
Keyboard innovation is making them worse - omnibrain
http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/01/stop-trying-to-innovate-keyboards-youre-just-making-them-worse/
======
moonboots
Caps lock should not be changed despite it's ostensible uselessness.
Programmers often remap caps lock (I personally use this tool [1]), and it's
nice to have a big target for the pinky. Remapping is of course possible with
these new keyboards, but the split key design that replaces caps lock leaves a
much smaller target. In addition, I'm sure there are hunt and peck typists
that still legitimately use caps locks instead of shift because it requires
less coordination and hand contortions, so leaving caps lock alone also has
accessibility benefits.

One area where keyboard designers aren't innovating enough is the spacebar.
The left 2/3 of the space bar is rarely used by most touch typists and hogs
very accessible real estate. I like how Microsoft split the spacebar on their
new keyboard [2] and replaced the left half with backspace, the most commonly
typed (but normally most hard to reach) key.

I'm disappointed to see thinkpad/lenovo make these mistakes given their
reputation for quality laptop keyboards. I personally use an x230 [3], which
has a similar chiclet keyboard as the x1 carbon in the article without the
transgressions.

[1] [https://github.com/alols/xcape](https://github.com/alols/xcape)

[2] [http://techland.time.com/2012/09/20/new-microsoft-
keyboard-s...](http://techland.time.com/2012/09/20/new-microsoft-keyboard-
splits-space-bar-left-side-used-as-backspace-key/)

[3]
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x230/](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x230/)

~~~
robinh
"In addition, I'm sure there are hunt and peck typists that still legitimately
use caps locks instead of shift because it requires less coordination and hand
contortions, so leaving caps lock alone also has accessibility benefits."

A recent poll I posted on HN suggests that I'm in the minority on this one,
but I actually don't remap caps lock myself. And I like to think I'm a pretty
capable writer, touch typing with a decent WPM.

Consider the following bit of assembly:

    
    
      .set MBOOT_PAGE_ALIGN,   1<<0
      .set MBOOT_MEM_INFO,     1<<1 
      .set MBOOT_HEADER_MAGIC, 0x1BADB002 
      .set MBOOT_HEADER_FLAGS, MBOOT_PAGE_ALIGN | MBOOT_MEM_INFO
      .set MBOOT_CHECKSUM,     -(MBOOT_HEADER_MAGIC + MBOOT_HEADER_FLAGS)
    

(These are multiboot header definitions used by a kernel to get GRUB to load
it, for the curious.)

I'm sure there are plenty of programmers who just use the shift key if they
were to write code similar to the above, but I simply prefer the caps lock key
myself. Habit, perhaps.

~~~
chrismorgan
For such code I would be holding down the Shift key with my left pinkie while
I type the rest with all my other fingers.

That is (↓ meaning shift down and ↑ shift up):

    
    
        ↓mboot-page-align↑
    

The alternative would seem to be less effcient:

    
    
        <Caps>mboot↓-↑page↓-↑align<Caps>

~~~
MaulingMonkey
I find holding down shift for large macro machinations to be a severe cause of
pinky strain and awkward hand positioning. I don't do "perfect" home row style
typing, but trying to hold left shift through that entire macro is borderline
impossible for me to type -- I use my left pinkie for those As, and my left
hand for reaching over to that B and that G, which is stressful holding left
shift. For right shift, the underscore becomes especially problematic as well.
On top of that, right shift (not left!) M has become muscle memory to the
point where I reach for it even if I make the effort to hold down left shift
for the entire identifier.

This results in, if optimized instead of tripping over my own fingers the
entire time: ↓mboot↑↓-p↑↓age↑↓-↑↓align↑

My old iBook capslock key broke in half I hit it so often. I think my pinkies
might break in half if I hit the shift keys at that rate!

~~~
__david__
Doesn't your editor have completion?

