40 Percent Crap

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

this page is some badly botched conversation on discord on 40 percent keyboard.

here's better article explaining why it is no good. 40percent Keyboard Idiocy


























































cobblepot 2020-07-12 at 7:44 PM

there's a issue with chord movement with 2 fingers, and single key movement but further, such as the key 8 on the num row.

exactly which is worse for ergonomics, i don't think we have solid scientific data. But, also, it depends on how you press them.

For example, if you are a hunt and pecker, on a flat normal keyboard such as imb model m, then, the single keystroke of 8, is ergonomically better than, chord of say alt+y on the imb model m.

40percent Keyboard Idiocy

so, first of all, there are 2 issues of concern already.

one is how you press them. example: hunt n peck vs standard touch-typing.

they have diff outcome on whether 1 key vs chord 2 key is better for ergonoomics.

Now, there's another issue, is the physical keyboard shape.

For example, on the planck, it has diff outcome compared to the ibm model m., because, on the planc, it has lots thumb keys, so when u do chord such as ctrl+t, it's easier to hold ctrl.

so, here, we are talking about, whether 1 single key press, vs 2 keys chord, such as number 8 vs Ctrl+t, which is more ergonomic, on the plack keyboard.

and don't forget, we still have the issue of 2 way to type the keys. hunt n peck, and standard touch type, on the plank, for deciding, 1 key vs 2-keys chord is ergonomically better.

Now, let's consider a another physical keyboard. say, ergodox.

now, on ergodox, and if you touch type, the situation is significantly more in favor, for touch typist pressing the chord. because now, it has 2 BIG thumb keys, each is positioned exactly for the thumb by human anatomy, and BIG, twice as large as normal key.

(and there's also the issue of tenting. but let's ignore that aspect for now)

So, let's for a summary of the above 2 paragraphs to enforce our logic lest the subject go astray. We are, trying to find out which of the following 2 is more ergonomic. 1 single key press, vs, a 2 keys chord. and the example we used is, number 8 key, vs Ctrl+t.

and we so far discovered, how you press them matters. hunt n peck, vs standard touch typing.

and we also noticed, the exact physical keyboard matters too, for the outcome. We thought about ibm model m, planc, and ergodox.

and we've kinda obtained a lose result, that for certain typing method (hunt n peck or standard touch type), it favors one or the other. and, for diff keyboards, it also favor one or the other with a specific key press method.

so, we can now draw a matrix. The rows will be, ibm model m, planc, ergodox.

and the columns will be, hunt n peck, standard touch type.

so, 3 by 2 matrix. we have 6 entries.

in each, we can put down, whether it's more ergonomic to press 8, or Ctrl+t.

now, the above covered some of the issues, on the question, whether 40% is good or not for ergonomics.

of course, there's lots other details. For example, we picked key 8 vs Ctrl+t. but what about key $ vs Ctrl+shift+4? or any other key choices.

because , depending on the exact 40% keyboard, many symbols will need 2 modifiers, a total of 3 key presses.

and, also, note, we need to consider what text do you type.

for example, if you just type english for chat, then, numbers and symbols $ % @ | are not that significant, cuz u no really type them much at all.

but if u r a programer, you need to type those often.

and, this also depends on the programing language.

for eample, i have a page of statistics that tally what punctuations are used by how much in 10 most popular languages.

further, now, are you chinese, russian? or japanese, Korean?

or perhaps you are a arabic.

here, those people, few billion of them, daily, they need to use a input method to type.

and i have tutorial and explanation on them. How they work. Surely, chinese is also human, right? so when u consider 40%, u have to consider chinese, else, it's racism and nazi, right?

so, we need to start to study, how many letters r in russian. what punctuation russions use.

and et al.

hum, so i typed a lot. my left arm is sufferring pain, for helping my human fellow animals to unstand a thing or 2 about keyboarding.

the science and art of keyboarding.

and i need a break, or, intermission.

during this intermission, let me put in a ad.

because, we live in a capitalism world. Omg, what a joy. i can sit here and sip coffee and type and suffer from rsi for the pure joy of helping other human animal while somewhere in africa people r dying, of aids.

humm. trying to chose a url to spam here.

but i got a few hundred of them.

let's just put this one out

My Typing/RSI Experience http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/xah_keyboarding_RSI_experience.html

but i was gonna post this one

Computer Keyboard Hand Pain, Year 2020 (Left Forearm Hurts)

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_pinky_2020.html

which is my current pain n suffering, for humanity. like jesus!