CODE keyboard

Furthermore, Ctrl, Alt, and Shift do not count towards these six keys,
making it possible to to hold up to nine keys simultaneously –
sufficient for even the most arcane keyboard shortcuts.

If you can meaningfully use nine keys simultaneously, finish plotting your interstellar coordinates and get your tentacles the hell off our planet.

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Well, in my experience, everything I can do with a keypad, I can do more easily with the keyboard itself, except for accidentally hitting num lock instead of backspace or insert instead of an arrow key. YMMV.

I can fit a compact keyboard and a mouse on my desk without having to contort my typing arm to reach either one. I can’t do that with a keypad or with a standard/giant-sized keyboard.

I am also sick of the dismissal of more accessible interfaces as “point’n’grunt.”

Not everyone can use a keyboard. Not everyone can use a mouse. Having more usable options means it is accessible to more users.

I type up a lot of tables. I don’t use a number pad. I never found a use for a number pad, and I’m glad I found a keyboard without one.

I’m sure you could accomplish what you want with software like AutoHotKey (if you use Windows). Get something that has the hardware features closest to what you want, and then reprogram it on your desktop to suit your needs. If you use more than one computer, take the extra time to make some kind of package out of your customization so you can quickly install the same hack on every other computer.

For entering characters like © and é easily via the alt-codes. I use it on a nearly daily basis for that.

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My KVM switch is triggered by two presses of the Scroll Lock key by default. I’ve used a few others that use that key, too. (Maybe that’s testimony to the uselessness of it, though.)

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…and now I understand emacs users.

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I never use the top row. That’s not efficient at all if you’re typing more than a few numbers.

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That’s some serious keyboard speak.

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review here:

http://www.naildrivin5.com/blog/2013/08/29/a-real-keyboard-for-programmers.html

A brief examination of this keyboard shows that the design isn’t spectacular - for prose or code.

My mileage does indeed vary. I used to be able to rock me some EDT, and the keypad has always been a great interface for activities that map diagonal movement against a grid. I envy you your ability to get when you need done efficiently with a smaller keyboard, but I’ll always want a great big one, with a numpad, for my great big hands. Luckily there are products readily available for both of us these days (it used to be near impossible to get a laptop with a numpad, but now it’s pretty easy).

Point’n’grunt is not a synonym for “more accessible interfaces” nor is it a dismissal of the needs of less experienced or handicapped individuals. Don’t look for insult in accurate descriptions, or people won’t be honest with you any more, and honesty is more valuable to the recipient than to the bestower.

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é ? You mean ´ + e ? And © = ALT-G?

He’s obviously on to us.

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I don’t use Windows. If I did use Windows, I wouldn’t be able to use that trick.

On the laptop keyboard [I use an external compact keyboard with no keypad for ergonomic reasons], none of the alt and control keys are close enough to the keypad to be able to use both at once. Stretching for one keypress is an annoyance; stretching for an entire series is going to leave that hand hurting.

It seems very strange to me that they made an 87 key version instead of a 91 key version with numlock and a numeric keypad over-layed on Home, End, etc.

numeric keypads are good for bookkeeping software and some games, and it wouldn’t have changed the size relative to the 87 key version.

I never had trouble with the top row. I do have trouble twisting my fingers to use the keypad.

There should be no “twisting” involved if your desk setup is correct and your hands are placed properly and you’re utilizing proper typing techniques.

In fairness to the ‘CODE’(though I haven’t had a chance to try one, and you can pry my '85 Model M out of my cold dead hands, assuming its utility as a blunt weapon allows you to get that far) that review was written by somebody whose ideal is a tiny, flat, keyboard designed to replicate the experience of typing on a laptop as much as possible.

It’s also written from a fairly blatant OSX-centric perspective on what keys are ‘useful’ and what are ‘useless’: some of the lower-left-hand modifier keys common on Windows keyboards are simply dismissed as useless, while the equivalent row of Mac modifier keys passes without comment (in the same vein, the ‘Look a PS/2 adapter, that’s so antique I can barely stand it!’ comment conveniently ignores both the fact that supporting PS/2 costs next to nothing, and the fact that a great many of the world’s KVM switches, and the occasional cranky BIOS, still prefer PS/2 peripherals. Am I delighted that the reviewer lives in a brushed-aluminum world of 100% bluetooth? Sure. Can a I take a review that doesn’t examine its preconceptions for even a moment entirely seriously? Less so.)

There are certainly strong arguments to be made that old-school IBM keyboard layout is anachronistic (though, in a world with keycode remap software, there is an argument to be made for the ‘More keys = more power’ school, even if you disagree with the default keycodes); but if you actually enjoy typing on a nearly-nonexistent-key-travel glorified laptop keyboard, you aren’t even in the same market as any mechanical keyswitch design, much less the True Buckling Spring. Apple apparently makes very good low-travel chicklets, compared to other people who make low-travel chicklets; but that isn’t even playing the same game.

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Actually, it’s very hard to find compact keyboards. I tried everywhere locally before ordering online.

“Don’t look for insult in accurate descriptions, or people won’t be honest with you any more, and honesty is more valuable to the recipient than to the bestower.”

What? Where was there an “accurate description”?

… “There should be no “twisting” involved if your desk setup is correct and your hands are placed properly and you’re utilizing proper typing techniques.”

“If your haads are placed properly”

“and you’re using proper typing techniques” …

I can’t type with both hands at once. I can’t use what are considered ‘proper’ typing, or ‘proper’ writing techniques because of my disabilities. Yes, it screws with my life. Yes, it means I have somewhat unusual requirements in a keyboard, I tried to make that clear in my first post, that I have unusual requirements and different people have different requirements.