[OT] Keyboard with ctrl, alt, shift, etc in the thumbs

[Pupeno]

On Thursday 27 July 2006 16:17, Felipe Figueiredo wrote:
> Le Thursday 27 July 2006 08:54, Pupeno a écrit :
> > Hello,
> > Does anybody know about a cheap keyboard that I could get somewhere in
> > Berlin that has the special keys ctrl, alt, shift, tab, etc in the thumbs
> > ? Similar keyboards are:
> > http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-ltype-intro.html
> > http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-flat.html
> > http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-jtype.html
> > http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/kb_adv-pro_met720x471.jpg
> > I am looking for an alternative until I can buy a Maltron keyboard.
> > Thank you.
>
> Out of curiosity, anybody knows if do programmers often use this kind of
> crazyness?

Crazyness ? crazyness is the keyboard everybody uses, let's analyze it a bit:

- Qwerty layout: the keys are placed were they are place to avoid jamming of 
the bars of the first typewriter, 19 century. The layout is suboptimal and it 
is very easy to come with an idea to improve it: make statistics and put the 
most used keys in better placed. Someone already did it, he made the 
statistics, he create the way to better place them, he place them and he 
tested for many years showing the layout was much better. His name was August 
Dvorak[1] and he created the Simplified Keyboard layout[2] now know as Dvorak 
layout. There's a good comic (zine) called DvZine[3] that shows how it was 
done.
- Columns of key: take a look at your keyboard, it has rows and columns of 
keys, take a look at the columns, on the left you'll have the column with the 
keys Q, A and Z. Now, you'll see that the column is not straight, it goes to 
the left. For the right hand it might make sense, but for the left hand it 
doesn't, in fact, it is counter-intuitive. Why are they put in that way ? 
Because from each key you have a... err... bar that goes to the front of 
the... err... typewriter and you need space for the three (four if you count 
the numbers) bars. Of course, you are not using a typewriter, you are using a 
computer and your keyboard is a printed circuit that can put keys anywhere, 
but the keyboard still has them in a place were it is stress full for the 
left hand.
- Rows of keys: the rows of keys are straight. I have to give this a good 
review, they are not going up from one side, or in a curve getting closer to 
the body or some other stupid or useless thing. It is a straight line. But if 
you put your hands on the table... Oh! your finger tips doesn't end in a 
straight line, there's a curve. A curve the keyboards do not respect and that 
is one of the creators of RSI.
- Special keys: let's see what keys the poor weak and under-developed little 
fingers have to press: tab, caps lock, left shift, left ctrl, (left) alt, 
backspace, enter, right shift, right control, (right/graphic) alt. A lot of 
work for those little fingers. Let's compare them with the strong and 
flexible thumbs, both of them are in charge of... the space bar! and that's 
it. In fact, take a look at your typing habits, I bet one of the thumbs is 
never used.

Now, the Maltron 3D and the Kinesis Contour are the only keyboards that I have 
seen that, in their Dvorak versions, solve all the problems above. Are they 
so crazy ? the only thing I've found crazy is that there are only two of 
those keyboards and that the great majority of the population of the whole 
world continue to use weird layouts, obsolete key placement and in all 
sub-optimal keyboards that do many things to make injuries like RSI worst.
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno at pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Dvorak
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard
[3] http://www.dvzine.org/
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