In Emacs I would end up typing '↑mb↓ M-/ M-/ M-/' (where Meta is the Option
key on my keyboard). Because of the way Emacs completes, I might also do '↑mb↓
M-/ M-BS M-BS ↑P↓ M-/'. Either way that's easier to me that typing it out with
caps lock or holding the shift key. The only time I can't complete is when I'm
defining something for the first time and I'll get over it in that case since
it's very rare.

~~~
MaulingMonkey
> Doesn't your editor have completion?

Yes, but you'd agree it's no panacea, surely. \- The main code editor _s_ I
use all have slightly different completion mechanisms. Using a consistent non-
IDE editor, while certainly possible, I find much more clunky than making do.
I do use the completion of my primary IDE significantly however. \- C++
completion is wonky in general due to the poor language grammar \- I don't
find defining things particularly rare. Every variable (local, member, or
otherwise), every function, every class, every macro... \- My muscle memory
isn't built around the preprocessor, but around much more multi-context
languages (such as C++) where entry as terse as yours will generally break
regularly.

My mental state is brittle. Mis-completing identifiers breaks my flow and
concentration, whereas typing is almost completely subconcious at this point
having practiced it so regularly everywhere from this forum to my first
clashes with 16-bit DOS programming. This means I could be seen as wasteful
from a pure keystroke perspective on just about every front.

Even in the simple act of googling, I start entering my next, more refined
search query while still scanning the results of my previous query. Dynamic
search results broke this workflow (prompting me to disable Javascript) as my
new text would cause the links I tried to click on to disappear because of the
additional text entry, causing the results to refresh. I didn't even realize I
was doing it until that change.

My use of completion is similar: Type until I scan the refined identifier to
select as an early-bail. The closest I get to your completion style is some
blind initial 3-5 character tokens + explicit use of completion keywords in
some fairly limited contexts where I have a sufficiently low (1-4%?) failure
rate. This translates to C-style free functions in C or C++, and C# members of
things (classnames generally get typed out and then Ctrl+.ed for "using ...;"
statement generation.) My macro names as a rule are too heavily namespace
prefixed to blind-complete in that fashion, with the exception of some locally
scoped 1-letter #define s which are #undef ed later in the same scope which
need no completion.

While I've experimented with acronym-style completion methods rather than
start-of-word-only, I find acronyming to require too much conscious thought,
and disambiguation gives me outright struggle. If I'm in a context where the
completion simply won't work (say that I haven't imported it yet like I
thought I did), I have to go back and retype the entire thing.

~~~
__david__
> Yes, but you'd agree it's no panacea, surely.

You sound like you're using and IDE of some sort. I find their completion to
be extremely useful when I can't remember exactly what function I want to
call, but less useful when I know it and just want to get it typed out.

I use Emacs so I don't even have the nice semantic completion that IDEs offer
(Emacs has some of that with its "cedet", but I can never figure out how to
get it to work properly). But Emacs's completion heuristics are good enough
for almost everything I do. When you hit the complete key in Emacs (M-/) it
first looks backwards through the file you're in looking for the word. Then it
looks forward. Then it looks in the other files you have open.

That looking backwards first thing is the key to why it works so well. And
that's because most of the time you're referencing variable or macros that are
nearby in your code, and almost always just up a few lines. It makes it
correct a _very_ high percentage of the time, so much so that I rarely
completely type a variable name twice.

------
JoshTriplett
Killing caps lock makes perfect sense, especially if it's still around as a
shift-lock. Putting Home and End there is not the craziest thing I've seen
done with it. (I personally remap it to a larger logo key, and use that with
my window manager, but the X1 Carbon actually has a decent-size logo key to
use for that.)

However, the soft function key row is crazy. It completely breaks touch-
typing; if I wanted that, I'd use a tablet. Likewise, putting Delete to the
right of backspace makes backspace a smaller target to hit, and it's a very
frequently used key. Moving the `~ key is the kind of thing done by folks who
think "Oh, nobody ever uses that", and who don't understand that keys used by
5% of typists are still critically important. (Both for people who need to
type "jalapeño" and people who need to type ~/Downloads/foo .)

More importantly, there's no tradeoff here: this makes it worse for the loyal
ThinkPad users, but doesn't actually make it proportionally better for others.
And even if it did, that kind of consumer-targeted optimization is for
consumer laptops like IdeaPad, not business laptops like ThinkPad.

~~~
dcotter
Why not replace caps lock with a double-tap of the Shift key? This has the
advantages of distance (still close at hand when needed) and memorability
(Shift upcases temporarily, Shift-Shift upcases indefinitely) and eliminates
one of the less useful keys at the same time.

~~~
saraid216
And Shift-Shift-Shift activates Microsoft StickyKeys! (Is that still a thing
in Win8?)

~~~
georgemcbay
Just tried it in 8.1 and yes it is still a thing.

------
nextos
I think Lenovo is slowly abandoning what used to be the niche Thinkpad had
filled in: great laptops for developers. There might be some good
opportunities for startups. It's really frustrating to see that nothing ticks
all boxes these days:

* 4:3 high-res matte screen (like Chromebook Pixel or some old IBMs)

* Good mechanical keyboard which includes insert, delete, begin, and end

* Robust case with serviceable Linux-friendly components

* Trackpoint

I'd really pay a high premium for a well-executed laptop with these features,
and many people I know would do as well.

~~~
pekk
We've really never had anything which ticked all those boxes, so I don't see a
regression there.

Only Lenovo is doing trackpoint seriously these days. Hardly anyone is paying
any attention to Linux. I'm no expert, but I've never even heard of a laptop
with a good mechanical keyboard.

