25

Hey folks, me again.

Those of you who went from a larger keyboard to a smaller one that required the use of layers: was the transition hard? Could you still type on the old keyboard after?

Context: I was asking the other day about which ortholinear to get for commuting. Although the glove80 is the closest to my current home desktop keyboard, I've ruled it out as I don't think it will fit in my backpack. If it does, it will take up too much space.

So I'm looking at something like the voyager, but with such a small keyboard, there will be a learning curve. I'm used to ortholinear, but I've never used layers. And if I manage to adapt, it'd be nice to still be able to use my desktop keywell keyboard at home.

Thoughts?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It took me a few weeks to really get to muscle memory, but after that I disliked full-size keyboards enough that I started using kmonad on my laptop with the traditional keyboard. I eventually ended up with kanata (which has a superior chord handling) everywhere, until I got a piantor 50%, when I switched to QMK.

I switched by degrees, though; I'd used a more limited set of layers for a couple of years before going full gonzo, so I was used to the modality; adding more layers was less a new paradigm and more just adding complexity to what I was, by then, familiar with. So I can't say I'm a fair measure.

QMK has been a struggle to get all of the settings working such that there isn't some behavior that is annoying, and I'm still not there, but having the programming in the keyboard has made some situations easier (consoles, etc).

I'm 9 mos into the piantor, and I still struggle with remembering where I bound some infrequently used layers, like the layer I put all the F-keys. And rarely I'll think about how to get a key - rather than relying on muscle memory - and simply fail to remember the magic combo. However, I won't voluntarily go back. Having numbers and special characters accessible without having to change my hand positions is simply invaluable, and I still use kanata on my laptop to get the same behavior, despite it meaning I have a whole row of keys I'm not using anymore.

The biggest hassle in going back to a full size is the reduced number of thumb keys. And I admit, I learned to touch type being able to hit the space bar with either thumb, and simply do not have the luxury of enough keys to dedicated to duplicate functions to allow this. This would be probably my biggest complaint, and only regret about switching.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
25 points (100.0% liked)

ErgoMechKeyboards

5940 readers
1 users here now

Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

Rules

Keep it ergo

Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)

i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²

¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid

No Spam

No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.

No Buy/Sell/Trade

This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.

Some useful links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS