💾 Archived View for skayvr.com › gemlog › 2022-01-26-Moonlander-Keyboard.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 02:22:11. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I was never big on mechanical keyboards even though I had friends swear by them. Simply content with my Apple magic keyboard, I just never took the leap. Until now. Curiousity got the better of me. I thought, "let's give thumb clusters and mechanical switches a try".
Now I have this 'Machine' sitting on my desk. The Moonlander Mk1. My young daughter has affectionately taken to calling it the 'Machine'. A good name. It has levers on the sides for tilt, fly-out wrist guards, and no key wells so switches are partially exposed.
The mechanical keyboard experience wasn't what I expected. First came the worries about how much time it would take to learn. Especially since the Moonlander has an ortholinear layout with less keys on the right-hand side. I was apprehensive. Anxious even. I considered letting the device languish. At least until I wasn't so busy. But, again, curiosity. And when I started using it... I didn't want to stop. The feel of the keys. Extra buttons for my thumbs. Layers like modes in vim. A difference in my posture with arms apart. Now more than a week into this experiment the experience was coming alive. And as with most initial anxiety, reality was at odds with how *bad* I expected the learning curve to be.
In retrospect, I should have waited. My efficiency took a notable hit. I surmise most of the speed loss was due to the ortholinear layout and modifier keys.
hough when writing prose I regained much of my previous speed within two days. But symbols, numbers, and modifiers keys remain problematic.
But I was into this Machine. So, thankfully, I could manuever this efficiency loss to an advantage. Through vim. I don't usually find time or reason to stop and think more deeply about my workflow. However, with my modifier speed slower than molasses I became cognisant of my typing. Since I had to stop and think anyways, I might as well be efficient about it. The tradeoff between steaming through keystrokes and thinking about the best vim-golf movement swayed in favor of golfing. I hit 'b' too many times without a numerical prefix. I used 'w' instead of 'f' when navigating a sentence. These little things. The change in layout forced awareness on me. Over time that awareness does diminish with increased speed. Turns out, as usual, someone had already thought of the advantages of slowing down. There's a vim plugin for it. (1)
I've also been thinking about having one place to interact with computers. Not in bed or on the couch. While learning the layout, having the Moonlander in one location forced this on me. I couldn't simply use my laptop without the keyboard. I had to seek the moonlander out if I wanted comfort. It didn't hurt that the cost of the keyboard was so high I can't justify ordering two. It's had an unexpected, and in my view, positive benefit in my life. It broke habits and comfort-trained me to my office.
I didn't notice a huge difference in posture while sitting down. Yes, a split keyboard does feel more comfortable. But not as much as I would have expected. This middling affect on comfort is likely related to the posture I've learned over a lifetime. At least at the computer. However, while standing up I noticed the Moonlander has a larger impact in my posture.
Standing up while using the computer is a recent novelty for me. So I haven't accumulated bad habits. Using a split keyboard while standing encourages rolling the shoulders back. I first noticed this after using the split keyboard for a long standing session: I had weariness in my shoulders and neck. So I swapped between the Moonlander and a magic keyboard. There was a big difference. The magic keyboard forced me to bring my hands together, hunching my posture. With the Moonlander I noticed my shoulders were 'back' in a normal posture. Whereas using the magic keyboard felt akin to folding my arms.
Another unexpected benefit. The Moonlander software is good. Really good. Modifying my layout and flashing the keyboard was a breeze. (2) On Windows, macOS and Linux I have specific software to modify Apple keyboards. No more.
Programmable keyboards really are a godsend. Especially on Linux. I don't know why, but X and keyboard remapping has been something of a problem of mine. For a long while now. I won't go on too much, but I've found Linux to be the hardest to modify keyboard layouts. Of all the OS' I've tried. I've used Autohotkeys and sharpkeys on Windows. Karabiner on macOS. And xmodmap on Linux (and a number of custom programs on Linux). Now all of that complexity has been replaced by the firmware on my keyboard. Even though the Moonlander is more complicated, I feel as though it embodies the 'do one thing and do it well' mantra.
I won't be switching back to another keyboard. The pros of the moonlander heavily outweigh the cons. Especially now that I'm mostly past the learning curve. But if I could wave a magic wand and change anything about the moonlander it would be the ortholinear layout. My ergonomic benefits come from thumb positioning and split keyboard. Not the ortholinear layout. Ortholinear also complicates swapping to a standard keyboard. But that's a nitpick compared to everything else. The moonlander easily met and exceeded my expecations.
My friends all agree I should have jumped in sooner. Yeah, I was wrong. Now I'm happy to be here with the Machine.
(1) Efficiency gains by moving slow. Breaking old habits. Vim hard-time plugin.