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What is your favorite keyboard trait?
| 24% | 18 votes |
| 2% | 2 votes |
| 12% | 9 votes |
| 25% | 19 votes |
| 10% | 8 votes |
| 5% | 4 votes |
| 1% | 1 votes |
| 18% | 14 votes |
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- Don't complain about lack of options. You've got to pick a few when you do multiple choice. Those are the breaks.
- Feel free to suggest poll ideas if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest reading the past polls first.
- This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
What is your favorite keyboard trait?
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I'm not denyin' the women are foolish: God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
-- George Eliot
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ingar on Sunday September 01, @09:18AM (15 children)
The preferred keyboard layout here is Belgian AZERTY, which is extremely horribly when writing code,
or using the UNIX command line. I switched to QWERTY a long time ago, but unfortunately Dutch actually
uses a few funky symbols now and than, and at work I need to be able to write in French as well.
I got tired of keycombo magic, so at work, I settled on a dual keyboard setup and just switch as required.
It gives me a good brainfuck every now and then.
For reference: Belgian keyboard layout [wikimedia.org].
The third key symbols are accessed through the Alt Gr modifier key.
I mean US QWERTY here. UK QWERTY sucks, as does QWERTZ. I also prefer the physical layout with the big RETURN key and I hate a small backspace.
The next poll should ask what kind of mechanical keyboard switches you prefer.
Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday September 01, @09:41AM (12 children)
Please give me a list of 5-7 types of keyboard switches and an appropriate 'insensitive clod' option and I will publish it next. Most Polls are submitted by the community in the same was as any other submission. Just entitle your submission to include the word 'Poll' as they get stored in a different place.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Samantha Wright on Monday September 02, @04:55PM (8 children)
What kind of keyboard keys do you use?
maybe also something about terrible PCjr chiclet keyboards
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday September 03, @06:31AM (2 children)
Is 'Rubber Dome' the same as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 'dead flesh' keyboard?
There is a special place reserved in Dante's hell for anyone who specifies a flat membrane that uses a flat electrically-conductive 'rubber' membrane that distorts when pressed to bridge pcb tracks as a keyboard in their product . Cheap, almost works, and guaranteed to degrade to uselessness quickly.
I don't know if it is a 'thing' these days, but at one point Hall Effect keyboards were all the rage: no contacts to wear out.
Hmm - looks like they are: https://www.hlplanet.com/keyboards-hall-effect-switches/ [hlplanet.com] and https://www.xda-developers.com/get-hall-effect-keyboard-instead-of-mechanical/ [xda-developers.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05, @11:25PM
Rubber dome is just your ordinary cheap standard PC keyboard. It's basically the same idea as the 80s style "membrane" keyboards - two pieces of rubber with traces printed on them that connect when pressed together - but pushing a plastic key instead of directly on the membrane makes it work and feel much better. Most of them last for years. Usually the keycaps wear out or the chassis breaks before the membranes stop working, unless you spill something on it and corrode the traces.
(Score: 2) by Samantha Wright on Saturday September 07, @12:40AM
I left that out because no one would willingly use such an abomination, except maybe as a sacrifice for the needs of an industrial process control machine on a factory floor. That's part of the broader "chiclet" category. See also: the flat 90s touchable surfaces that live on in the control panels of (most) microwave ovens.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 04, @12:54AM (2 children)
I have a nice mechanical keyboard with Cherry brown switches. The key caps don't work with the backlight LEDs, and I'm torn about which is more important. In a well lit room I definitely prefer these keys to the cheaper backlight mechanical keyboard I also use, but in the dark those lit keys are really good to have.
More important than switch type or lighting, the nice heavy metal frame is the best part.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05, @11:31PM (1 child)
I really like the Cherry Brown, I didn't like mine at first (stuck with my rubber dome keyboard for a couple of years after getting it!) but once it broke in and the keys stopped feeling "scratchy" it's pretty great. I don't like noisy keys but I do like tactile feedback and the browns have *just* enough of a bump. Most of the time I don't consciously feel it at all but it's enough.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 07, @01:56AM
I've read some articles about keyboard customization. Those "scratchy" keys would probably have been cured by lubing the switches. Some of the latest offerings of mechanical keyboards advertise that they come pre-lubed. Other people just like screwing around with their keyboards, and lube their switches as a matter of customization. I had no idea that switches should be lubed, until Amazon offered me a couple of El Cheapo branded keyboards to test drive. Videos are available on Youtube with a search.
