This is “krill” a 3d printed, handwired 40% keyboard I designed using FreeCAD.

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  • waht@feddit.orgOP
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    7 months ago

    Thanks! No, not at all. I have been using boards this small daily for almost 6 years now.

    Basically all keys from a full-size keyboard are on my keymap, just not on the base layer. Most keys I can reach by pressing 2 keys, which is equal to typing an uppercase key.

    For example on the split spacebars, the left bar does space when pressed shortly, and switches to a layer with numbers and symbols when pressed. The right bar would do enter / switch to navigation layer where there is arrows. Another key thing (no pun indended) is to use whats called home-row modifiers. That basically means gui, shift, alt and control are where your fingers rest (e.g. left hand A, S, D, F).

    The main benefit over a full-size board for me is that I don’t have to move my fingers more than one row up/down (and index fingers one row in ofc). I have also fun tinkering with layouts and like the small form factor. Getting used to the layout took around one or two weeks - I already had a bigger keyboard with QMK where I added the smaller keymap so I could switch while learning.

    • Alavi@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      Damn that’s cool. But I’m imagining putting this mental model on top of vim and window manager and tmux will really fry my brain! More power to you

      • waht@feddit.orgOP
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        7 months ago

        Yes sure. One step at a time. Mastering vim, figuring out your wm and tmux are very useful skills as well.