It's not just Lenovo, it's the whole market which decided people want junk
like 1mm thick retina tablets with soldered ram and permanent batteries.
Lenovo and everyone on the block is selling high-resolution crap though, so
I'm sure you'll get that any time.

~~~
Crito
The old T60p (and other T-series before they got into the hundreds) came damn
close. 1680x1050 was solid at the time, and the keyboard on that plateaued
peak that Lenovo/IBM have never really climbed past.

~~~
dima55
You can still buy those, and they're still great. And cheap!

------
acabal
I passed over buying an X1 Carbon for a few reasons, but I always check the
keyboard of a potential purchase for the pgup/pgdown/home/end keys on the
right-hand column. Modern ultrabooks got rid of them (despite there often
being more than enough space for them) and it makes me really mad. Those are
super-useful keys for coders and also for general web navigation.

After reading this article, I went back to take a closer look at the X1
keyboard, and actually gasped. No hardware Fn keys? Home/end replacing Caps
(which I remap to ctrl)? Backspace/del next to each other? _What were they
thinking??_

I'm _so_ glad I didn't do an impulse buy on the X1, because my mind doesn't
think to inspect the keyboard so closely. I would have returned it 10 seconds
after opening the box. I'm going to have to look very closely now at the
keyboards of new laptops I'm thinking of buying.

~~~
drdaeman
> home/end keys

Actually, they're nearly useless if you use software/OS capable of Emacs-style
keyboard navigation and develop a habit of using C-a/C-e shortcuts.
(Especially with CapsLock rebound as Control.)

~~~
acabal
I like them specifically for reading web pages. When reading I can just rest
my hand on the right side of the keyboard and browse with
home/pgup/pgdown/end. Usually when I'm reading like this I'm not typing and so
not in the mood for ctrl gymnastics.

~~~
darkgray
While it doesn't remove the gymnastics requirement, a relatively nice
alternative to webpage pgup/pgdn is shift-space/space.

------
brudgers
Until I started using EMACS I would have thought the author's argument was a
slam dunk four star lock. Now I realize that habits are habits because they're
habits, not because they are the right way of doing something.

We are more flexible than our machines, and though it might take a day or two
to figure out home` and `end`, a laptop is a tool that one uses for years.

~~~
mark-r
You missed one key point of the article, this is only practical if it's the
only machine you use. When you try to switch between an "innovative" keyboard
and a "normal" keyboard you'll go batty.

~~~
vizeroth
This is also highly theoretical. If the machines are different enough, you can
adapt quite well. Even if you have trouble telling other people exactly what
to do, your brain doesn't have much trouble. I especially find it easier if I
use different operating systems with keyboards that are somewhat different,
because my brain has an easier time treating them differently when there are
visual cues (since I'm not looking at the keyboard).

For instance, I have always though that cmd+X/C/V vs. ctrl+X/C/V would drive
anyone nuts if they used them enough, and realistically most of the common
Mac/Windows editors commands have exactly that one difference of ctrl vs. cmd,
which is essentially pinky vs. thumb (at least for me) for the modifier key.
It turns out that it is extremely rare for me to accidentally use the wrong
one even though I usually use the same software in both environments, because
my brain picks up on visual cues from the OS and the tactile differences
between my keyboards.

Of course, coming from this mix of environments, I think they could have taken
the cue from the MacBook and just kept the backspace key and removed the
delete key (even though Apple wants to call it the delete key...), rather than
bastardizing the key with that weird split key.

~~~
larkarvin
i remapped cmd and fn keys. i can now press windows like keys. :D

------
dman
Also of note - if youre buying a 15 inch pc laptop you now get a numeric
keyboard by default whether you want it or not. This also has the side effect
of making the keyboard and mousepad layout assymetric since the keyboard and
mousepad are now pushed to the left to make way for the numeric keypad on the
right. The only two machines I know that dont do this are the dell xps 15 and
the dell m3800 but both of them are > 1800$s. Quest for the perfect laptop
continues.

EDIT: other major quibble - backspace needs to be the right most key without
any nearby power / other buttons. When I violently hit backspace to delete
code that I know is wrong I dont want embarassments like hitting delete
instead or powering off my machine.

~~~
bashinator
15" MacBook Pros do not have a numpad, but it sounds like you don't want that
price range.

~~~
dman
Money is one factor. The other factor is that I dont want a retina-esque
screen right now since I will be running linux on it and kde and chrome's
support for hidipi screens is not great right now.

~~~
m_mueller
They still sell 15'' Macbooks without Retina.

