Macro keys (+useless padding to make it 15 characters, resulting in a much worse title due to Discourse being stupid)

Off-topic
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Yes, which is a worthwhile sacrifice. It’s the same as my use of (Win)Compose, except then often you no recourse but the special characters dialog.

Also, I won’t have that macro pad at home. :wink:

Anyway, I already use macros for things like Ctrl+v, Tab, Down, Ctrl+v, Tab, Enter for some repetitive dialogs. Like I said though, I think I’ll encode that stuff in something like AHK for slightly easier modification/revision tracking/possibly sharing rather than onto the keypad itself.

Stuff like the Ergodox is a bit, ahem, expensive. And I say that as someone who thinks a €45 mechanical keyboard is a total steal. I say that as someone who paid over €100 for their keyboard, albeit almost a decade ago when they were much rarer. Incidentally, my Das Keyboard is as good as new. My Logitech rubber dome was incredibly ready for replacement after a few years of use.

Anyway, that was all a really long prelude to saying that you might want to investigate this:

http://xahlee.info/kbd/ly092_mini_keyboard.html

Ah, but that’s just a problem with the physical ISO layout. :wink:

I know that problem, but I’m simultaneously not the least bit surprised that the inferior design is causing these issues and surprised that you still have it after some three decades of practice. It’s precisely why I dislike the left shift and enter on ISO. It’s easy to typo \ or Caps lock instead of Shift and it just takes too much effort either way.

1 Like
42

Pardon, that’s < on QWERTZ just like on AZERTY, not \. :smiley:

Incidentally, AZERTY has a Shift lock, not a Caps lock. I actually find it helpful to type numbers that way, although like native AZERTY users I generally just go for the numpad instead on AZERTY.

On QWERTY I only go for the numpad if I have to type longer stretches of numbers, if I want to use the calculator, or if my hand just happens to be there.

43

You are using some interesting keyboard setups!
I personally rely heavily on hotkeys (especially Windows hotkeys and Visual Studio), but I don’t use a lot of macros.

The macros I use most often are AHK macros, e.g. to quickly open notepad (which I use for quickly noting something down before deciding to put it somewhere; also as additional clipboard), and hotkeys for changing sound volume and muting sound.

I also have macros for arranging windows (partly to mimic Win10 built-in hotkeys e.g. on my Win8 tablet).
Speaking of my tablet: I remember making a simple AHK script for playing Broken Sword 5 which doesn’t (or didn’t?) support touch controls. You can do some fancy stuff with AHK but I don’t want to go overboard using macros, I’d rather keep my setups from getting too complex.

I’m used to European ones and therefore don’t really like to use US keyboards. Besides wanting all those extra keys I’m very used to the shape of the enter key (when using US I’d often hit both keys).

Wait, you can log off from a computer?

Just buy an adaptor, no need to waste time for shopping.

44

Nah, Das Keyboard is about as mainstream as you can get. :wink:

What I want is an in-between HID device to do things like transforming mouse axes and buttons, remapping keyboard keys, etc. So that it’s hardware and OS independent. That might be interesting. :blush:

I’m also waiting for these switches from China to arrive so I can fix up the mouse buttons on my wife’s old Logitech trackball. (It’s the M570. Avoid; it’s infamous for crappy switches that break after a few years and Logitech pretending it’s user error.)

While obviously one could improve efficiency there with single-button launching, I think Win, n, enter (or possibly n, o) is close enough out of the box to my Launchy setup of yore. And even traditional Win+r, no, Enter isn’t too far off. Or heck, there’s that quick launch bar thing, too… :wink:

[Edit: but in my case that launches Notepad++, not Notepad. :slight_smile: ]

Funny, I too have done things to work around BS5 limitations.

I still haven’t actually played the game past the first room or two though. It’s probably excellent, but it just didn’t really to draw me in.

Regardless whether I want to (and I do… :smiley: ), IT is actually insistent that people turn off their computers at the end of the day so they update properly.

Buy? I’ve got a whole collection of the things. I will be peeved when PS/2 goes the way of the dodo because my ~2010 Das Keyboard only has full n-key rollover via PS/2. My wife’s recent el cheapo Motospeed (€40 for a decent mechanical! :scream:) as well as my also el cheapo-ish recent Tecware Phantom do it over USB as well. :cry:

Edit: although my collection might be more USB to PS/2 now that I think about it. I dunno, I’m reasonably sure I have a USB converter to hook up my IBM Model M that came with the old IBM PS/2 though.

Over a decade later I wonder if getting rid of the PS/2 was the best decision, haha. Only the Model M keyboard remains. I don’t care too much for the Model M myself; I’m not part of the fan club. They’re like a bad imitation of a good mechanical typewriter, like my dad’s portable Brother. (Perhaps they’re a good imitation of an IBM typewriter.) They’re leaps and bounds ahead of even decent rubber domes, but, well, what isn’t?

The PC speaker in the PS/2 was amazing. Nice, clear sound, and volume control.

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That’s the reason I try to stay away from those kind of software tools as much as possible because with next OS version or even update they could break. And maybe their development will be completely abandoned etc.

But making an OS independent solution wouldn’t be really possible either, there are too many OS specific related tweaks.
E.g. even my simple notepad script does more: it brings the first opened notepad (with ‘Untitled’ in its window title) into foreground instead of just opening a new one every time.

Although you could port something like AHK to different platforms including a lot of its functions, scripts still often may use OS specific (Windows API…) stuff etc.

Due to a flaw in the RDP protocol (I mean RD protocol) it requires a running computer, so what can I do :man_shrugging: :slight_smile:

I even own a DIN to PS/2 adaptor (which is now used in conjunction with a PS/2 to USB adaptor).

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Sure, but stuff like switching mouse axes is either just basic settings (some Logitech drivers for specific mice only, Linux) or some advanced impossible magic. It’d actually be easier to do OS-independently. Same for a basic tweak like swapping Caps lock or disabling Caps lock.