I don't, but a coworker uses an ergodox and I've been eyeing it lately
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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I got my piantor yesterday and i really like it so far, it was a bit of a challenge to set everything up in a way i like. And my writing speed has deceased from 140 wpm to about 30. But that is just a matter of relearning to write on this keyboard and unlearning years of bad writing practices.
I bought a moonlander by ZSA about a year ago.
I found the split allows for a much more relaxed position while writing, and being able to adjust the halves individually when I reposition myself is very comfortable.
They also have the benefit of having thumb clusters, giving more work to the strongest finger of the hand.
Another benefit I find is that most split keyboards are fully programmable, which makes customizing it to your needs very nice.
The only drawback I find to this keyboard (apart from the price, which is not cheap) is that it is hefty, and not easy to transport. The fact that it is wired clutters a bit the desktop, if this is something that concerns you.
I recently built a corne low profile yo have something more transportable and wireless, but this is much more involved, as the configuration goes through writing code and not a nice UI.
However the comfort of this new board is very nice.
There was a whole subreddit dedicated to ergonomcal keyboards, ErgoMechKeyboards, which is very interesting to browse, as what I have done is seen as extreme by my coworkers, but tame compared to what some people are do.
I imagine a split keyboard requires you to at least type properly?
I'm a software engineer with wrist issues, and would love to use an ergonomic keyboard, but I never really learned to type properly. I often have my hands overlapping the opposite sides of the keyboard. I'll use all finger on my hands, but mainly it's my pointer, middle, and ring finger doing the typing. I feel like this would be impossible on a split kayboard, and would take a crazy amount of time to get back up to speed typing properly.
Fellow Moonlander + Corne user here. Once I accepted that I was never realistically going to take my Moonlander on the go, I sprang for the Platform kit. It's a huge improvement over the stock tenting legs.
Column stagger and ortholinear keyboards are an ergonomic wonder. Everyone's hands are different of course, but I find them really comfortable.
Another big plus for ZSA products is their software. The graphical configurator is really powerful and nice to use. It adds a lot of features on top of what's natively available in QMK. I've only manually tweaked my firmware once, and that was for a particularly niche and convoluted use case.
I personally don’t love split but I know keebio specializes in split keyboards and many with tenting as well.
I got a Glove80 recently and so far I love it! It took some getting used to but it's very comfortable and seems to be helping with my RSI.
I got Lulu Keyboard that’s split. I was having a lot of pain from typing and this has really helped me. I think I would upgrade and get an even nicer one to be honest
I personally have used a self built Dactyl Manuform as my primary keyboard for the last two years or so, and it's great as a programmer. I mostly pursued it due to wrist discomfort, which has essentially disappeared since I started using it.
Boss bought me a UHK, I love it. The split and tent is great on my wrists and fingers. And it's extremely programmable.
I have 2 ergodox EZs, a homemade redox that uses Bluetooth, and a homemade dactyl manuform.
For ergonomics, I'd say these are my priorities:
- Split
- Ortholinear with staggered columns
- Tented
- Mechanical switches
The arrangement of keys on the ergodox got me to start typing correctly, and I think the split helped a lot with my posture.
I had some bad luck with my dactyl manuform, the tenting was too aggressive, and the thumb cluster was angled in such a way that it put lots of strain on my thumb. I'm currently looking at replacing that with a Ferris Sweep.
Bluetooth was a mistake, the latency was unbearable. It led to one half of the keyboard being consistently slower than the other half, so I'd constantly make mistakes. I used nice!nanos fwiw.
It makes a lot of sense to me, although I haven't jumped on one yet.
But I refuse to use anything but a 65%, I have a seperate numpad if I need one and having mouse and keyboard closer together is already a godsend ergonomics wise, I have no idea how I could stand full size boards back in the day.
A split keyboard is already great because your arms can be in a normal position and proper tenting and tilt makes sure your wrists are at a good angle as well.
That said, most of the more "advanced" split keyboards have pretty.. unique layouts and I don't know if I'll get used to them. I also really want to keep my arrow keys and don't want to rely on layers too much, for stuff like the F keys and other rarely used functions it's fine but I don't want layers for anything that's a regular part of my workflow.
Maybe I'll just get a quefrency and see how it goes.
My wife and I use the ZSA moonlander when we're not gaming. When we game we switch to regualr 60%s. I also have a custom built split keyboard that I don't really use.
For me, it saved my wrists. My wrist and forearms used to go numb after extended coding sessions while using a regular 60%. I no longer have that issue using a split.
I do recommend researching switches, as I found that using Gateron Red Inks, 45g actuation force, also added to relieving stress on my wrists. I lubed and filmed them too, which is overboard for most.
I also recommend trying different key layouts, I use Colemak DH, but Workman and regular Colemak are also good. They lower the finger movement needed to press the most used letters in English. Layouts can be changed on the hardware level on the Moonlander, allowing it to just work on any device.
https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/ https://workmanlayout.org/