~~~
_delirium
I believe that was discontinued in the October 2013 refresh. Unless I'm
missing options hidden somewhere else, Apple has a summary here of all their
current laptop form factors here:
[http://store.apple.com/us/mac/compare](http://store.apple.com/us/mac/compare)

It looks like the current options are:

11" and 13" non-retina MacBook Air

13" non-retina MacBook Pro

13" and 15" retina MacBook Pro

~~~
m_mueller
Ok sorry about that - I saw one a few days ago in an electronics store but it
was labeled as 'remainder'.

I wish Apple made a matte retina macbook - made discontinuing the old 15''
will put some pressure on them doing so.

------
pasbesoin
Personal pitch: Get rid of the "ginormous" f-ing shelves that push sharp front
edges (yes, get rid of those, too) into the users' wrists, especially when
working mobile at a table or workspace whose height and resultant forearm
position cannot be optimized.

Some of us still need to do significant amounts of, you know, _typing_ , which
is one reason we are on a laptop and not a tablet or whatever.

If you're going to stick a keyboard on your device, _make it comfortable and
ergonomic._

/grump

~~~
sanoli
The Apple laptops I used recently had this sharp edge. Looked clean, modern,
etc, but hurt my wrists like a _#_ &$&.

~~~
TylerE
You could probably fix this...if you dare. Since it's solid aluminum, you
could probably take a file and round the edges...just be careful not to get
the shaving anywhere inside.

~~~
nkurz
[http://dustwell.com/macbook-pro-sharp-edge.html](http://dustwell.com/macbook-
pro-sharp-edge.html)

------
kunai
This is a huge opportunity for Dell on their portable machines. As far as I
know, Dell is practically the only OEM that hasn't royally screwed up their
professional-grade notebooks. The M4800 is a beauty – extremely powerful, and
fantastic to use. The keyboard isn't as good as it used to be, but it's still
a traditional, non-Dentyne (yes, chiclet keys type like Dentyne) canted
design, with a numpad, but a good keyboard nonetheless. It has a TrackPoint,
which isn't as good as the previous model ThinkPads but is now much better
because Lenovo have somehow decided that their sole purpose of existence is to
copy Apple and "unify" shit that didn't need to be messed around with. I hate
to play stereotypes here, but it was kind of expected from a Chinese company.
Their pants-on-head retarded marketing videos and even their products – for
example, the Yoga tablet copies iOS 7 icons and iOS 6 dock... wtf, and the
marketing video for the new X1 is blatant Ive-hyperbolic. The marketing and
hyperbole has long stopped working for Apple (thus the Designed in Cali
bullshit), what the HELL were Lenovo thinking?

Dell isn't perfect. They have horrible QC and design issues on their lower-end
products, and the Precision machines aren't cheap. But they're solid and well-
built with a ton of features, good battery life, good keyboards, decent
pointing devices.

If they put in a 3:2, high-density display, 7-row keyboard, Topre short-throw
switches, and a nipple mouse that's less recessed, and market it like mad, it
would be the perfect machine, one I would pay for and a lot of professionals,
too.

~~~
pekk
Lenovo has a huge pile of models, which would let them see pretty directly
what people are demanding. Your criticism of Yoga tablet may be valid without
really touching much of their overall strategy. Maybe Yoga tablet is the kind
of crap people are buying.

------
jakub_g
Since we're bashing on laptop keyboards, I hate with passion all the layouts
that put FN key in the bottom left corner instead of CTRL. It's far easier to
reach the button in the very corner and I use CTRL order of magnitude more
often than FN.

Also it seems that for each producer, half of the laptops have FN and the
other half have CTRL in the corner which just adds confusion when you're using
someone else's machine.

Can someone persuade me to the superiority of FN-in-the corner?

~~~
phaer
thinkpads (or at least my x220) have their fn buttons in the bottom left
corner but there is a bios setting to swap fn and ctrl.

~~~
jakub_g
That's a valuable info, thanks for sharing.

------
freyrs3
I'm really not pleased with what Lenovo is doing with the x230 and x240. The
old Thinkpad keyboards used to be the a huge selling point for the X series
line and now that they've gone chiclet keyboards like everyone else it's
almost enough to make me want to shop around for a new Linux laptop.

------
keithg
Got a laptop recently for a new project. All of my colleagues raved about
Lenovo. I went with a Lenovo ThinkPad W530.

Great machine, right? I hate it. I hate it because they put the Fn key in the
lower, left and moved the Ctrl key. Now I have to think every time I need to
hit the Ctrl key!

~~~
paol
Have a look in the BIOS, there should be an option to swap Fn & Ctrl.

~~~
agumonkey
Also, keys are easily physically swapped, just popped them from under gently,
95% chances the plastic cap will detach from the bouncing mechanism (two
plastic~handles crossed above a latex ~cushion). Reattaching is just placing
the cap on top, pressing down smoothly and plastic dents will match again.

ps: I said 95% because there was a few times where the underlying
handle/cushion came with the cap and fell apart. It's possible to fit them
again but is a bit challenging because of the tininess. So if you try, be
warned.

------
zackbloom
The only argument is: "We should have a Caps Lock key above Shift cause that's
what we've always had".

It only takes a few days to get used to a new keyboard, and it seems like, for
people who aren't used to rebinding keys, this could be a huge improvement.
Caps lock is like the penny, not all that useful in the modern world.

