of Dell Latitudes just for the keyboards. Keyboards are serious matter! So some day I had enough. I just blindly went ahead to purchase two DasKeyboard unlabeled black keyboards[a], one with brown switches, the other with blue. What a difference! I did not look back. While I argue that the staggered key layout is not needed any more, and I would like to have a straight layout (I had a stint with a Kinesis Advantage for a while), I still have these two keyboards in daily use, brown switches at work, blue switches at home.

At my current job I walked in the first day, opened my backpack, pulled out the box and set up "my" keyboard as the first action --- much to the disbelieve of my then new coworkers. Doing this immediately marked me as a hardcore nerd, but hey, this is me!

Firstly I would like to state that I never learned touch typing properly. But using an unlabeled keyboard overcomes this lack of training fast. I needed a labeled keyboard nearby for a while to type in long passphrases and funny passwords. Not any more.

Secondly I would like to point out, that an unlabeled keyboard is a pretty good deterrent: noone will take my keyboard away for anything. And this opens another door: I can use whichever funny keyboard layout I like (us altgr-intl with compose key) despite local habits. My neighbor is using a workman layout. So he types while we look at something at his screen :)

Third: The difference of lightly moving switches is not appreciated at first. But it is sensed very clearly when switching from DasKeyboard (or whatever you have) back to one of the other, cheap keyboards being around in the lab or office. These feel like chewing gum and not like switches to me. To further make the case: I told my coworkers "Look, on Wednesdays, feel free to try my DasKeyboard. Just be sure to clean it a little before you use it". I produced three converts. And a few more on other occasions.

If you sit on a keyboard for hours a day, do yourself a favour: Ask around, someone will have a mechanical keyboard to give away for testing. Try it. Don't "believe" anything. Try this stuff yourself. Switch back and forth. Do NOT at the same time switch to another keyboard map. This is a different task. I do tweak two keys: capslock is another ctrl, altgr is the "multikey" or Compose. I need that to enter funny characters like ßæ€°ø and the like.

No, I am not suffering from strained wrists or other such difficulties, so I cannot comment on this. But I'm sure glad I spent all that cash on my keyboards.

[a] The shiny surface of the DasKeyboard was surprisingly efficient in making me clean it much more often!

2022-04-20

Re: The Mechanical Keyboard Addiction