Got a new keyboard, and is the first time I've gone smaller in awhile, so figured I'd share my experiences to go on top of my last topic about using smaller keyboards. The board in question is the...
Got a new keyboard, and is the first time I've gone smaller in awhile, so figured I'd share my experiences to go on top of my last topic about using smaller keyboards.
The board in question is the Chiri CE 5x3 that came prebuilt because i'm a coward. It is not only GORGEOUS, but also helped me take the dive into the 5x3 space. All the corne boards i've had were 6x3, which is much easier to adapt to as you get to keep your tab/control/shift on left hand and backspace/;/whatever you want on the right.
The chiri layout has one extra button on each side for the thumb cluster, so it gives me a liiiiiitle more space than the corne 5x3, thus taking the plunge and losing the outside columns. As such, this entire post is written using the new keyboard.
Goals:
Fits with the concepts i've built using previous split ergo keyboards, namely that one layer for basic typing, one mostly for "movement" (keys that don't put a character on screen, one for numbers/symbols(the other characters), and one for the function keys. Of note everything i'm doing was configured using the VIA gui rather than something "difficult" like qmk jsons or whatever. Did need to use the "any" function for two of the keys.
imgur link above for images
Layer 0, base:
Main keys-
Standard qwerty. I've never seen a reason to jump ship from it.
Only difference is right pinky is '/" instead of ;/: because i've done that before on other smaller builds and it fits the "logic" that your base layer is mostly keys used in communication, and you'll use ' waaaay more than ; or : in that. Thus while typing all this I only needed to access another layer to mention the ;/: key.
Thumb cluster-
First some translations for the stuff that's hard to read.
Left lower thumb is space on tap, layer 1 on hold
Right lower thumb is enter on tap, layer 2 on hold
Left upper thumb is tab on tap, layer 3 on hold
There's a lot going on here and it may not stay final. Being able to hit various chords like ctrl + shift, windows + shift, alt + tab, etc matters and figuring out where you want those keys to keep some of your muscle memory matters.
The main things that are new to me are getting used to shift and ctrl being on my thumbs rather than on my left pinky, and backspace/tab being on my pointer fingers. The thumbs as space/enter and layers has been a layout i've used for a long time so i'm used to that. So far I've considered switching around shift/alt/windows key, but don't think i'll need to do anything more complicated.
Layer 1, navigation:
The "theme" of this layer is "buttons that do not output a character on the screen and coding characters". Thus the arrow keys, most of the PgUp/PgDwn cluster, esc, and delete.
The right hand is all about text navigation. Up/down/left/right/page up/page down/home/end all make sense to me where i've put them. For example going to the start of a line is Home, so home is above the Left key, and same for the End. This makes flying around text/code very trivial because ctrl + these keys is the majority of navigation.
The left hand does however have the the "keys that i need a ton for coding and are otherwise hard to hit" and the far right the missing ; and .
I probably need to dump insert here somewhere and maybe caps lock but even when I bother to bind those two keys I tend to forget where they are as I find myself needing them once every few years.
Layer 2, numbers, symbols, and mouse:
You know what's better than a numpad/10 key? Having a numpad/10 key right under your fingers at all times, and useable with one hand still. I was one of the people who thought I could never go to a smaller keyboard because of losing the numpad, and now hate when I go back because the numpad is so far away.
The numpad logic is standard layout with the "make a number bigger" operations higher up and the "make a number smaller" operations lower. I have the ;/: key here too because of muscle memory from previous keyboards, so the -/_ goes one key lower than you might expect.
On most of my other boards the left hand is just the Layer 1 coding symbols, but I like being able to navigate everything with the keyboard sometimes, and rarely you hit these scenarios where you just need mouse control. Having the mouse buttons/movement bound is something I'm testing out. So far I'm mixed on it just because it's screwing a little with my muscle memory, but I don't hate it.
Layer 3, functions/eventual misc:
The leftover function keys mapped in the same numpad layout, with F10/11/12 going top to bottom because that's just what I did the very first time and have stuck with it.
The main thing that's new to me is getting here with my left index/thumb by holding what is now Tab. It's not a super common use layer for me (F5/4/1/11 being the main ones I use) so I'm ok with it being mostly empty for now. I'll probably put media controls on the left hand here, so volume up/down/mute and play/pause stuff. Maaaybe some macro's or some of the "one button hits ctrl + alt" style keys, but so far I've never found a huge use for those.
Future plans:
This is the bare minimum setup for me to take this into work and carry with me so I can use it. However in the past I've wound up making a "gaming" set of layers on top. Basically going to layer 3 and hitting g takes you to layer 4, where I'll do either a FPS layout (wasd movement and what not, but a quick way to get to the 1-0 keys all with the left hand through another layer) or map the actual numpad buttons to the numpad instead of the top row numbers, because games like stone soup/caves of qud want to use EVERY button.
Overall
With just half a day of use I'm pretty happy with it. Already getting the memory for the tab and backspace key being elsewhere, and the only other halting spot has been how to hit the !#@ style symbols, which I think I've got a method for now using thumb/index/middle finger to quickly access them.
As before I know this kind of thing doesn't instantly jive with many people. I think years of playing video games on different systems, typing, and on and off piano lessons got me used to just letting my muscle memory adjust to different formats, and I've certainly seen people who struggle much more with adjustments. Still I love that I now have a very nice keyboard that is easily portable in a hard case. Just combine it with the arc mouse and I can carry my entire "input" suite in one container, and keep my laptop in tent mode rather than bother with the built in keyboard/touchpad.