~~~
bashinator
Which is why I always remap it to a second ctrl key. Now, having a second
control _and_ a second option/alt key in place of the home/end could be pretty
nice, i gotta admit. The missing tilde makes it a total non-starter, though.

~~~
vizeroth
The tilde isn't missing, it's on the bottom-right, making it very strange for
the times you need it. I really thought the fact that the ESC key was in its
place was more problematic than moving the key, since it will either do
nothing (the best possibility), or perform some default action (being the ESC
key, likely one that will cause loss of work as well).

------
jseliger
Incidentally, the only keyboard "innovation" I've used and liked is the
Kinesis Advantage (which I wrote about here:
[http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/further-thoughts-
on...](http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/further-thoughts-on-the-
kinesis-advantage-unicomp-space-saver-and-das-keyboard%E2%80%94two-years-
later/) ). But the Advantage is a standalone keyboard, which makes it
inherently easy to ditch for anyone who doesn't like it. At $300 it's also a
niche product only likely to appeal to people who type a lot—usually meaning
programmers and writers.

Among laptops, I think Peter Bright is right: path dependence dictates that
the more standardized a keyboard is, the better. I actually prefer the old-
school Thinkpad keys to the newer Apple chiclet keys, but that difference is
pretty small.

~~~
lallysingh
I loved my advantage(s), but eventually dropped it for a happy hacker pro for
two reasons: (1) the brackets and arrow keys on the advantage are painfully
bad; (2) I fell in love with Topre key switches.

The Lenovos have just been getting worse keyboards with every generation. I
don't think the people they're going after care about the changes, but I've
actively been looking for a new laptop vendor since they started fiddling
about with the layouts.

~~~
sanoli
How good are the Topre switches, compared to the ones on the Kinesis Advantage
(I'm assuming you used 'blue' ones on the Kinesis)? I'm about to get a Kinesis
Advantage, and the only con that I could think of so far is that I read here
an there about how the Topre switches are even nicer than the Cherry MX
switches.

~~~
lytfyre
> I'm assuming you used 'blue' ones on the Kinesis

IIRC, the advantage is actually the keyboard for which cherry brown switches
where created.

~~~
sanoli
You're right. Somehow I had it in my head that Kinesis used blue switches.

~~~
lallysingh
Kinesis recently started selling "linear feel" Advantages, which are Cherry
Blues.

~~~
sanoli
Blues? I thought the linear ones were red... I guess I get the colors mixed up
all time then.

------
dasil003
There's nothing wrong with keyboard innovation, the problem is with commodity
laptop manufacturers trying to innovate in an integrated device. The important
differentiators on laptop are numerous: form-factor, specs, screen, etc. Even
keyboard quality is a big factor, so trying to get clever with the layout and
soft keys is just begging to throw a deal breaker in.

What laptop manufacturers should be doing is following Apple's lead and
standardizing heavily across their entire line and keeping that reasonably in
line with national keyboard standards.

Leave the layout innovation to external keyboard manufacturers where there is
an opportunity to make drastic changes and sell them based on the strength of
that innovation alone. Later the best of the innovations can trickle their way
back into laptops.

------
kristianp
I agree with this article, standardisation of keyboard layouts would be
better. If there was an industry organisation that got companies together to
agree on things, the situation might be much better, although I don't hold out
much hope for home and end!

I feel that a lot of people copy apple because it's designs and hardware are
great, but they copy things that aren't really that good at all, such as
removing Home and End keys. I like to call this cargo-cult design, people
blindly change things to the apple way for no clear reason. I'm looking at you
gnome 3.

Here are my personal preferences. I don't really care about caps-lock, but I
do use it occasionally. I'm more likely to go back and use a keyboard shortcut
to change a whole word to upper-case when doing sql programming.

I personally want the 6 delete-insert-home-end-pgup-pgdn buttons separate in a
way that mirrors the desktop pc keyboard. I quite liked this layout from
microsoft keyboards of about 8 years ago which has gone out of fashion:

    
    
        Home End
        Ins  Pgup
        Del  Pgdn
    

I want the arrow keys to have spacing around them so I can feel the triangle
without looking at them, no pgup or pgdn touching them, just a gap.

I want a laptop keyboard that is sufficiently close to the desktop keyboard
that I don't have to adjust as much as I currently do. My T410 isn't too bad
in that respect, except for the arrow keys as mentioned above.

~~~
Someone
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_9995](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_9995)
leads to
[http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_...](http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=51642).
CHF 50 buys you the standard for the "Editing function zone" that might (I
didn't buy it) proscribe something about home and end.

