The CODE Keyboard

RAISED keys?
Oh, the horror! The horror!
I thought we were passed those back in 1999. :frowning:
Flat keys for me.

Also, 6 key-combinations are great, except most keyboards start ghosting at 3 keys, so any decent application doesn’t go past that.

(Razor Lycosa is way better and half the price)

Looks awesome, although I have to say I’m bummed there’s no dip switch to disable/reassign the insert key. I use a Das Keyboard with blank keycaps, so I can’t say that the backlighting would mean all that much to me, but it sure makes it look pretty.

Non-ergonomic layouts are so 70’s. (19th century’s, not 20th’s)

It’s kind of a shame, because even tough there’s half a dozen companies that put some effort into selling correct keyboards¹, one more wouldn’t have hurt.

¹ like Kinesis, Truly Ergonomic or TypeMatrix, to name a few.

I can’t tell what’s funnier – the people who didn’t read the description and are complaining about missing features that aren’t missing, or the people who think that any aspect of the design they don’t like is a failure of the keyboard rather than a personal preference.

Awesome.
But, when you designed the keyboard, it seems you … forgot a key :frowning:
Where’s the 105 ISO layout? ^_^'
Will there be one ‘soonish’?

A great keyboard is a must! But I would argue that our product, e.g., http://www.activewords.com/ is also part of the equation. ActiveWords only runs on Windows, which remains the OS for about 92-93% of the computers that ship/are installed.

I would love to have everyone who has commented try ActiveWords, and then ping me with ideas as to how to make ActiveWords better.

Our mantra is that being productive is vastly more important than being busy, and how many times do you want type the same stuff over and over.

I’m buzz at activewords dot com ,and look forward to feeback

Buzz

A discussion of keyboards for developers and nobody’s mentioned the Happy Hacking keyboard? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard

Or of the Matias Tactile Pro! That’s an attempt to recreate the only competitor to he Model M for best keyboard of all time, the Apple Extended Keyboard II.

I’ve heard great things about both the Happy Hacking and Matias Tactile Pro keyboards. I haven’t tried either because I’m still using my 23-year-old Apple Extended Keyboard II – $160 in 1990, which is $290 in 2013 dollars! – and I have a bunch of spares.

I’m sure it’s a great keyboard but I much prefer a larger Enter key more like the KeyTronic Classic U2 (although it’s a little light) or the old Northgate OmniKey keyboard.

If you’re fixing things, please consider moving numpad to the left. I’ve used this keyboard and it was fantastic:

http://www.a4tech.com/product.asp?cid=1&scid=1&id=54

For right-handed users it leaves as much space for mouse as numpad-less keyboard, but you still get those keys.

Alternatively scroll wheel on the left side of the keyboard is useful (maybe replace capslock with scrollwheel?) - you can scroll without lifting hands off the keyboard.

It sounds awesome but as others have commented, non-ergonomic is a dealbreaker for me. My wrists hurt after a couple days of coding on a plain keyboard instead of an ergonomic one. Switching to a MS ergonomic keyboard and the Evoluent vertical mouse eliminated the pain I had on a daily basis.

Make a Mac version and I’ll buy one.

Ditto the Apple request. $150 is not too much, but it is if I have to look at a Windows modifier key.

It takes a lot to get me excited about a new keyboard and yours has got it all.

I use an HHKB Pro 2 for programming and Leopold w/ Cherry Blues for writing. I have a feeling that this board would fit nicely in between those.

for me the macbook keyboard seams to be good enough and the best I encountered so far. Why does a programmer like you prefer to use IBM Model M or other keyboards alike where the keys are high not slim on mac, I just don’t get it.

Grrrr. I have often admired the WASD keyboards and CODE just puts it over the top, but there is no 105 key ISO version!!!

Great project! Is it possible to have qwertz layout?

But why backlight? Doesn’t a true coder touch type anyway?

Sigh. I would buy this in a heartbeat, but shipping to Australia is half the price of the keyboard itself on top. It looks fantastic, but shipping costs kill it for me :frowning:

Why no proven Brown/Blue MX Switches? For me, Clear MX Switches are a deal breaker, if you go non clicky, you go all in for rapid response (proven Brown or Red switches) if you want clicky you will probably want Blue Switches (Noisy, classic model M style).

Clear switches fall in between, they are neither one or the other (they are non-clicky btw).

I’ll think about it if you guys start offering a brown/blue switches version.

Cheers!

Looks awesome, but ther is one issue I’m concerned about and it’s not mentgioned on the page about the keyboard at all.

The lettering?

If this is the typical plastic keys with a black coat of paint and then laser etched to let the light shine through, or laser etched and fulled with white paint (Sidewinder X4 does this) then that is not good enough.

I’ve worn out lettering on 2 keyboards here, and all within the warranty time. It’s fine by me as the warranty is new for the replacement keyboard so in theory I could keep getting a replacement keyboard for all eternity (will get expensive in the long run for the store/manufacturer though).

Silk printing, or clear coated/epoxy coated does not last long either.

Sublimation die on the other hand should be much more durable, but difficult with backlighting.

Then there is injection moulded, and there exist a inverted double injection moulded technique out there. But it’s more expensive.

Also, is it possible to get a Nordic (or preferred) Norwegian layout as well? Considering that my named has “å” in it’s name it’s kind of important.

I’ve looked long for a good keyboard, but none manages to retain the lettering. Right now the third Sidewinder X4 here is starting to bleed through on several keys. (the white letter paint has vanished which isn’t that bad, it’s just brighter there, but it’s much worse when the N key for example becomes a big bright blob instead.

Since double injection moulded is so expensive I’ve been looking for keyboards that have clear keycaps but with letter inlays.
Depending on how the cap inlay is done it could even be backlighted.
And you’d never scratch through a chunk of pure plastic, that’s for sure.
And a language variant of a keyboard could be done as simple as providing a sheet of alternatives to slot into the keys.

There exist such caps out there.
But if an idea is needed on how to do such then one could simply have a keycap with a “sticker/inlay” on top of it, and then over that just pressfit/click on a clear top cap. Cheap and no need for injection moulding and easy to customize for languages/regions, and ever wears out. Some POS systems has this. I’d love a keyboard like the CODE With such keys.