Building the Developer's Dream Keyboard

New submitter mondalaci writes: This article is about building the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard step by step, starting with an Arduino. Lots of pictures and nerd talk included. It's a mechanical keyboard that can split down the middle and re-merge, and it has four layers of keymappings to keep the design compact. It will support custom keymaps as well. They're planning to release the firmware and design files under the GPLv3, and they're working on repair instructions, too.

Comments

Optimus Maximus successor?

[mlts]

What would be nice would be a multi-key "gaming" keyboard, except with color e-ink on each key so one can not just map keys, but show where they are mapped.

Gee, what a coincidence

[smooth wombat]

This keyboard seems to have already filled this role.

Re:Gee, what a coincidence

[AmiMoJo]

The design actually looks awful for programmers and people who do a lot of non-document typing.

There is no number pad. There are no F keys, you need to press a modifier to access them. Gets even more fun when you need to press mod-ctrl-F5. Many commonly used keys like page up/down and home/end are hidden behind the modifier key. The space bar is tiny to allow room for this modifier key.

Re:Gee, what a coincidence

[gstoddart]

The design actually looks awful for programmers and people who do a lot of non-document typing.

This isn't "the ultimate developer's keyboard".

This is a vanity project by one guy to create his ultimate keyboard.

It's kinda cool, kinda neat, and definitely geeky.

But it's entirely about the build, and nothing to do with what makes a good keyboard.

So I applaud him, but I have precisely zero interest in the extra buttons and stuff he's got.

I would say he's made a terrible keyboard, but a cool DIY thing. He probably thinks it's awesome.

Re:Gee, what a coincidence

[AmiMoJo]

The title of his blog post is "How I Built the Developer's Dream Keyboard". The post includes some C code, so he seems to be a C developer. He goes on to write "This realization was followed by an overwhelming feeling of excitement as I thought about customizing the best keyboard for developers".

He is claiming it is the best keyboard for developers. He is a developer himself, in a language that benefits from use of the keys I mentioned.

My guess is that he has an unusual way of working with IDEs, hence the inclusion of some mouse keys. His claim doesn't stand up though, for most developers this thing is unsuitable.

Give me a break

[Dan East]

Come on now, a developer keyboard with no navigation keys? Really? Okay, so you can map multiple key combinations to represent them. Still, no way. If I want to highlight the text to the left of the cursor, I use CTRL-SHIFT-LEFT_ARROW. If I want to select the text from the cursor to the end of the line, I use CTRL-SHIFT-END. I already use those navigation keys in 3-key combos. I don't need it to be a 4-key combo, or something totally proprietary to the point I can only function with any proficiency on a keyboard that there is exactly one of in the entire world.

When I chose my last dev machine a few months ago, I really, really tried to make it a Macbook. I figured I could dual-boot windows and have all my bases covered. I had already tried using my older Macbook as a dev machine, and had given up. Why? No Home, End, PgUp or PgDown keys. As I stated above, I already use 3 key combos with those keys. I'm not about to try and make it a 4 key combo because Apple puts style over functionality. (and of course no Macbooks are touchscreen, and part of my work is making sure that web based multitouch HTML5 works properly on modern touch-screen desktop browsers).

What a piece of shit

[KlomDark]

No arrow keys, no side numeric keypad? Not interested.

You mean nightmare

[silas_moeckel]

No arrow, function or pretty much anything useful keys, seems like a nightmare.

The perfect keyboard has been around for a long time an IBM M13 mine is nearly 20 years old and in perfect working order. While I like the larger keyboard with f13-24 it's a pita to get many OS's to use them. You can also bludgeon an intruder with it and go back to typing.

Re:Manufacturer?

[mondalaci]

It's not 1 manufacturer but about 10 all over the world, some of them located in Hungary, the most critical ones being in close proximity so that we will be able to do final QC on the spot and directly communicate with them. Andras is a mechanical engineer, having an established workshop nearby and many connections in the industry. Final assembly will take place in the workshop.

Esc

[CanadianMacFan]

Have to change modes to hit esc is a big fail. Real developers use vi!

Re:My dream keyboard

[ihtoit]

stenography uses what, sixteen keys? No less than two of which (the thumbs I guess) are exclusive control characters, which puts you down to 14. With a dedicated stenotype board you can hit 255wpm with no problem once you get used to the shorthand (some people can hit 300. I do just fine at 110 on a standard QWERTY). That's fast enough to transcribe a lively debate in real time. There are open source stenotype packages out there that allow you to remap a standard QWERTY and with a little creative keytop swapping you can be a stenographer in the comfort of your mom's basement. Plover is one such package.