[http://www.open-
std.org/jtc1/sc35/wg1/docs/madison/SC35N795%...](http://www.open-
std.org/jtc1/sc35/wg1/docs/madison/SC35N795%20ISO-
CEI%209995-5%20FCD\(en\).doc) seems related. It does not mention "home".

~~~
kps
As with many standards, you can find an unofficial 'final committee draft' for
free if you look around. It doesn't prescribe a layout for keys other than the
cursor arrows.

ISO9995 has been responsible for a lot of nonsense from a programmer's point
of view — for instance mandating Control in the lower left rather than beside
A. Similarly its sister ISO9241, despite nominally being concerned with
ergonomics, helped drive some of the best key switches off the market.

------
chx
I have a Lenovo T420 the last of laptops whose keyboard was fair and free erm
where was I yes? so the last laptop with a decent keyboard. However, someone
reports
[http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=104797#p7197...](http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=104797#p719715)
a T410 transplant into a T430 I wonder whether such a feat is possible into
the T440p...

------
xiaomai
I was going to replace my first-gen Thinkpad Carbon with the newer model
(wanted the hi-res screen and better battery life), but this keyboard is a
complete dealbreaker. Like the author, I am distressed at the removal of the
caps-lock key (I remap mine). The ~/` key move is plain weird (it was bad
enough when they moved print screen down there (I kept accidentally taking
screenshots)). Lenovo, please fix your keyboard!

------
muaddirac
This is about laptop keyboards, but there is a huge diy scene around improving
keyboards. I have an ErgoDox ([http://ergodox.org/](http://ergodox.org/))
which is very well thought out and open source (and people are iterating on it
- see:
[http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=44940.0](http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=44940.0)
)

~~~
lytfyre
I've also been using a Cherry Clear switch ErgoDox at work for a couple of
weeks now. Tweaked my layout a few times, and am now extremely happy with it.

Massdrop ([http://massdrop.com](http://massdrop.com)) runs pretty frequent
periodic group buys for the kit, and assembley really isn't that hard - don't
be scared off by the need for some surface mount soldering.

------
mcantelon
When I saw this article I thought of the X1 before reading it. The X1 looks
decent, other than the wacky keyboard and the non-removable battery. A big
part of the Thinkpad brand is the fact they have good keyboards.

------
klazutin
This is so odd how people can unknowingly create difficulties for someone
else. Remapping Caps lock to switching input language has probably been the
most useful thing I've done to improve my computing productivity (followed
closely by Linux and tiling wms).

What used to require weird combinations like Control-Shift, or worse Shift-Alt
(windows default which triggers window's menu half the time) now takes only a
quick flick of my left little finger. Typing even the most technical texts
with English words in every sentence has been easy and effortless ever since.
And now Lenovo is taking this away from me by removing the Caps lock key from
what otherwise looks like an absolutely perfect laptop. This is such a shame.

------
lucb1e
My father bought a Lenovo Thinkpad last week. One evening we were installing
and configuring some more things on the laptop, and at some point he mentions
that it's annoying that the keyboard has no printscreen button which he had
needed that day.

This was the first thing I noticed when the laptop arrived, so I pointed out
to him that the PrtScn button is between AltGr and the right ctrl key. We both
shook our heads at that.

Nice try at keyboard innovation, Lenovo.

~~~
fosap
That key is ridiculously placed. I but know i like it very much. I mapped it
to f13 and that key opens a new terminal. I think that way it is very useful.

------
zwieback
For true "innovation" you can always go the Twiddler
([http://www.handykey.com/](http://www.handykey.com/)) route. I've got one of
the original models but have never actually tried it.

Supposedly this is something the guys at Xerox Parc were excited about and
it's based on the much older idea of a chorded keyboard.

------
fastflo
i think the capslock function should be disabled by default. let the key stay
there, so people can bind it to what ever they want.

i'm a passionate programmer and im currently typing on a lenovo x121 keyboard
and i have to say its one of the best laptop keyboard i've ever used. the only
annoying thing is the "nearly useless" "Fn" key left of the left control key.
i'm an emacs user and i can not understand why to place such a rarely used key
at the place of such an often used key like the left control key!

but i learned to deal with it.

@lenovo: the x121 keyboard is good, but please put that useless fn key
somewhere else! like replace the right control key with it! (who is using the
right control key?)

all this is about the german x121 keyboard layout.

------
trustyhank
The Apple laptop keyboards are pretty fantastic.

~~~
kunai
No, they're actually not. Terrible travel, and a completely flat key top is a
non-starter – there's no bevel to guide your fingers, and no tactile travel to
absorb the shock from your fingers, leaving your hands fatigued.

