Hi everyone! I would like very much to hear opinions about the best keyboard for coding. It would be nice to hear about specific keyboards that people have used already, about features that a good coding keyboard should have, and so on. I have been reading a while about such stuff, and everywhere the mechanical keyboards with those Cherry MX switches are heavily praised. I would like to hear a bit more from the programming community.
Thanks!
I use this one at home and at work. It's not mechanical, but also extremely handy.
Moreover: it doesn't afraid of spilled coffee :)
Do you believe that the secret of red coders like Petr or tourist is that they found some magic keyboard? :)
I doubt this — moreover that at onsite contests, I suppose, they may not always use some special keyboard...
However of course it is important that keyboard has standard layout (so you will not have troubles if you are writing from some other keyboard). Whey you can do "blind typing" you really hate non-standard keys.
Another thing is that keyboards with reduced press effort and smaller key sinking depth will allow you to type faster, say 500 chars per minute instead of 350, when you get used to them. However typing speed is not very important when you spend 30 minutes to write a code of just 100 lines. :)
UPD: on the other hand you may play with Dvorak layout if you care of speed...
Well, I'm not conjecturing that high-ranked users use some special keyboard tricks. My interest is only on preferences for typing and ergonomics of keyboards, with what kind of stuff programmers feel good coding and so on, independently of their skills.
I don't know, for example. The people who assisted to ACM ICPC finals this year (or previous years). Are they satisfied with the keyboard provided?
Some years ago, I also read about how mechanical keyboards are the best. I thought that it would be so cool if when I type, there would be sound like "click click click". I would become a real H4Xx0r! :D
Then I bought this . Is it better than my old keyboard? I don't know... Yeah, it's nice to not have the ten key pad or windows keys (lol), but I haven't been able to measure any difference in writing speed between this and my laptop keyboard. Some people say that typing feel is somehow better with mechanical keyboards. I think you could get used to almost any kind of keyboard and in the end everything as good as the others...
I also think that they layout is much more important. I'm using us-layout and I think that it's pretty nice because it is quite widely used and there are not any keys placed very stupidly (like Alt Gr + 7 to type "{"...).
I'm not sure how Dvorak or Colemak or some other can help you with coding. I know people who can code with QWERTY faster that I can think :P
I know people who can code with QWERTY faster that I can think :P — there are a lot of guys who are coding really slow (like ~300 cpm... often by 2 fingers only) but producing code extremely fast because of lots of shortening defines, autocomplete and other such tricks.
if you like, you could try TypeRacer to check your typing speed. it is really fun. :)
Mine's around 250 cpm and I though I was "OK". (;_;)
No matter what you say, the best keyboard is something like this:
It's green!
Does it have chlorophyll? :p
I hope not, I wouldn't want anything growing on it :D
Most importantly, it has uniqueness!
Well, when I heard that my colleague uses a Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate, I asked him to try it, the result was my purchase of CM Storm Quick Fire XT with Cherry MX Blue switches (the same as in Das Keyboard) the following day, because the feeling these switches give is so great! Just try it yourself.
But there exist some switches that are intended for gaming more than for typing (Cherry MX Red/Black are the examples). This is a detailed guide about it (and other aspects of mechanical keyboards).
P.S. I'd repeat RodionGork's words: a good keyboard is not very important to code fast. It just gives you pleasant feelings when you type.
Jeff Atwood (blogger and founder of stackoverflow.com) designed a keyboard with coding in mind. Maybe you'll want to read about that :)
http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-code-keyboard/
It is good idea to choose keyboard like on onsite contests (programming schools, regionals and so on). It means — standard keyboard)) And not some ergonomic ugly strange creature:) Otherwise you may be very uncomfortable while typing on keyboard different from your usual one during onsite — why it has long left shift and shifted to the right bottom row? and what an idiot put slash below backspace, not to the left from it and stuff like that.
BTW, what keyboards are used on SEERC regionals? And what about NEERC? It is easy to find out that Lenovo 41A5100, sub-model KU-0225 was used on WF this year, but can't find anything about most of regionals.
I personally use Razor BlackWidow Ultimate — it was the only mechanical keyboard in a neighborhood computer shop:
I really like that it's mechanical and heavy. It's really cool for desktop computer. Macro keys on the left are leftover from its gaming purposes — I don't use them (and some another gaming functions) at all.
Of course, I still use my laptop's keyboard. Doesn't make much difference for typing speed: I have speed around 475 cpm (95 wpm) on both of them (well, may be I perform a little better on the mechanical one).
Yeah, it's really cool, too! It still isn't green, though :D
On CTU Open (Czech subregional), we got an old keyboard with additional keys on the left (and top, and right, it was really old), but what's worse: these keys were for things like turning off the computer. And most other teams had different keyboards, it was in a school's computer lab... very soon, we asked for a normal one.
Yeah, power management keys is a really bad thing, especially when they're located under the Home/End/Del block. On NEERC some keyboards have these keys, but they're disabled and do nothing, which is OK solution for the problem.
What kind of switch you are using?
I guess it's Cherry MX Blue. I've read somewhere that they're the best choice for typing. Didn't have any chance to compare, through.
I currently have Filco keyboard, it's mechanical, with standard US layout. After using it for a couple of weeks, I started to type a bit faster: went from 200 to 300 cpm. Also, typing is really comfortable. Totally worth it :)
As I focus more on online contests, I decided to buy Ergodox mechanical keyboard, will check it out soon. It comes as DIY kit, and you can program every button, should be fun.
I think Filco may be just another mechanical option. My roommate owns one and I tried that keyboard. I may describe the feeling of typing on that keyboard as ... silk — very, very smooth.
I'm using laptop keyboards.
There're several reasons for using a bland keyboard, and these are some examples:
Convenience: I don't have desktop computer, and when I'm using laptop keyboard, it feels weird that there're two keyboards between myself and my screen. (Don't you feel that's so far?) Also, I sometimes take part in domestic or international onsite rounds. It's hard work to take big keyboard to train or airplane distance places, even though some coders bring their comfortable keyboards.
Noise: One Korean onsite programming contest gave me Samsung's mechanical keyboard and it's good for gaming, but it's so big and noisy so I decide not to use for coding.
Importance on Typing Speed: Is it necessary to fasten typing speed a little during the competition? I think consideration speed and clean implementation is much more important than typing speed. (There're exceptions: for very very easy contests that consist of only Div2 A or B problems, typing speed is very important. However, it's irrelevant to me.)
Also, I'd like to say this; if you blame your poor performance in programming contests on typing speed, watch rng_58's screencasts. He's not so good at typing but his contest performance is amazing.
I have found Topre switches to be the best, although they are expensive. They are very soothing for long typing sessions and the 60% form factor is probably best for carrying around. I took my 60% HHKB (topre switches) to IOI.