[geeks] keyboard recommendation

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

> i think i'm going to give up trying to get my Type5c to work on my Octane
> and just consider getting a nice keyboard.  something that either has the
> keys in the right place to start with, or would at least be easily remapable.
> the closer the keys are layed out to a Type5c the better for me.  especially in
> the backspace area.

I like my Model M.  Except for in Netscape, everything's where it should
be.  I have $bigKeyNextToEquals mapped/stty-ed to be rubout/erase/whatever
on everything network wide, so I don't have to deal with backspace versus
delete, except for when a new machine arrives.

> i'm thinking a split keyboard would be good, i've got fairly advanced CTS in
> my right wrist and so am quite concerned about the health of my wrists.  also
> i think a split keyboard would do wonders for my typing since it would force
> me to keep my hands where they belong. ;)

I used to use a split-keyboard.  My wrists hurt a lot less when I moved to
it from a mushy generic keyboard.  Now that I use a Model M, they don't
hurt at all.  The force necessary to do a proper keystroke, combined with
the tactile feedback has improved my typing posture, I think.

The (un)fortunate side-effect is that mush-keyboards die quickly around
me.  Then again, I learned to type on a manual typewriter, so a lot of
that may not be due to the Model M.

> recommendations?  cost is no concern since my health is involved here.

I've seen lots of weird things in keyboards.  About two years ago on
Slashdot, there was a story about a guy who sliced a keyboard in half,
mounted each half below his seat, so he could type just be relaxing his
arms at his sides.

There are also all those strange keyboards designed to reduce key-travel
distance (by making "bowls" out of each half of the keyboard).

I'd recommend you try an old rugged IBM Model M for a little while.
xmodmap is your friend, and it might be what you need.  If not, well, it's
"I told you so" time, and I'm out of suggestions.

What I'd really like is one of the newer Model M remakes with the built-in
trackpoint.  That way, I wouldn't have to remove my hands from the
keyboard unless I were doing something vaguely artistic.

--Jonathan