Got a new keyboard, and is the first time I've gone smaller in awhile, so figured I'd share my experiences to go on top of my last topic about using smaller keyboards.
The board in question is the Chiri CE 5x3 that came prebuilt because i'm a coward. It is not only GORGEOUS, but also helped me take the dive into the 5x3 space. All the corne boards i've had were 6x3, which is much easier to adapt to as you get to keep your tab/control/shift on left hand and backspace/;/whatever you want on the right.
The chiri layout has one extra button on each side for the thumb cluster, so it gives me a liiiiiitle more space than the corne 5x3, thus taking the plunge and losing the outside columns. As such, this entire post is written using the new keyboard.
Goals:
Fits with the concepts i've built using previous split ergo keyboards, namely that one layer for basic typing, one mostly for "movement" (keys that don't put a character on screen, one for numbers/symbols(the other characters), and one for the function keys. Of note everything i'm doing was configured using the VIA gui rather than something "difficult" like qmk jsons or whatever. Did need to use the "any" function for two of the keys.
imgur link above for images
Layer 0, base:
Main keys-
Standard qwerty. I've never seen a reason to jump ship from it.
Only difference is right pinky is '/" instead of ;/: because i've done that before on other smaller builds and it fits the "logic" that your base layer is mostly keys used in communication, and you'll use ' waaaay more than ; or : in that. Thus while typing all this I only needed to access another layer to mention the ;/: key.
Thumb cluster-
First some translations for the stuff that's hard to read.
Left lower thumb is space on tap, layer 1 on hold
Right lower thumb is enter on tap, layer 2 on hold
Left upper thumb is tab on tap, layer 3 on hold
There's a lot going on here and it may not stay final. Being able to hit various chords like ctrl + shift, windows + shift, alt + tab, etc matters and figuring out where you want those keys to keep some of your muscle memory matters.
The main things that are new to me are getting used to shift and ctrl being on my thumbs rather than on my left pinky, and backspace/tab being on my pointer fingers. The thumbs as space/enter and layers has been a layout i've used for a long time so i'm used to that. So far I've considered switching around shift/alt/windows key, but don't think i'll need to do anything more complicated.
Layer 1, navigation:
The "theme" of this layer is "buttons that do not output a character on the screen and coding characters". Thus the arrow keys, most of the PgUp/PgDwn cluster, esc, and delete.
The right hand is all about text navigation. Up/down/left/right/page up/page down/home/end all make sense to me where i've put them. For example going to the start of a line is Home, so home is above the Left key, and same for the End. This makes flying around text/code very trivial because ctrl + these keys is the majority of navigation.
The left hand does however have the the "keys that i need a ton for coding and are otherwise hard to hit" and the far right the missing ; and .
I probably need to dump insert here somewhere and maybe caps lock but even when I bother to bind those two keys I tend to forget where they are as I find myself needing them once every few years.
Layer 2, numbers, symbols, and mouse:
You know what's better than a numpad/10 key? Having a numpad/10 key right under your fingers at all times, and useable with one hand still. I was one of the people who thought I could never go to a smaller keyboard because of losing the numpad, and now hate when I go back because the numpad is so far away.
The numpad logic is standard layout with the "make a number bigger" operations higher up and the "make a number smaller" operations lower. I have the ;/: key here too because of muscle memory from previous keyboards, so the -/_ goes one key lower than you might expect.
On most of my other boards the left hand is just the Layer 1 coding symbols, but I like being able to navigate everything with the keyboard sometimes, and rarely you hit these scenarios where you just need mouse control. Having the mouse buttons/movement bound is something I'm testing out. So far I'm mixed on it just because it's screwing a little with my muscle memory, but I don't hate it.
Layer 3, functions/eventual misc:
The leftover function keys mapped in the same numpad layout, with F10/11/12 going top to bottom because that's just what I did the very first time and have stuck with it.
The main thing that's new to me is getting here with my left index/thumb by holding what is now Tab. It's not a super common use layer for me (F5/4/1/11 being the main ones I use) so I'm ok with it being mostly empty for now. I'll probably put media controls on the left hand here, so volume up/down/mute and play/pause stuff. Maaaybe some macro's or some of the "one button hits ctrl + alt" style keys, but so far I've never found a huge use for those.
Future plans:
This is the bare minimum setup for me to take this into work and carry with me so I can use it. However in the past I've wound up making a "gaming" set of layers on top. Basically going to layer 3 and hitting g takes you to layer 4, where I'll do either a FPS layout (wasd movement and what not, but a quick way to get to the 1-0 keys all with the left hand through another layer) or map the actual numpad buttons to the numpad instead of the top row numbers, because games like stone soup/caves of qud want to use EVERY button.
Overall
With just half a day of use I'm pretty happy with it. Already getting the memory for the tab and backspace key being elsewhere, and the only other halting spot has been how to hit the !#@ style symbols, which I think I've got a method for now using thumb/index/middle finger to quickly access them.
As before I know this kind of thing doesn't instantly jive with many people. I think years of playing video games on different systems, typing, and on and off piano lessons got me used to just letting my muscle memory adjust to different formats, and I've certainly seen people who struggle much more with adjustments. Still I love that I now have a very nice keyboard that is easily portable in a hard case. Just combine it with the arc mouse and I can carry my entire "input" suite in one container, and keep my laptop in tent mode rather than bother with the built in keyboard/touchpad.
Hardly a needed upgrade but certainly a nice one.