I was just reading this thread… https://sh.itjust.works/post/23476261

…and it got me thinking about something that I’ve wanted for a long time. Why is it that keyboards have not evolved to have dedicated copy/paste keys left of the main board? I’d love to see an additional column of keys left of Esc->Ctrl configurable as macros at least. I do a lot of copy/paste for work. The current shortcuts arent terrible or anything but they’re not exactly comfortable. I’d rather move my whole hand to the left for a macro key than contort to hit the current shortcut.

What do you think?

  • 667@lemmy.radioEnglish
    6·
    5 months ago

    Mechanical keyboards like this are often fully programmable. I have a ZSA Moonlander and routinely modify the function of each and every key. Everyone’s workflow is a little different, for example I have a Del Word key which deletes entire words, but is really a macro of the OS key + Backspace.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
      4·
      5 months ago

      Thanks.

      Surely you don’t change A-Z though? That seems like it would be unworkable.

      Also, never knew OS Key + Backspace would delete a word. Thanks for sharing.

      • 667@lemmy.radioEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        It’s totally workable, there’s significant movements to get away from the QWERTY layout and at least several alternative keyboard layouts. Personally I got on board with Colemak-DH; there’s also Dvorak, AZERTY, Workman, and so on.

        Learning a new layout comes at a short term price if all you’ve ever used is QWERTY, but there are long-term gains to reductions of RSI, and typing comfort.

        The OS key differs between OSs. Macs are Command+Backspace and I believe windows is Ctrl+Backspace.

    • littlecolt@lemm.ee
      3·
      4 months ago

      Very hard to imagine after 30 years of qwerty muscle memory. Not sure I could change even if I tried.

      • 667@lemmy.radioEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        It’s definitely a challenge. Colemak has a progression called Tarmak which transitions you to Colemak by changing only a few letters at a time. I did it over the course of about a month.