It’s simply muscle memory. You think of the action and your fingers do it faster than you can consciously think of where they need to go. But I also use a split ergonomic keyboard (the Iris) and have symbols accessible from home row behind a layer. Though I can switch to a standard keyboard as needed too.
A lot of mechanical keyboards these days are programmable using QMK Firmware. I actually use https://www.caniusevia.com/ instead though, which uses (a subset of) QMK under the hood but allows programming the keyboard via a Web app on the fly.
For my layout, I have the standard QWERTY layout for the unmodified layer (layer 0, holding no keys). Then I can hold down a thumb key for switching to a different layer, which has things like symbols, F1-F12, Home, End, etc. The layout I use isn’t too far off the default Iris layout, just a few tweaks here and there (like one that allows me to hold a key for control, or tap that key for escape).
I’ve long wanted a keyboard like that as someone who just writes code all day everyday. But my fear is that I’ll get stuck on a regular keyboard, like when I’m traveling, and just be completely helpless having forgotten how to type normally.
It’s not as big of a deal as you might think. You still have a lot of your muscle memory from regular keyboards. It might take a little while to adjust when switching between the two, but it’s not that bad.
If you switch between the two enough, you can actually type on both equally well.
It’s simply muscle memory. You think of the action and your fingers do it faster than you can consciously think of where they need to go. But I also use a split ergonomic keyboard (the Iris) and have symbols accessible from home row behind a layer. Though I can switch to a standard keyboard as needed too.
oh that’s cool, how do you do home row modifiers like that?
do you use that for normal typing as well or is it just for symbols?
A lot of mechanical keyboards these days are programmable using QMK Firmware. I actually use https://www.caniusevia.com/ instead though, which uses (a subset of) QMK under the hood but allows programming the keyboard via a Web app on the fly.
For my layout, I have the standard QWERTY layout for the unmodified layer (layer 0, holding no keys). Then I can hold down a thumb key for switching to a different layer, which has things like symbols, F1-F12, Home, End, etc. The layout I use isn’t too far off the default Iris layout, just a few tweaks here and there (like one that allows me to hold a key for control, or tap that key for escape).
I’ve long wanted a keyboard like that as someone who just writes code all day everyday. But my fear is that I’ll get stuck on a regular keyboard, like when I’m traveling, and just be completely helpless having forgotten how to type normally.
It’s not as big of a deal as you might think. You still have a lot of your muscle memory from regular keyboards. It might take a little while to adjust when switching between the two, but it’s not that bad.
If you switch between the two enough, you can actually type on both equally well.