A MAN Just Won a Gold Medal for Punching a Woman in the Face
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 05, @02:55PM (1 child)
I use a $4 keyboard in an end cap from Microcenter you insensitive clod. When it brakes in five years, I invest another $4 to replace it.
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 2) by Samantha Wright on Thursday September 05, @06:01PM
We count that as a rubber dome. (That's how standard membrane keyboards work.)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday September 03, @07:27PM (2 children)
I tend to assume there can be only ate (8) options for a pole on the front page. Is that true? Regardless, or irregardless, it is better than "there can be only one" poll option.
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday September 03, @07:31PM (1 child)
Yes, the maximum is 8, although 5 or more are usually acceptable. They don't look too lost....
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03, @01:49AM
All three of the major OSes and their desktops allow you to change visual styles programatically. Depending on how you switch keyboards and your imagination, you can have the screen change based on which keyboard you are using. It might help lessen the "brainfuck" by providing additional cues to you.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 04, @12:49AM
I'm certain there are many layouts "better" than QWERTY but, the best layout is the one you are most familiar with. So, unless I become a professional writer like Steven King, at my and only my keyboard 99%+ of the time, I have to deal with "what's out there", and around here that's QWERTY.
When I first learned AutoCAD 14 I customized my touchpad interface, and it was great... Right up until I started working with the machine shop and their interface didn't have my settings. I switched to standard layout, it took longer to learn and never was quite as fast as my custom layout was for me, but it was 10x faster for me to use other peoples' standard interfaces after I learned it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday September 01, @04:31PM (3 children)
I have to use a crappy modern wireless keyboard, and I get tired of how often it messes up. I do fat finger things regularly, so it is hard to measure, but occasionally it adds in random key presses of keys that are nowhere near what I was pressing. On top of that, it seems like Windows 11 notepad occasionally misses key presses - other applications on that machine don't have the same issue. At least the thing doesn't have stupid back lighting.
Like so many other technologies, keyboards only seem to ever get crappier.
So, traits that I look for:
Beige.
Mechanical key switches. Personally I like the white Alps sliders found budget ~1990 keyboards. Not too stiff but still a good "click".
Function keys at the left, where they belong. :P
Double strike keycaps - that means there is a layer of transparent plastic over the printed character. So the letters don't ware off as fast.
No Microsoft Windows(TM) logo key. I have seen a few modern keyboards that have that key simply labeled as "Start" instead, which is acceptable.
No extra "Internet" keys. I don't need extra buttons for e-mail or shopping.
When dealing with vintage PC keyboards, they should be XT/AT switchable (XT and AT use different protocols, but the same plug. Many keyboards work with only one or the other).
NO back lights or blue LEDs. I shouldn't have to explain why.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 02, @09:02AM (1 child)
I'll second that. I can't count the number of keyboards with silly "features" I've had to deal with. Most of them cheaply made, but not always cheap. I don't need multimedia keys, mail keys, yada yada yada. Over the past two years, I've test driven some mechanical keyboards, and I'm perfectly happy with the 96% basic keyboards (qwerty). I care less about the type of 'color' of the switch, than I care about the feel. Some of them feel pretty close to the IBM Selectric typewriters I used in high school and in the Navy. But, the keyboard has to WORK, and work consistently. Far too many of those stupid membrane keyboards don't work properly when they are new, and only grow worse with age.
And yeah - double strike keycaps, and I have learned to really like a backlit keybaord. Plain white backlighting, please, no RGB nonsense, no pulsing patterns in the lights.
Most importantly, we can't over stress that it has to WORK!
A MAN Just Won a Gold Medal for Punching a Woman in the Face
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday September 06, @04:22PM
Heh. As much as I hated those, I did like having it on my machine at work WITHOUT the fancypants drivers that made those buttons do something other than f everything up. Anybody who tried to use my machine would quickly learn to leave it alone.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 04, @01:00AM
Wired. Only wired. I have had too many issues with wireless to bother anymore.
Wired keyboards, wired mice, wired monitors.