Before you ask, I'm typing this from my MacBook. Yes, it's painful. The sharp
edges on the notebooks don't help either.

~~~
WalterSear
You are typing too deeply and too hard. I urge you: fix your bad keyboarding
habits. Your fingers need to glide over the keys, pressing each with as little
pressure as possible.

I have been disabled by RSI for several years, and now I'm recovered, I won't
use anything but these mac keyboards. They are much healthier for your hands -
it's that very 'tactile travel' that does much of the damage.

~~~
reality_czech
Those shiny shallow keyboards cause RSI.

[http://jeff.ecchi.ca/blog/2008/09/19/apple-aluminium-
keyboar...](http://jeff.ecchi.ca/blog/2008/09/19/apple-aluminium-keyboard-and-
repetitive-strain-injury-rsi/)

Rather than urging him to conform his body to the uncomfortable keyboard, how
about recommending a keyboard designed to be comfortable to him?

~~~
xentronium
> Those shiny shallow keyboards cause RSI.

[citation needed]

Linked post is quite weak on evidence and is mostly filled with "I think
so"-s.

~~~
fosap
I'd like to see some science on RSI. All i can find now is anecdotal evidence,
and often does not make much sense (e.g. vi is better than emacs because emacs
uses the hardly reachable control key, but in vi mode changes are just as
hard)

I think this is very hard to research because it need a long time and people
often change habits in that time.

that said, I hate apple keyboards. If there was a macbook air with a thinkpad
keyboard (including trackpoint), replaceable accu and better linux support i'd
pay 3k€ for that.

------
mcphage
> I'm not going to pretend that the Break key is a key you use every single
> day, but it's not useless, either. For example, Windows' ping command, when
> used with the -t switch (endless pinging until stopped) lets you type Ctrl-
> Break to print the current stats without ending the pinging (as opposed to
> Ctrl-c, which prints stats and ends the pinging). This isn't the most
> important thing ever, but it's nonetheless useful to be able to do.

It might be useful sometimes, but is it useful enough to justify a key on
everybody's keyboard, all the time? No.

------
brudgers
I am reminded of Xah Lee's page on all things keyboard:

[http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboarding.html](http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboarding.html)

~~~
claudius
Unfortunately, you can only rebind existing keys in the ‘right’ position.
Rebinding doesn’t help you with a physically broken keyboard layout.

------
zobzu
"good keyboards are standard keyboards" <= that

------
blacksmith_tb
Hmm, it has a much better left-control than most Thinkpads (which tend to cram
fn down there, not an issue with this design). And good riddance to capslock -
I'm not sure that home/end are the perfect replacement, but they're both much
more useful. And honestly, the placement of home/end insert/delete etc. varies
significantly from keyboard to keyboard, and we somehow manage to adapt...

------
thecodefoundry
I've remapped the caps lock key using AutoHotKey (Windows ) to act as Close
Document (Close MDI child window) by double-tapping it. It retains its
existing functionality by requiring you to hold Shift before using it.

But the ability to quickly close a document in Visual Studio or a browser tab
by simply double tapping caps lock instead of stretching for Ctrl-F4 is
invaluable.

------
dcotter
I would like to see keyboards with flexible layouts, where you could
reconfigure the positions and sizes of the keys as you choose, so that if you
wanted to replace half the spacebar with backspace or move the numbers from
the top row to a 3x3 grid on the far side of the keyboard, you could do that.
Hackable keyboards, in essence.

------
JadeNB
I would just like to highlight the 'promoted comment' that showed up for me
(not mine; the author is listed as 'theotherjim'):

> It's been almost 30 years since a colleague suggested to me that all the
> keyboard designers in the world - except one, any one - should be shot.

------
Too
It's also missing the context menu button. The one usually located between the
altgr and ctrl on the right side. This key is _very_ important if you don't
want to use the mouse as it's equivalent of right clicking.

------
cnlwsu
In my opinion, the Home/End keys instead of caps lock would actually be pretty
nice. I have a tendency to just remove the caps lock key (on mechanical) since
the only time I use it is by accident.

------
tobyjsullivan
It's cool if you don't like the new keyboard layout. As programmers, we need
to use special keys and caps lock a lot. But to say Lenovo is doing it wrong
is clearly missing the simple fact that they might not be building these
things for programmers.

They're building for the other 99.9% of the population that doesn't need caps
lock, insert, bars and back-ticks ever. People who don't use function keys
regularly and who, quite frankly, find "standard" keyboards incredibly
awkward.

Couple this with the fact that laptops have always lacked the real-estate for
a full keyboard and I have to disagree with the author. This is certainly a
positive evolution, just maybe not for programmers.

~~~
eddiedunn
Actually, I can see it work for programmers as well; tilde is easily pressed
with the right thumb instead of left ring finger, esc is more easily reached
for us vim users, and I know I sure don't use caps lock, ever. The soft
function keys might be a problem for some, but I, at least, don't use them
very often.

------
gaius
You won't go wrong with a Cherry keyboard, German quality, same keyswitches
that were used on the perfect machine, the BBC Micro.

------
tnash
I think an important point here is that these aren't really "innovations".
It's stripping features to make keyboards more compact. Keyboards are
certainly a technology that could be improved. What about a touch screen split
keyboard mouse combo that could take 10-finger multitouch and also give
incredible haptic feedback that let you "feel" the keys?

------
hibbelig
They took away the Ctrl key to the left of A!

------
jbcurtin2
The keyboard is the only thing that keeps me buying my macs-laptops.

------
loup-vaillant
Hail to the dinosaurs! Seriously, this mentality is the main reason why
keyboard aren't improving. Dvorak was right: _" I'm tired of trying to do
something worthwhile for the human race, they simply don't want to change!"_

> _The benefits of the Dvorak layout aren 't well proven (if they exist at
> all), but some people find the layout more comfortable to use._

The benefits are obvious and well established. Only irrational fools and
extreme believers in the so called "efficient market" would believe otherwise.
It just have a learning curve, which most people don't want to suffer. _Some_
people find Dvorak more comfortable? Come on, nearly _everyone_ who has tried
it for over a month would reckon it's more comfortable.

> _Good keyboards are standard keyboards._

No. _This_ is a good keyboard: [http://ergodox.org/](http://ergodox.org/)
_This_ is an okay keyboard: [http://typematrix.com/](http://typematrix.com/)
(I have tried that one myself, and got used to its layout in a couple hours.
And I touch type too.) If we switch to such layouts overnight, people would
complain for a few months, then forget about it. I even suspect that after the
fact, most would mock the silliness of keeping the staggered design even
though the keyboards were no longer mechanical.

> _Good keyboards are […] keyboards that […] let me switch effortlessly to
> other systems._

Oh, you're the rare breed who use several systems regularly? I suggest you buy
a keyboard you like, and plug it to those various systems. Unless you're an
even rarer bread who cannot even even plug external keyboards to his computers
for security reasons.

~~~
dsr_
"you're the rare breed who use several systems regularly?"

Rare? I don't know anyone who doesn't.

In a typical day, I use a MBP, an IBM Model M, a Unicomp EnduraPro (modern
equivalent to the Model M, only slightly inferior), and one or two random
keyboards. Oh, and my phone.

Even my elementary-school-age son will use two or three keyboards in a day:
one on a laptop, one on the desktop in the living room, and a virtual one on
his tablet.

~~~
loup-vaillant
(Phones and tablets don't count: they have no keyboard to begin with.)

I write custom software for a living. I use 2 desktop computers: one at home,
one at work. I plug my typematrix to both. When I'm on vacation, I may use my
laptop, to which I pug my typematrix as well. Some of my co-workers (10%) also
use a laptop at work, because they have to move around. Others (1%) are
sysadmins, and often have to go to the server room. Both could buy a keyboard,
and plug it to the computers they use. The sysadmins would have to pay for an
additional keyboard that stays on the server room.

By the way, I use a completely non-standar keyboard layout. Like Dvorak, only
optimized for French (Bépo). Since I only rarely use systems that I don't
control, this is okay. 90% of my co-workers are in the same situation.

What do you work on that requires you to use several different keyboards you
don't choose on a daily basis? To me that doesn't sound rare. That sounds
_alien_.

~~~
dsr_
I chose the IBM and the Unicomp. I don't like the Apple keyboard much, but I
don't use it much. Random keyboards are needed because I might be bringing up
new hardware and using whatever keyboard is supplied or debugging a user's
problem and using their keyboard.

Lots of people have a personal laptop, a personal desktop, and a work laptop
or desktop. My wife has her own preferences in keyboards; so do my kids.

~~~
loup-vaillant
> _Random keyboards are needed because I might be bringing up new hardware and
> using whatever keyboard is supplied or debugging a user 's problem and using
> their keyboard._

Ah, that sucks. If I did that often, I'd likely bring my own keyboard, and a
software utility to temporarily change the layout from Qwerty to Bépo. It's a
drag, but not as much as suffering Qwerty.

> _Lots of people have a personal laptop, a personal desktop, and a work
> laptop or desktop._

I have too. It's just that since I control the keyboard I use on my desktop,
so it doesn't really count. As for my laptop, I just put my Typematrix on top
of the original keyboard (or on my lap). Ideally, though, I would have liked
to have standard keyboard slots in laptops, so I can insert my favourite
keyboard instead of the default one. It doesn't have to be ergonomic. Just a
little more sensible: [http://loup-vaillant.fr/articles/better-
keyboards](http://loup-vaillant.fr/articles/better-keyboards)

> _My wife has her own preferences in keyboards; so do my kids._

Looks that it strengthen one of my points: good keyboards aren't standard.
They're adapted to their users. Hence my point about laptop keyboards. It
would be sooo cool if users could change them.

