The CODE Keyboard

Deal breakers for me:

  • No independent media keys (or even a knob or volume rocker on the side). We have plenty space for this.
  • No wireless

Nice keyboard! I might buy one! And my boyfriend too :slight_smile:

Why do you guys tend to suggest something plainly old with no old problems fixed and get exited about that like kids? I expected to see whatever from the explanation except of this exactly the same keyborad. What’s the point? Keyborads are very important for us, software developers, but if someone actually was designing a new keyborad, why not rethinking it slightly more?

I would like this keyboard as a split keyboard (two separate halves) without the numeric pad. Now that’s what an ergonomic keyboard should be.

That’s my dream keyboard. No one does quality ergonomic keyboards.

While this is good and has a flexible design, it is not flexible enough.

Just to add to the shit ton of absolutely correct observations everyone else has already made about this “perfect” keyboard… here’s yet another fail:

Even those of use who DO want backlighting, don’t want THIS one. That is a truly comical amout of light spewing out from in between the keys. It outshines the keys themselves.

Apparently even “forever”, I mean, a year, isn’t enough to get harware right after all. Calling this thing perfect is embarassing.

If someday one of my Model M keyboards died, then maybe I’d take a look at this one. Until then, I think I’m all set. :slight_smile:

It is sad that given the opportunity to truly build an innovative keyboard, you throw back lights on a clear switch. The ergodox (while not perfect) is a start:

  • matrix layout
  • thumb keys
  • split design
  • separate halves
  • programmable
  • open source
  • DIY (may be seen as a negative but I can fix the keyboard if needed).

See my blog post here for more details:
http://hairysun.com/blog/2013/04/02/oh-ergonomic-keyboard/‎

oh and it has your choice of mechanical switches…

I must say buddy your intention of keyboard making totally impressed me. I think you’re very different. Everyone tries to make creative things and bigger as well. But making an keyboard I think it’ll be great accomplishment for anyone. Thanks.
access vs excel

The backlight should come in different colors or RGB so that the color can be customized.

Too bad you don’t have a blank version. I’d kill for a blank like this.

And, if you do make a blank one, put some VERY subtle light at F, J and Numpad 5, it’ll really come in handy in the darkness…

I would add:

  1. extra (programmable) keys below spacebar (to use withing IDE, e.g. find usages, highlight usages of current token, show file “map”, etc)
  2. and 3 keys around “Up arrow” (e.g. copy/cut/paste)
    “A4Tech X7-G800V” has done it wrong (keys below spacebar are different height and difficult to press; also I doubt extra 2 keys to the left & right to spacebar).

This is a non-starter. Without an ergonomic/split/hump design ala Microsoft Natural this is DOA. 80% of the programmers I work with rock a Microsoft Natural.

I like it, might buy one. I’m actually really happy with my das keyboard no-label hackerboard. It’s certainly made me a better pianist!

Wow. It’s beautiful. Thank you for offering both a 104 and 87 key version. I also prefer the 87 key version so I don’t have to reach too far for the mouse as shana stated above. My only concern is the placement of that left-alt key as I would be using this with a Mac. The placement of the command key on my MacBook seems perfect to me (right aligned with “X”). I just have to shift my thumb slightly to the left to press it. On this keyboard, I will probably have to stretch my thumb a bit.

@shana “The keypad is useless in a coding keyboard” - but it’s usefull to fast type multiline comments: “/" and "/”.
@Scichelli “The thing I really want, in addition to the sweet mechanical action, is to relocate the braces and semi-colon so that they’re under my powerful fingers.” - I would like to type curly braces “{}” without 2-filter combo, just let me have them under the spacebar… - or maybe { to the left to spacebar and } to the right to it.
@Grauenwolf “Reusing the Menu key isn’t acceptable to me, I use it way too often.” - I use it too, not very often, but some text editors/IDEs provide context menus to work with selected text - useful & don’t requre mouse.
“which eliminates the need for backlights (for touch-typists, at least)” - agree, backlighting is unnecessary for coders, I can press ANY key/combo without looking at it; IMHO coders must touch-type.
@Rohit Kelkar “When I read the post I was expecting something that helps me type with relatively ease the semicolons, round, square and angular brackets, the forward and back slashes etc.” - under-spacebar-keys should fix that, I
believe.
@Ivan Milosavljević “It has small Enter. Pipe backslash key is not between left Shift and Z. Fail.” - Pipe/backslash - interesting…

@Sergii Pylypenko - I also prefer two-row Enter and large Backspace

Other thoughts:

    blank keycaps - I don't care, keyboard is hidden in the desk, I don't see it anyway.
    ergo - have never tried them for significant time, so I have no opinion.
    macro recording - interesting, I don't use macros (I use multi-cursor in SublimeText instead of them), but if it's built-in into the keyboard, it will be universal (any apps) and can be useful/often used.
    Maybe it's good idea to have a key to change layouts (Ctrl+Shift combo) - e.g. an extra key just to the right of spacebar or near CAPS...

Just to add to the comments, it’s been said already, but I’ll say it again for emphasis.

I need a keyboard that has the contour, not just angled out but also rounded up ala the MS keyboard. I have a TEK and I love the mechanical keys, love the lack of the 10-Key, but get wrist strain from having to lay my hands flat.

Morph this into a MS Natural Clone with mechanical switches and without a 10-Key and I’ll buy two of them today and a new one every 5 years for the rest of my life.

Looks absolutely phenomenal, but I’m very partial to my ergonomic layout. Been using it forever, and I still love it.

To those on this thread saying “I’d buy this if it had ____”

The CODE is a WASD keyboard. If you go to their site for a price they will make you a completely custom keyboard, whatever keys you want, full size tenkeyless, etc.

Jeff’s done an awesome job putting together a keyboard for programmers and writers why not cut him a break.

I should confess, that 87 keys version looks eligible for me, since the most irritating thing about my current Razor keyboard is a numeric pad too close to arrow keys. But how would I believe it feels good under fingers? Anyway, thank you for doing something about keyboard improving. It’s still not perfect, of course, and probably it could not ever be perfect for everyone, but the very consciousness about how much important it is, deserves, in my opinion, much of respect :slight_smile: Keep up the good work.