I confess to using Bluetooth speakers regularly, and they mostly don't mess up too often, but even there I am starting to collect Bluetooth speakers that plug in to AC power instead of dealing with decaying battery capacity.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 01, @04:35PM
Many years ago, in a postgrad computer lab not too far from here, one of the guys left his workstation unlocked over lunch on April 1st. Now in X11 you can remap keycodes to symbols (xmodmap in xinitrc? It's been 25+ years!) and there's this evil device called a keycap puller. So, he ended up with the world's first "ARSEFUCK" keyboard.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday September 01, @04:45PM
I'm a touch typist, so good tactile response is a pretty close second though.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by ese002 on Monday September 02, @01:07AM
Good keyboards make noise but noise is not the reason why they are good. Touch typing responds to touch not to sound. The best keyboard I ever used on an Apple IIe. Consistent travel maybe half the distance of the classic IBM keyboard and almost silent. It makes for fast, accurate typing.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 02, @03:48AM
I want to be able to pull my keyboard into my lap and type there, rather than be typing on the laptop (which requires leaning onto the desk a bit) or even worse having to use a virtual keyboard.
As for noisiness, layout, etc, I'll just say that even cheap modern keyboards are luxurious compared to the IBM Model F I first learned to type on that required a lot more motion to register the keypress.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday September 02, @06:18AM (1 child)
I like a wired, mini keyboard without a numpad. It fits nicely between my trackball and Space Pilot. QWERTY, of course.
I don't know much about the switches, but I think I would like one with a short travel and a crisp break, like a precision single-stage trigger.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 04, @01:04AM
I'm on a 60 key on my small desk these days, I really appreciate the extra mouse movement area it leaves, and I rarely ever wish for a key I don't have.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday September 02, @05:38PM (2 children)
Having a trackpoint.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 04, @01:02AM
How is that RSI wrist doing?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday September 02, @11:24PM (3 children)
Braille is a display medium, not an input medium. It is possible to get keyboards with standard layouts where the key caps are labelled in Braille, but many visually-impaired typists touch-type and only need to identify the home keys, which have distinguishers on most keyboards (usually a raised dot, or a line).
There are keyboards designed for producing Braille, embossing raised dots onto thick paper tape - the best known is probably the Perkins Brailler [perkins.org]. It has a chording keyboard (press several keys simultaneously to form the letters), and is very robust. A more modern take is the Mountbatten Brailler [wikipedia.org], which also has a chording keyboard, and can be used as a computer printer.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03, @01:41AM (2 children)
Interesting interpretation of that item. I took it to mean that the keyboard includes a braille display such as a terminal strip or wheel display. I know at least two people who use keyboards with them included so they don't have to have everything read out loud.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday September 03, @06:15AM (1 child)
I know several, too. Braille displays are horribly expensive.
One thing Apple iPhones are good at is accessibility for people with visual impairments: the built-in 'VoiceOver' software that describes what is on the display is remarkably good. It can't compensate for poorly written web-sites or apps though. There's not a lot you can do when every button is labelled 'button' or has no alternative text description at all.
Chording keyboards for Braille need not be overly expensive: here's one about the size of a smartphone: https://shop.rnib.org.uk/orbit-writer-90694 [rnib.org.uk]
...and another: https://shop.rnib.org.uk/a-hable-one-90938 [rnib.org.uk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 03, @09:43AM
Yeah. I was picturing something like this: https://www.aph.org/product/mantis-q40/ [aph.org] That's not the exact one they have but serves as an example to both what I thought and how expensive they can be.
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Tuesday September 03, @07:41PM (2 children)
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday September 03, @10:39PM
Sad to hear that. I'm typing this on your description, a M connected to a USB converter (not adapter). Its birthday was 06JAN88 and its part number 1391401 and I've been using it continuously since '98-ish when it was about ten years old. I have about four replacements in my stockpile and I'm still using this first one daily for many hours a day about 26 years later.
No windows key; the very concept that keyboards existed before "windows keys" sometimes confuses people. I imagine they think the original Apple II has a MS Windows key. Its less of a problem than you'd think. My "Print screen" button has a green "SysRq" on its front side, that is also a long story.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 04, @03:23PM
I fondly remember the genuine original IBM PC keyboard. The one unwieldy feature of it was that it had two (redundant) sets of F-keys. But they only went up to F10.
