Keeping the Character Map utility pinned to the taskbar makes things a little easier but it’s still dogshit compared to the OSX equivalent.
Meh, he loses points for using gvim. I bet he uses a mouse, too.
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Shouldn’t which be faster?
Either way… trying to type with the official method (“home rows” and all that) was far slower for me no matter how much I practiced. My odd self-taught method, much to the chagrin of my teachers, has pretty much ruined me for any other methods, though IIRC I was at least still able to type a good 60-80 WPM (including error corrections) using it.
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Or you can just use charmap.
Well, I dunno if I’m qualified to judge rightness of doing, but I like the kipple verra much, and the oiuja mouse is most excellent!
The thing with the letters on the front of the keys instead of the top is sweet, too.
But for me, bigger keyboards are better. 135 keys or thereabouts is good. That way I can run xterms & vt100s & tn5250 & 3270 sessions all at the same time!
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Presumably it is for the literary types who need no nerdy things like “numbers”. Although they seem to have a key for an isotope of carbon for some reason.
Naah, THIS http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/full-keyboard.html is a keypad. “Mechanical, too…”
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I use a ‘TKL’ (Ten Key Less) keyboard as correctly pointed out by @crashproof this is a 60% board, not a TKL:
Po3er (with the somewhat elusive ‘Clear’ cherry MX switches)
I both program and use the command line - and believe it or not, the arrow key placement is better on a TKL60% board, and a lot of developers favour them over the larger boards. This is because there are arrow keys, you can just about make them out on the fn row on the IJKL keys. I map my capslock to the function key (because when was the last time you intentionally used the capslock key?) via a dip switch on the back, and can type and navigate without both hands leaving the home row (you could argue that hjkl would be better, which in my mind is the purest of directional layouts for terminals). It’s far more ergonomic than one of those Microsoft monstrosities from 1991. There’s a dip switch for DVORAK too and some other things, but I’ve hit my trendy limit for one device.
And I’d rate the above keyboard 10/10 - it’s just lovely (I do wish the keycaps used nicer typeface though…)
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Gee, entering diacritics was easy on the old OCLC terminal back in the 80s…But that was before windows…
*a modified IBM PC, that came with a synchronous modem installed and a special keyboard.
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For anyone who wants the best of all possible keypads:
If your biggest problem is your fingers getting caught on the keycaps you might want to change to a different profile. You can get keycaps in the DSA profile, which doesn’t have any height difference between the rows.
I’m one of those crazies who uses a Planck keyboard. It’s freaking great. I only type about 55wpm but I was up to my regular speed again after 2 days. For some reason hiding keys I use less often behind a layer just clicked for me. Maybe it’s because I use vi often and it’s not a huge leap from modes to layers. Also they look amazingly cool, especially with the brass plate from the Massdrop edition.
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HNGGGGGGGGggggggg
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LOL. Come on you know you want to. Don’t give your money to “big keyboard”, buy from an independent maker. Did I mention the firmware is open source ? 
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Oh that is beautiful. I might just buy one for my desktop if I end up giving up on repairing my das keyboard.
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I wish I could upvote this a zillion times! Made me snort my herbal tea!
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Remember, when we got those keyboards, they felt like touchscreens to our fingers. Everyone in those days had learned how to type on a manual or at best electric-but-still-strong-keystrike typewriter. Having a number pad as part of the ensemble, and the keys spread out a little more than what had been normal, felt luxurious at the time.
(Oh, and for the record, I was only halfway through reading my third thread before running out of likes. This is getting ridiculous. We’re not all curmudgeonly programmers on this forum, thankyouverymuch.)
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Some international keyboard layouts, like the belgian layout, do a similar thing on Windows as well. They’re called “dead keys”. The US-International layout has them as well I believe.
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Tendonitis. For a long time holding a pen was painful as well. It’s something about the sustained muscle contractions.
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How my grandmother could pull 80wpm on a manual typewriter still boggles my mind.
My typing teacher in HS could also do ~160 wpm in shorthand (!!!)
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