My Keyboard Journey

so this is take one of my youtube video let's see how this works out hi my name is jan and i'm a software developer and yeah today is the day we're talking about keywords in the last few years i changed a lot about how i use my keyboards and not only which one i use but also changing keyboard layouts custom key maps rethinking modifier keys and how i integrated all that into my workflows on mac windows and linux but first why typing for long makes my hands hurt and as a developer that's kind of a big deal so this is the corsair k95 i bought it because of the macro keys it has 18 of them on the left side and also num block on the right so my idea was pressing less keys because i can bind them to macros would be a good idea with the style i used to automate things like dedicated shortcuts for copy paste commenting lines saving files or pushing to get this worked out quite well but it resulted in more hand moving overall after using it for some time i got very upset with how the german keyboard layout is not beneficial for programming at all like as the most used special characters are either reached through the shift key or the option key and both of them are in a weird place to press hundreds of times a day that needed to be fixed i just switched to the us keyboard layout now every special character is reachable with the shift key which reduces the need for modifier keys a bit and also the option key is not only used for keyboard combinations it also fixed some compatibility issues while working with a mac and windows pc at the same time as the german keyboard layout is not identical on those two platforms for example the add symbol is on option l on the mac and on option q on windows which both don't make sense as in the us keyboard layouts it's just on shift 2 which is way more convenient as you use the add symbol a lot then i realized that in the us keyboard layouts even the keys themselves are in different positions that's when i bought the thinkpad keyboard which was not only locally available in the us keyboard layout but also added the track point for even less reaching for the mouse some keys like backspace and also multiple keyboard shortcuts that i use in my text editor were not really optimized so i did some research on keyboard layouts and noticed that most of them used keyboard layouts that were for typing and not for programming until i found neo2 neo2 is a keyboard layout that's optimized for the german language but programming is mostly english words in the end this didn't matter much as it's just splitting vowels to the left side and consonants to the right and this keeps you in the feeling that you don't need to move your hands at all because the most used things are just beneath your fingertips it's also adding a new kind of layer system which doesn't only have the shift key for capital letters but also a whole layer just for special characters and one for navigation but i'll get to more details with this later on this special characters layer all four kinds of parentheses are now just below your fingertips which helps very much with programming as you hit them very often the fourth layer has a number pad on the right and arrow keys on the left so this makes data inputting and all that stuff super easy after getting used to these two editions i felt like i would never need to move my hands at all for programming which is a huge relief but some software didn't play nice with neo2 as it's just the keyboard layout that's added to the operating system some keyboard combinations didn't work anymore at all also needed to install this on every machine i used to keep my typing speed up so that's when i bought my first do-it-yourself keyboard kit with a blank keyboard the progress of me assembling that keyboard can be seen in my last video because it has a freely programmable microcontroller you can configure it with the qmk firmware which has way more options than even the current gaming keyboards that way i can fake to my computer having just a normal keyboard while pressing keys for me in the neo2 layout scheme this way i have no compatibility issues anymore and i could also use the keyboard on any machine i would like without installing any additional software things also notice there is no staggered keys anymore this is an ortholinear keyboard it feels very good for 10 finger touch typing as it's very predictable to where each key will be as it's just a grid and that's something i cannot live without anymore but surely this story didn't end here as you can see the keyboard is quite small and your wrists are way too tightly together to type for long periods of time comfortably but now that i already had assembled my own keyboard from components i thought i might just try building my own so meet the dactylus keyboard it's built by matt attereth and you should really check out his talk on keyboards it's quite interesting i printed all the parts for it on my 3d printer it's also using an hdmi connector but it's quite a big keyboard and to transport it to work every day was very difficult in the end one of the feet broke off so i thought i might just need to design my own portable version of this i got the kale low profile switches and printed a very slim housing that's pretty similar to the blank keyboard but with six added buttons for the thumb area as i really like the thumb cluster layout of the dactylus keyboard and that really helped with switching the layers for neo2 based keyboard layouts and also i have space and backspace easily reachable with my thumb also all the keys were 3d printed but this time it's easier as they were pretty flat there is no need for sanding them and smoothing them all the time which took hours on the dactylus keyboard also it's a split keyboard design that sticks together with magnets with a split keyboard it's easier to align your elbows with your shoulders and it has added benefit of having space between your keyboard i started with scribbling down some ideas and then building the frame infusion 360. and then i built it in a way that's fast to print without any support materials and stuff like that so it's basically just a flat box then i just needed to figure out how to wire the keyboard matrix which is just how i want to connect the rows and columns together and also where i want to place the diodes but this could also be changed in software so there's not much to do wrong here i still ended up buying the ergodox ez because of the way the feet are able to tilt the keyboard which is something that i just didn't figure out how to do myself also the thumb cluster which is way wider on this keyboard and easier to use because of double sized keys just was a selling point this is