

Hands on with the CODE keyboard - mitechie
http://www.jorgecastro.org/2013/09/04/hands-on-with-the-code-keyboard/

======
Rumudiez
It seems like he can only name three mechanical keyboard manufacturers and
doesn't even know anything specifically about Cherry. Hardly a keyboard snob,
and hardly an appropriate review for today's keyboard market. From ABS keycaps
to plastic (and ABS to top that) casing, the CODE is far from worth the hype
it's getting.

~~~
baddox
The fact that the CODE keyboard is virtually identical to the Ducky Shine, and
apart from the backlight is virtually identical to other nearly unbranded
keyboards like Filcos and Leopolds, is a grievous omission that would almost
certainly be included by any author familiar with the "snobby" mechanical
keyboard market.

[http://tigerimports.net/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p...](http://tigerimports.net/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=13772)

------
fsckin
Razer makes some nice mechanical keyboards (BlackWidow series) with optional
backlight, Cherry MX Blue or Brown switches, extra macro keys (that can be
bound to any action), along with keyboard mapping software that works very
well on Win/OSX.

For $50-70 less than this, depending on if you buy on sale.

I'm failing to see why this is a good option.

~~~
ne0phyte
The build quality of the razer keyboards is rather bad. That's why.

Also this features Cherry MX Clear switches and standard profile keycaps so
you can easily get a set of replacement keycaps if you need or want to.

~~~
fernandotakai
I have a blackwidow, no build problems.

I even spilled alcohol on it (scotch) and it's still working as expected.

~~~
jeremysmyth
Did you expect it to continue working? :)

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miloshadzic
I fail to see how this keyboard improves on other mechanical keyboards in any
significant way.

~~~
ne0phyte
It's already sold out but it was the only backlit mechanical keyboard with
Cherry MX Clear switches on the market.

Unless you don't mind soldering and/or building a custom keyboard from scratch
that's a huge selling point.

~~~
ginko
If you need a backlit keyboard it means that you (1.) are working in an
environment that's way to dimly lit to be healthy and (2.) really need to
learn touch typing.

~~~
breadbox
"Because that's the only reason I would want one, and obviously anyone who
thinks differently from me is wrong."

~~~
JulianWasTaken
Someone who comes up with reasons for things but doesn't think they're good is
automatically narrow minded?

Do you have better ones?

~~~
baddox
He missed the obvious (3.) you like backlit keyboards.

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talles
Finally someone that actually got their hands on it talking about

~~~
sgarman
Not only that but it's a guy who has used more then just the default Dell and
Apple keyboard that their computer came with.

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benjamincburns
>[K]eyboards like this are not cheap and people who buy these kind of
keyboards do for the same reason that Geddy Lee doesn’t play a $500 bass.

I think keyboards are like shopping carts. Get one with a sticky wheel, and
you'll find it terribly annoying and distracting. Get one that rolls smooth
enough and you don't think much about it. The difference in return between
"passably good" and "extremely high quality" is incredibly small, so let's
just be honest here -- this is a luxury, not a career requirement.

But then to put it in Gladwell terms, it's been my experience that keyboards
are pasta sauce. Some like theirs chunky, others like theirs... low profile?
Oh well, at least my first metaphor stood up...

~~~
barbs
> I think keyboards are like shopping carts. Get one with a sticky wheel, and
> you'll find it terribly annoying and distracting. Get one that rolls smooth
> enough and you don't think much about it. The difference in return between
> "passably good" and "extremely high quality" is incredibly small, so let's
> just be honest here -- this is a luxury, not a career requirement.

That about sums up my attitude perfectly. Often I'm tempted by posts like this
to get a good quality keyboard, but my current one (a standard DELL usb
keyboard) works well enough. Heck, the one I had before was some generic one
found on the side of the road, and I only replaced it because a few keys were
getting sticky.

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rlu
It would have been nice if he included a video/sound clip of how it sounds.

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FreshCode
Until Jeff Atwood tries an ergonomic keyboard or layout other than QWERTY, I
cannot take his keyboard cult seriously. I've owned three MS 4000s and have
used QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak keyboard layouts. Ever since I purchased a
Kinesis Advantage a month ago on Colemak, going back to an MS 4000 noticeably
_hurts_ my hands. I don't type any faster, but it is far more natural to use
my thumbs (our strongest fingers) for common keys like
Ctrl/Space/Del/PgUp/PgDown/WinKey, especially as a climber.

I find it hard to believe a Model M could be easier on the wrists than my
abhorrent Macbook Air 2012 keyboard, due to its equally straight, unnatural
angle. Compared to my old Acer C312 tablet with a 5-degree angle, typing
90wpm+ for more than an hour is not sustainable.

Either Jeff types really slowly, or has golden wrists of the gods. After a few
months of Colemak, I am up to 90% of my accumulated 15-year QWERTY speed, but
my hands feel far more relaxed.

Could this be a medical condition on my end, or is there a real ergonomic case
to be made for the aging Model M? Right now, I don't buy it.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
> I find it hard to believe a Model M could be easier on the wrists than my
> abhorrent Macbook Air 2012 keyboard, due to its equally straight, unnatural
> angle.

I find ergonomic keyboards pointless, but I also don't have (or have ever had)
wrist problems.

> Compared to my old Acer C312 tablet with a 5-degree angle, typing 90wpm+ for
> more than an hour is not sustainable.

Who types 90wpm+ when programming? We are programmers, not typists, we spend
most of our time thinking and debugging, with only some intermittent spurts of
typing activity. For spurts of typing, the Model M is perfect. If you had to
write a lot continuously, I'm sure there are better solutions, but even when
I'm writing a paper, the thinking/typing ratio is high.

> Could this be a medical condition on my end, or is there a real ergonomic
> case to be made for the aging Model M? Right now, I don't buy it.

Given that your work sounds more like stenography and not programming, it is
probably just that this keyboard is not meant for you.

~~~
FreshCode
Sean, have you tried any of the ergonomic keyboards which you find pointless?
Unless you have, your argument seems a lot like my ol' man's arguments against
<Internet/Facebook/YouTube> a few years ago.

Atwood specifically addresses the fallacy of "thinking vs typing as the
bottleneck for programming" with the statement [1]: "What I'm trying to say is
this: speed matters. When you're a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time
between thinking that thought and expressing it in code."

It's not about averaging 90wpm in code. No programmer I know does that. It's
about _not_ averaging 10wpm once you've finished thinking and want to
materialize your thoughts or revert a mistake.

My work is typing, primarily code and email. Every minute I spend typing my
thoughts is a minute of thought wasted.

[1]: [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/11/we-are-typists-
firs...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/11/we-are-typists-first-
programmers-second.html)

~~~
baddox
> Sean, have you tried any of the ergonomic keyboards which you find
> pointless? Unless you have, your argument seems a lot like my ol' man's
> arguments against <Internet/Facebook/YouTube> a few years ago.

If my wrist/hand/arm/etc. comfort level while using my non-ergonomic keyboard
is indistinguishable from my ambient comfort level, why would switching
provide any useful data?

~~~
FreshCode
@baddox, my fingers' comfort level when looking up a contact and phoning them
on my Nokia 3100's is indistinguishable from my ambient comfort level. Why
should switching to a smartphone provide any useful data?

Sidenote: the question for any new technology should always be "Why not?" Not
"Why???".

For this particular anecdotal case, I am not claiming I have _the_ answer, but
please consider trying it before raising an indefensible argument. I have
tried a bunch of keyboards and layouts. Surely my derivations are fallible,
but empirically, they should carry more weight than a "keyboard enthusiast"
who has not even tried a different keyboard layout or _any_ of the well-known
ergonomic keyboards.

~~~
baddox
> @baddox, my fingers' comfort level when looking up a contact and phoning
> them on my Nokia 3100's is indistinguishable from my ambient comfort level.
> Why should switching to a smartphone provide any useful data?

Because the promise of a smartphone is not to remove discomfort in your
fingers. As far as I know, that's the only promise of ergonomic keyboards.

> Sidenote: the question for any new technology should always be "Why not?"
> Not "Why???".

I agree, and in the case of ergonomic keyboards, the answer to "Why not?" is
"Because I don't suffer from any stress injuries or musculoskeletal problems."

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jcurbo
I bought one of these and posted impressions and unboxing pictures on Twitter.
([https://twitter.com/jcurbo](https://twitter.com/jcurbo)) I had a Filco
before this and have some Model M's laying around that I used for years, so I
fall into the same camp as the OP in terms of being a mechanical keyboard
user.

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jonhohle
> Thanks for making the Super Key OS-agnostic!

Except for its placement, which is exactly where the Windows key would be. ⌘
is next to the space bar in a Mac layout (<strike>easy enough to swap the key
caps, but the key binding probably needs to be changed in software like most
Windows keyboards</strike>).

~~~
jcastro
The DIP switches allow you to do this right on the keyboard instead of using
software.

~~~
_frog
And I'm assuming you can swap the keycaps?

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ChuckMcM
Nobody pines for the ASR33 keyboard :-) Now _that_ was a mechanical keyboard.

I've been typing on my CODE for about a week now, its nice and the feel is
good, and I do like the look of the backlight (and no I don't look at my
keyboard while I type). I do wish I could get a keycap for the caps lock key
that said "CTRL" but I am OK with it just being control.

On the multi-media keys, one enhancement that would really rock would be to
have those 6 keys be programmable. By default they could come up as multi-
media keys but its pretty conveneient to use thumb on the 'fn' key and then
press one of the 6. So being able to load macros into them would totally rock.

~~~
jcurbo
WASD sells extra keycaps, but I don't think they sell the clear ones for the
CODE.

Also, the multimedia keys just emit another keycode so you should be able to
reprogram them, depending on your OS. (e.g. xmodmap on Linux, as detailed
here:
[https://wiki.debian.org/Keyboard/MultimediaKeys](https://wiki.debian.org/Keyboard/MultimediaKeys))

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lifeformed
I use a Filco Ninja Majestouch 2. I looove the side-printed keys: they'll
never wear out, it looks pure-black from the top, and it just looks great.

[http://www.amazon.com/Filco-Majestouch-2-Keyboard-
FKBN104M-E...](http://www.amazon.com/Filco-Majestouch-2-Keyboard-
FKBN104M-EFB2/dp/B004Z0XR2O)

~~~
hoov
I used to use a Filco Majestouch 2 tenkeyless, but had always wanted to try a
Realforce. I hesitated because of the cost, the unique switch type, and the
uneven weighting of the keys. They do make evenly weighted keyboards, but the
uneven weighting was both appealing and worrisome. It happens that I received
a Realforce 87u tenkeyless silent 10th anniversary edition as a gift. Within a
week, I bought a matching (the normal edition) one for work. I've been hooked.

The switches have a nice balance between the way they feel and the level of
sound output. The uneven weighting is great, but it is slightly to switch back
and forth between normal keyboards and the Realforce. It's not bad to move
from a Realforce to a regular keyboard, but it's a bit difficult to switch
back. Sometimes, I'll get distracted, look up and find "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" on
my screen. This only happens when I move back and forth between different
keyboards, and the minor hassle is worth it.

