I'm now a convert to programmables. My glove80 is more ergonomic, but I use equivalent keymaps on both and they're a game changer. It feels so clunky now if I use my laptop keyboard to actually have to reach for symbols, numbers, etc.
Home row modifiers, number, symbol, nav layers, colemak & qwerty... Just awesome. They've helped my RSI no end.
Great ergonomics and a great experience. They have an active discord and the two founders are active as well.
That seems to have the "laptop-style keyboard" model in mind: where pressing keys like F5 is cumbersome on a laptop keyboard since it involves holding a Fn key with the pinky finger.
Whereas, with small keyboards like the Ferris (that one of the other replies mentioned).. the keyboard can be so small because it doesn't need to be any bigger. People see "34 keys" and think "104 keys - 70 keys".. whereas the more significant detail is the Ferris allows each thumb to use two keys each. -- With these 40%-and-smaller keyboards, the Fn keys can be put on the thumb keys, and this makes it as easy to type F5 as it is to type an uppercase 'A'.
Similarly: although 40%-and-smaller keyboards will be more complicated to use than a typical keyboard, people discount the cost of moving the hand. With your hands rested on home row, in order to use nav keys, your hands will either have to move from home row, or you'll need to hold down some kind of Fn modifier. -- I see "move hand and hit the key" stated as "just hit the key".
https://www.stavros.io/posts/george-i-made-a-keyboard/finish...
I should write up how I did it, it's now years I've been sitting on that post.
https://kagi.com/proxy/uhk60v2-gmk-oblivion-scaled.jpeg?c=4N...
I preferred how chucky the UHK was vs the ErgoDox kits. Also preferred the hot swappable mods you can take in and out of the UHK were pretty compelling too. These are all listed here: https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/shop
Though admitedly, I haven't swapped them out once since I settled on what works for me.
The UHK has a strong community behind it's parts, and speaking from sone one who can and does spill even the best unspillable coffee cups.
The risk of me breaking the UHK is a lot closer to an unacceptable number than zero. And being able to swap out coffee broken parts is easy with UHK.
Erodox and ZSA easily could have been too but I couldn't find as strong of a compelling argument as with the UHK. It was more likely a coffee rinse of the Ergofox or ZSA keyboards would mean buying a new one which meant the upfront cost of the UHK was in some part, insurance against my own clumsiness.
The customisable and awesome software that came with UHK was very high up there too but I got the impression those features were almost as prominent in the competition too.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1473/3902/files/75_v2_c821...
I recently learned that there are these from system76
1 https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/ 2 https://bastardkb.com/product/charybdis-prebuilt-preorder-2/
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/17ee1tr/...
btw - I'd _really_ rather have a dactyl (especially one with a track ball) but there don't seem to be any with adjustable thumb cluster, and I'm worried they'd be too big for my thumbs...
Some subreddits that I know: r/ErgoMechKeyboards r/MechanicalKeyboards r/olkb
Also I know about these on Discord: SliceMK KBDFans BastardKB SplitKB QMK
Oh! looks like there's a OpenSCAD parametric dactyl now (1) I think this was the clojure one I was playing with before: (2)
[1] https://ohkeycaps.com/products/built-to-order-dactyl-manufor...
The most common kind of small keyboards are just like laptop keyboards, and try and fit a keyboard into a smaller space (and the omitted keys get relegated to being behind Fn key). These tend to retain the impractically big spacebar of a typical keyboard, out of familiarity.
Whereas, many non-traditional keyboards ditch the big spacebar, and instead give the thumbs two or three keys to use each. This allows bringing the full functionality of the keyboard within easy reach of the hands on home row (similar to how Vimmers would rather use hjkl than the cursor keys). It also allows reducing usage of the pinky fingers.
I've seen OP post some neat code which works with QMK firmware. (The orbital mouse looks interesting). But stuff like "Caps Word", etc. are also neat.