still the keyboard that i'm working with all the time the tool here is called oryx which is the configurator for the ergodox easy it's quite handy and has literally all features i would need to configure my custom keyboard but you can also download the source code and build qmk locally here i just download the finished hex file and can then flash it with the ergodox flashing tool and here's a rundown of what i did to the layout on the first layer we have the normal characters with backspace on the left thumb and space on the right thumb this makes fixing typing errors very easy volume and media controls are easily reachable with the left hand i also replace the caps lock with an escape key so with the right thumb button i trigger the special characters layer which puts all parentheses exactly accessible with the index and middle fingers and all other special character are easy to type as the thumb is activating the layer so all fingers are free to move with the left thumb i trigger the navigation layer with the arrow keys on the left and the mouse keys on the right that way i don't even need to grab my mouse anymore at least for simple click actions with the right thumb toggle button i trigger the numpad mode so i can use the right half like a numpad this way it activates without me needing to hold down the key so i can just press it once and then type and use it like a numpad this button triggers a gaming layer which just puts the whole keyboard in qwerty mode so that i can use normal keys for gaming but the interesting stuff starts here with the tap and hold modifiers that way when the key is pressed for a short duration it just outputs the key but if i keep holding it it acts like a modifier key so i place the modifier key on each key on the home row and now i can trigger any keyboard combination with my hands staying in place as i just use the modifiers on the opposite side of the key i want to press this can also be disabled by pressing the top right key on the left half of the keyboard as it reduces typing speed otherwise you randomly hit some modifier keys while holding the key for just too long at high speeds at the bottom of the keyboard there are normal modifier keys in case i don't want to use the tab and hold modifier functions and of course the rgb layer which is just to let me set the background lighting color brightness and animation basically i use it as a do not disturb button at work this setup is focused on the most comfortable long-term typing not on the speed typing and for compatibility with all operating systems without additional setup time when setting up a new device for operating systems the key comes into play as it's pretty hard to find consistent hotkeys for your custom settings like window management so having a single key to press option shift control and command at the same time is very convenient so you can map all your hotkeys to this with mac os i use hammerspoon for window management and other hotkey related things like switching focus to the browser window or opening my current project directory in the finder if you don't have a fully programmable keyboard you could use an app called carabiner elements which just lets you map all keys to different keys similar to how qmk works you can also add tap and hold modifiers to it i for a long time worked with this on the thinkpad keyboard i'll leave a link to the configuration files for this down below i normally map my most used apps to easy reach keys on the right half of the keyboard and then the hyper key and windows sizing and moving to the left side plus the hyper key after this the customizability on macos is very limited as you don't get to use any software that modifies your system files anymore and i try to optimize my workflow so i can work without these features before that i used total finder and total spaces but these are just gone now ckb is a custom keyboard driver for the corsair k95 and similar corsair keyboards even though i don't use it that often it's quite nice to set a profile that only lights the bottom row of keys when i slide it under my monitor stand mac os uses the command key for most hotkeys and this works quite nice with the tap and hold modifiers so there is not much customization i need to do afterwards on windows i use auto hotkey and fancy zones in combination with windows subsystem for linux 2. and shell scripts to automate most of my stuff most gaming keyboards work better supported on windows so the k95 just works as it should here then i add some scripts for toggling between headphones and speakers and some other convenience stuff for coding i use vim or vs code with a vim plugin which really saves a lot of keystrokes for you and also providing you with a very customizable workflow and the last time i'm using more and more linux my distribution of choice is arch with herbslof wm and i'm able to use my system and programs without any mouse moving i have rophi setup as a launcher and most hotkeys are bound to the command key as well on linux and mac i use spacemax a variant of emacs with vim key bindings with the leader key being space this is the most comfortable way of handling hotkeys i've ever seen as all hotkeys are pressed one key at a time and even while pressed all options are listed with mnemonic shortcuts so it's very easy to use and learn new functions the terminal and editor now worked nicely optimized but for the web i installed an extension called vimium which lets me add vin keys for browsing the most used feature here is of course the link opening as it shows me small labels for all links i need to press this allows me to navigate the web completely just with my keyboard i'd be interested to see how you optimize your workflows leave a comment with that down below thanks for watching and see you next time

Channel: Jan Lunge

Views: 72,534

Keywords:

Id: LgEkusmH-9k

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Mattjdio]

Very interested in your custom keyboard would you be Willing to share your fusion 360 and qmk files.

[u/Bobertus]

Your custom reminded me of this video I saw on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bm0OkFie2F0

[u/lasttycoon]

Can you compare the typing differences between the dactyl and ergodox?

[u/cosmin_c]

Really interesting video and builds, well done!

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For a bit of feedback - I'm p. sure English isn't your native tongue, but you need to practice more on the way you convey information. I like the soft tonality but it can be a soft tonality and engaging at the same time. As it is in this video it just puts me to sleep. I hope it's clear this is meant as constructive feedback, not criticizing just to criticise :)