Goofin' about keyboards and editors and such

What? This doesn't compute.. Do they also prefer laptop trackpads to a mouse? And keyboards with no numpad? :smile:

Cars without tires, restaurants without beer?

What would I use a numpad for ? I’ve been using a numpad-less keyboard for years now and I wouldn’t go back. It fits in my backpack, it’s lighter, and I still have all I need !
I actually can’t remember ever using the numpad, even when I had one.

To put it as @Kevin.Herron would, surprisingly, I use a numpad for entering numbers :slight_smile: it’s a lot faster and touch-typable compared to numbers on a line (which is nigh impossible to touch-type). I couldn’t imagine not having it

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Maybe if I had to enter long series of numbers, but I don’t. I find it more practical to have numbers where my fingers already are, but I guess it’s all about habits.
Hey, I get weird looks from a co-worker for using vim instead of “much simpler editors” ! To each his own, as they say…

I die a little inside when I have to use Vi or any terminal-based text editor for anything :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Haven’t used Vim before though. I’m happy with PyCharm in Windows or Visual Studio Code with all their creature comforts

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That’s just the thing: I don’t always HAVE TO use terminal based editors, but when I do, that’s when being comfortable using them pays off !

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I’ve been using Vim a lot recently and I kind of hate normal text editors now they just seem slow/inefficient now lol

As long as we're being total nerds:
I have an ortholinear ergo keyboard (the Ergodox; highly recommend), with one of my keys a hold layer modifier. While it's active, the right side of my keyboard becomes a full numpad, simply because I got annoyed at living without one.

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Why not add a numpad as well?


:smiley:

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After using things with keyboards since (not admitting to since when) I still can’t touch type.

OTOH I have the VI commands ingrained in me since learning to use it on OS-9 running on a Tandy CoCo (not to be confused with OS 9) running on a Mac). And I bet if you put me in front of Wordstar it would all come back pretty quickly.

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I suppose I don’t need a numpad, either, as I have a Naga Trinity… but I still wouldn’t give it up :wink:
Having a numpad on your thumb (I bound copy and paste functions to it, too) is super handy!

Numpads are overrated. Kinesis FTW

I’m sure these ergonomic keyboards are nice and help with strain on the hand and I might need to get one someday for that reason, but they really look like someone photoshopped them as a joke lol

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I am totally handicapped on anything but a plain old qwerty keyboard. Move the home keys around and I’m lost.

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Function keys belong on the left hand side 83 key keyboard

But then again, function keys are overrated VT100

Here is a keyboard that every programmer needs. Introducing The Key - Stack Overflow Blog

Why stop at fancy ergonomic keyboards with software layering? Just make the jump and go all the way to stenography.

Some mad man has even made a set of Vim commands to make things simple. :laughing:

Wish i could use qwerty… As a Belgian im stuck with azerty :frowning: But not even the french azerty, we have our own keyboard for some reason xD

What’s stopping you ?
I’m French and use qwerty. Accents are a problem, but you get used to it - alt shift on windows to switch to the french layout and get access to accents, and on Linux (Manjaro) I use an alternative layout as well that I can switch to easily.
Basically I code in qwerty and type mails/whatever is in french with a different layout.

@PGriffith & @Kevin.Herron
How do you use those ‘thumb clusters’ ? I can see the two big keys being easy enough to hit, but those smaller keys that are behind leave me quite in doubt…