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Wednesday September 04, @02:37AM
Obviously the flavor and texture of a keyboard is the most important. It must be satisfyingly crunchy, and chewy membrane pads are a bonus. Old, brittle plastic and thick rubber unibody pads are the best. The PCB should be small because those are often bitter and are likened to the crust of bread.
If I need to soften it up in a microwave, it's best if it lacks a metal backplate, microwaves are $40 a piece and it burns out the magnetron quicker.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday September 04, @04:10AM
I much prefer keyboards with low travel distance. The Apple desktop keyboards are really nice in that regard - they have a good feel to them and you don't need to move your fingers all that far to tap a character out.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 04, @04:44AM (2 children)
if "QWERTY" and "silent" are categories, "split" should definitely be one. much more important keyboard characteristic. not being paid to say this, but I spoiled myself with one of these https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/ [ultimatehackingkeyboard.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 05, @01:31AM (1 child)
Like other customizations, I would rather not train to such a rare bird in the real world.
Also, the split layout would seem to strongly penalize one handed keying, for instance: while the other hand is using a mouse or touch screen...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05, @04:18AM
actually I have no problem with using a regular keyboard (other than uncomfortable position). touch typing works fine.
one-handed typing: not an issue for me, but obviously the two halves can be placed next to each other if need be.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday September 04, @03:12PM (3 children)
Not even a Braille [wikipedia.org] Dvorak [wikipedia.org] keyboard?
Not even a Braille Dvorak keyboard with RGB LEDs?
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 05, @10:29AM (2 children)
Good man, Danny. I had several goes at adopting a Dvorak layout as I love the concept but the ubiquity of Qwerty won in the end. It doesn't help that so many bits of software assume a Qwerty layout and make things more inconvenient on Dvorak.
Consumerism is poison.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Covalent on Thursday September 05, @08:37PM (1 child)
Exactly this. LOVE Dvorak...but switching keycaps on a laptop is difficult, and QWERTY is everywhere.
Dvorak...so smooth...kinda like this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Dvorak [wikipedia.org]
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 06, @01:35PM
I think you're doing touch-typing wrong if you need to switch the keycaps.
for what it's worth I decided on keeping qwerty because I needed to use other's people computers from time to time.
(Score: 1) by Hauke on Wednesday September 04, @06:53PM
I use one at home for general use. The older 5-PIN DIN (Model 2189014) has a better tactile feel than the more "recent" PS-2 versions (Model 2194001 on).
Nearly half the cable length consists of converting the 5-PIN DIN to USB. (Yes, there are direct converters, but where's the fun in that?)
TANSTAAFL
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05, @02:49AM (1 child)
I like a force profile that allows me to actuate and then stop before I bottom out. Cherry Clear is a good example.
(Score: 2) by LVDOVICVS on Thursday September 05, @08:42PM
Got interested years ago in doing machine shorthand. I can only do about 120 words a minute but the keyboard used is like none I've used before or since.
It's interesting too how different other languages layouts are.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Friday September 06, @05:59AM
I use a ;ςερτυ / :ΣΕΡΤΥ [bgelectronics.eu] keyboard!
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday September 06, @04:18PM
You know what I wish? Back when the iPhone came out people started taking a serious look at all-screen devices that don't have physical buttons anymore and trying to work out ways to adapt to that new world. At some point it was suggested that they add a lil protrusion on the screen, a little tiny bump you can just barely feel, and that would act as a form of home-row. Just like a lot of modern keyboards have today so you can align your fingers to the home row. I don't know if that would actually work but maaaan I would love to try it, because I could type a lot faster on this stupid thing if I wasn't hitting backspace half the time.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday September 06, @07:01PM
I wish I could get a USB version of Microsoft's old PS2 Internet Keyboard. https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Internet-Keyboard-PS-Interface/dp/B00002MZ8G [amazon.com]
IMHO it was "just right". Good feel, just the right amount of clicky, just all around comfortable to use. Didn't care much about the hotkeys, only one I'd use is the calculator one. I still have a couple used ones in storage here at work, can't bring myself to get rid of them.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 08, @12:04AM
Coulda swore I saw some posts here about the resident Soylentil Not-Sees. Guess janrinok "Chamberlain" has purged the poll, just to make sure it turns out the way it is supposed to, like a Trump, or Maduro. or Putin erection.