Best keyboards for emacs?

Question

For emacs users out there, what are your recommended keyboards?

Bonus points for keyboards that:

1. Have no capslock key. Instead, a control key in that position.
2. Alt keys that are closer to the centre, and easier to use with meta key combos. I find alt keys too far to the left to be a bit awkward to hit with my thumb in some key combos.
3. Help ergonomically with emacs in other ways.

I'm not a huge fan of model M style high and clacky keys. I instead prefer laptop style flat keys; however, I'm not disqualifying either category.

A couple of interesting keyboards I'm curious if people have tried with emacs - Kinesis

Semi-conclusion:
I ended up getting an MS natural 4k, which I like a lot overall as the alt keys on both sides are easy to hit with your thumbs. This is useful for ergoemacs-mode.

However, one flaw I see with this keyboard is that the number keys are shifted to the left, so that 6 is on the wrong side of the keyboard. Aside from that 0 is left shifted enough that I accidentally hit - when I meant to hit 0 with my pinky.

Due to this flaw, I'm leaving this question open in case someone can come up with the perfect emacs keyboard.

Answer 1

Richard Stallman (which I'm sure you all know is the author of Emacs, and probably the biggest Emacs user) was seen using a HHKB (Happy Hacking Keyboard) (source)

Here's the layout of the HHKB Pro:

• No Caps Lock.
• Control key conveniently placed for Emacs users.

They're quite pricey though...

Answer 2

I used the Kinesis keyboard with Emacs for many years and loved it. Having Alt, Ctrl, Del, and Backspace all easily reachable with the thumbs is very, very nice. The location of the arrow keys is also quite convenient.

Answer 3

I have a model M "Das Keyboard" Ultimate - no letters on it, highly ergonomical and very beneficial to my productivity. I used to share your taste for low profile laptop style keyboards, but ever since I got the Das Keyboard I cannot imagine using another keyboard. It's as noisy and heavy as they get, but it's benefits cannot be described by mere words - one has to type on it for himself... Since you can easily remap CAPS to control(which I've done) I don't think that you should consider something like this in a keyboard a particular advantage. Also - if you get attached to using a keyboard with a highly customized key layout you'll be very impaired when you have to do some work from time to time on a regular keyboard...

Answer 4

There is another keyboard on the way designed for use within emacs, its name is the key64 and is a keyboard i am designing from about two years ago, right now i am finishing building the firmware while all the instructions to make the pcb and the parts needed to make the keyboard are available at its website www.key64.org It's 100% programmable within Linux with gcc-avr as it use a teensy board.

Hope to finish the firmware by the end of January 2013 and publish it at the website for anyone interested in making his own keyboard :)

Answer 5

I use MS Natural 4K, with some keybindings altered to cope with the different geometry.

In particular, I swapped c-p/n with a-p/n.

My hand and keyboard geometry are such that Alt lies directly under my thumb and I can trivially scroll up and down with thumb of left and and first/third finger of the right hand.

I do not have pinky pain.

Also, I use emacs & MS 4K both at work and at home, and I am pretty much 100% happy with it and plan to continue it.

Answer 6

I recently got a ThinkPad USB TrackPoint Keyboard at work, and is very pleased with it.

I always remap the Caps Lock to act as an extrac Ctrl. When I do need the mouse, the trackpoint is right there, no need to move your hand away from the keyboard.

The keyboard is very flat and I like the feel of the keys. I have a couple of thinkpad laptops as well, and as this is essentially the same keyboard, the feel is the same whether I at my desk or working directly on the laptop - that's a big plus.

Here's some photos: http://www.thinkpads.com/2009/08/31/finally-photos-of-new-thinkpad-usb-trackpoint-keyboard/

Answer 7

as an avid emacs user and long time rsi sufferer, the best solution i found was kinesis combined with footpedals. i program the pedals for Ctrl, Alt, Meta, and thus can use the notorious emacs combos with only a single finger. especially repeated Ctrl sequences work very well in this configuration. obviously you'll need to reprogram the keyboard a little bit, but those changes will be obvious.

Answer 8

I use the Kinesis keyboard most of the time; I've had mine for 10 years and recently retrofitted it with the new Linear Feel "Cherry Reds" and it should be good to go for another 10. But the keyboard is perhaps less important than the keymapping. The basic rule is: don't move your wrists when you're typing, at least not more than you have to.

In order to accommodate this on the Kinesis, I have the bottom row mapped to Hyper, Super, Control, Meta. I have Mode_switch on the thumb keys. So I absolutely never have to move my wrists to type key combos. (I use Mode_switch to connect to an "embedded arrow key" layer.)

You can do something similar on any keyboard, for example, your laptop keyboard -- remap the number row to modifiers, using xmodmap. You can still type Shift+num to get the standard symbols. Here is a minimal xmodmap starter kit. Use xev to customize further.

clear Shift
clear Lock
clear Control
clear Mod1
clear Mod2
clear Mod3
clear Mod4
clear Mod5
keycode   9 = s S Left
keycode  10 = d D Down
keycode  11 = f F Right
keycode  21 = w W BackSpace
keycode  22 = e E Up
keycode  23 = r R Delete
keycode  26 = Super_L exclam
keycode  27 = Hyper_L at
keycode  28 = Control_L numbersign sterling
keycode  29 = Meta_L dollar
keycode  30 = F6 asciicircum
keycode  31 = Mode_switch percent
keycode  32 = bracketright braceright
keycode  33 = Control_L parenleft
keycode  34 = Mode_switch ampersand
keycode  35 = bracketleft braceleft
keycode  36 = Meta_L asterisk
keycode  37 = Hyper_L parenright
add Shift = Shift_L Shift_R
add Control = Control_L Control_R
add Mod1 = Meta_L Meta_R
add Mod2 = Hyper_L Hyper_R
add Mod3 = Super_L Super_R
add Mod4 = Mode_switch
add Mod5 = Alt_L

Answer 9

I have been using Emacs since 1976, and have had a Kinesis classic for about 8 years now. I used to use it with foot switches for Control and Alt, but have found that it is equally effective to simply swap Backspace with Control, and Delete with Alt. I also swap the left side arrow keys with [ and ] to make it easier to type "[", "{", "}", and "]".

To further ease typing, I have created bindings for common programming language sequences that require shifted symbols. For example, in C++ I map "." to a function that replaces ".." with "->". I have also experimented with word abbrevs that are effective only when preceded by a semicolon, e.g. replacing ";pp" with "++".

Answer 10

I use a GoldTouch keyboard at work and home, and it works great to keep my arthritis at bay. I've remapped the Caps Lock to the Ctrl-key which helps quite a bit w/emacs-pinky. The Alt-key is a bit problematic, but I've solved some of this with a simple mapping in my .emacs file:

; Replace M-x with C-x C-m or C-x C-c
(global-set-key "\C-x\C-m" 'execute-extended-command)
(global-set-key "\C-xm"    'execute-extended-command)

Answer 11

Any OS allows you, one way or another, to remap all your keys.

This will improve greatly your speed, as long as you are not one of those who actually have to look at the keyboard while they type.

If you do that, you can then choose the keyboard focusing exclusively on the one which has the best physical keys (just try them).

I use Apple's wide keyboard and it's - for me - the best one I've ever used by far.

Answer 12

I like the Sun Type 6 Keyboard for Emacs - http://www.aquaphoenix.com/graphics/SunKeyboardType6/SunKeyboardType6_front_top-large.jpg

Answer 13

The Comfort Keyboard Original allows remapping of any keys, including Caps Lock -> Control, and is generally very ergonomic.

Answer 14

Is there anyone using these two keyboards?

1. http://www.trulyergonomic.com/store/products (trulyergonomic; about 250usd)

2. http://www.personal-media.co.jp/utronkb/ (utron; over 500usd)

Tooooooooo avoid RSI.

Answer 15

Upvoting MS Natural Pro 4000. It is the only Microsoft product I use on a regular basis and can strongly vouch for it.

Answer 16

I use a traditional keyboard, except that I change Caps Lock key to Ctrl and Document key to Caps Lock.