- Joined
- Jan 28, 2018
This post is written on a 40% ortholinear keyboard. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I bought the CSTC40 off aliexpress which for around 40 bucks without switches and keycaps is probably the cheapest you can go, while still having a functional keyboard that doesn't feel too improvised. I just ended up reusing keycaps and the gatheron blue switches my keychron came with, as I didn't want to spend too much money on this. The build-quality is so-so. Frankly, I cannot decide if 40 bucks is still too much, putting it together it felt really flimsy and the lower portion of the keyboard actually got bent, but once all is put together pressure straightens it all out and it feels actually robust enough, about the same as your average OEM keyboard, many of which also have no or few screws... the plastic feels very cheap though. The original layout by the chinaman feels like he had no idea whatsoever what all these symbols mean or what they are good for, but well, you can reprogram everything to your specifications and that is kind of the point with the ortholinear keyboard after all.
I am actually typing blind with all my fingers and without looking at the keyboard, I got used to it in hours and besides hitting the wrong key here and there in the beginning there wasn't really much of a learning curve at all. Some specific things like hitting modifiers to get keys from different layers take a bit longer so there's that. I haven't fully made my perfect layout yet but mostly just moved keys around when I noticed I kept hitting the wrong ones.
On every normal keyboard I have I moved left ctrl to where capslock is as the actual left ctrl key is in a position where it's so uncomfortable to reach it might as well not exist. (this is btw. how the HHKB does it by default and pretty much the biggest thing about it. It also completely dropped the keys in these extreme left and right lowest row poisitons) When possible, I also always programmed ctrl to also act as esc when tapped, when you're a *nix nerd you need the esc key kinda often. With the 40% ortho layout this comes all very naturally with the advantage that the lower row keys are actually easily reachable with your thumbs without contorting your hands too much. When you use it for a bit you kinda notice the strange things about the more conventional, staggered layouts. Why are some of the modifiers so huge? Why is the space bar? Is there any comfortable way to actually use the lower row keys, especially the ones to the extreme left and right? These are all kinda things the Planck layout actually makes easier. It doesn't even take much thinking about. If this is actually long term better for your wrists or whatever I couldn't tell you, but it surely doesn't feel uncomfortable at all. The most interesting thing this thing does is that it really makes you think about how you actually interface with the computer when creating your layouts, which I think can be quite useful.
I am actually typing blind with all my fingers and without looking at the keyboard, I got used to it in hours and besides hitting the wrong key here and there in the beginning there wasn't really much of a learning curve at all. Some specific things like hitting modifiers to get keys from different layers take a bit longer so there's that. I haven't fully made my perfect layout yet but mostly just moved keys around when I noticed I kept hitting the wrong ones.
On every normal keyboard I have I moved left ctrl to where capslock is as the actual left ctrl key is in a position where it's so uncomfortable to reach it might as well not exist. (this is btw. how the HHKB does it by default and pretty much the biggest thing about it. It also completely dropped the keys in these extreme left and right lowest row poisitons) When possible, I also always programmed ctrl to also act as esc when tapped, when you're a *nix nerd you need the esc key kinda often. With the 40% ortho layout this comes all very naturally with the advantage that the lower row keys are actually easily reachable with your thumbs without contorting your hands too much. When you use it for a bit you kinda notice the strange things about the more conventional, staggered layouts. Why are some of the modifiers so huge? Why is the space bar? Is there any comfortable way to actually use the lower row keys, especially the ones to the extreme left and right? These are all kinda things the Planck layout actually makes easier. It doesn't even take much thinking about. If this is actually long term better for your wrists or whatever I couldn't tell you, but it surely doesn't feel uncomfortable at all. The most interesting thing this thing does is that it really makes you think about how you actually interface with the computer when creating your layouts, which I think can be quite useful.
