Why 40 Keys Is All You’ll Ever Need

Contents

Table of contents

• YouTube video
• All you need is 40 keys
• Community-driven promotion
• You’re a fraud, why do you ask for money, isn’t YouTube Ads enough?

YouTube video

All you need is 40 keys

For the longest time, I’ve been a promoter of not using layers in my keyboard, or use the minimum amount of layers possible. So that’s why I got a glove80 keyboard. So having access to as many keys as possible will solve many of your problems, right?, Right?

For starters, what is a layer? When you type the shift key on your keyboard, it activates a layer, which allows you to type another set of characters, uppercase characters and other symbols, so \ turns into | for example, or . into >

So that’s all you need to know to understand layers. It’s the same concept, but instead of using shift we can use any other key to activate any layer that we want.

To give you a quick example, here’s my symbol layer which I press by holding left cmd on my macbook keyboard, or the bspc key on my glove80.

My symbol layer on my ZMK config for the glove80

I spent using my glove80 keyboard without layers like a year, why? Because I didn’t want my glove80 keyboard and my built-in macbook keyboard to be different. I wanted them to be exactly the same, so I mirrored my built-in keyboard config in my glove80, with a few misalignments, or let’s better call them mistakes on my part. Enter was on my pinky on the built-in keyboard, but on my glove80 enter was on my thumb. I know, not ideal. But I rolled that way for a long time.

Until I met kanata, which allows me to re-map my macbook built-in keyboard. So now, enter is on my right thumb in both the built-in keyboard, and the glove80. Same with backspace, it’s on my left thumb in both the macbook keyboard and the glove80 (demo of this in the video)

I have a proposal. Do you want to promote yourself in my channel? I’m not talking about a company like notion, brilliant, and all those other ones we’re using to seeing. I’m talking about you as a person, do you have a project, course, youtube channel or product and trying to reach an audience?. Probably it will be a 15 second personalized add inserted into my videos. Just keep in mind that the audience you’re targeting is like you, open source loving, which means broke and cheap. So you’ll have to be creative and find a way to get them. Keyboards seem effective (not even that, because they build them themselves)

If interested, pricing and all the details can be found in this other page

I never got used to the numbers being 2 rows above the homerow, it’s a big stretch and I miss to type the right number a lot of times. F keys? They feel like a kilometer away (yes, we’re using the correct and universal system, miles my ass). So this is how I started transitioning into a 40 key keyboard layout.

In guitar playing there’s these techniques called economy fretting and economy picking. Which basically teach you to play the guitar with the least amount of movement as possible, saving on distance and energy, makes you faster, more accurate, and of course, more efficient.

So this is where the “Linkarzu Law of economy” comes in place (making up scientific terms is the new fashion, right?). Which dictates that each finger should move a maximum of 1 position away from its resting place. I’m pretty sure there’s a scientific name for this already, but I just don’t know it. This applies for each one of the fingers, even the thumbs. (To understand this better, refer to the video)

A big factor to consider here, is also your pinky finger, notice that it also moves to the row on the side. Which a lot of people don’t like, as it’s the “weakest” finger. If you’ve ever played the guitar, you know this is absurd. As your pinky finger is used as much as any other finger out there. But if you have the princess Diana hands, it is understandable why you don’t want to use the outer row.

Using this outer row allows me to place each one of my numbers and symbols in a single layer, I don’t have to be pressing chords or keeping symbols in different layers. No. They’re all accessible from a single place. (I show my symbol layer in video)

So now, everything is 1 position away, like my navigation layer is on my caps lock key (arrows and selecting text). I even have layers in other keys, like for example my s key which I use to zoom, volume, change tabs in the browser, etc.

But Corne keyboards have 42 keys, there must be a scientific reason behind that right? Probably there is, but I use what is known as “the rule of the limiting factor”.

On my built-in laptop keyboard I can only use the space bar and 1 more thumb on each side. This is due to the extremely bad design of laptop space bar. I would be a completely different story if the space bar on the built-in keyboard would be the size of a regular key. That way you could have space and 1 more key on the right hand, and space and one more key on the left hand.

There’s a technique that a good friend of Discord suggested to avoid this design inefficiency. Moving your homerow 1 row above on the laptop keyboard, so instead of it being on hjkl you could have it on yuio. Wonderful idea, but I don’t feel like trying it. I’d rather keyboard manufactures instead would take their heads out of their asses and design better built-in keyboards for power users.

This way you could have your thumbs resting on n and c and use b and m on the right-hand, and v and x on the left-hand as additional keys. Unlocking the 3 thumb keys on the Corne for each hand.

You could try to reach the 2nd modifier with your thumb, but that breaks our rule of 1 position away, so that’s out of question, and it’s a huge stretch. Same exact scenario with the number row.

I did the experiment, I got used to this layout, then I tried going back to the number row and using my thumb to go over 1 position. And it feels like switching your guitar for another one with a really high action (distance between frets and strings). In other words, it does not feel effective, it feels tiring and that you’re putting more work.

Do I recommend less than 40 keys? I don’t. I don’t like to be playing around with multiple layers for symbols, and playing tricks just to be able to type an uppercase letter. You definitely need the outer pinky layer to keep things more sane, and to respect the rule of each finger moving 1 position away.

It all depends who you ask this to. Yesterday I asked my wife. What would you do if I remapped your macbook built-in keyboard and I would remove the number row, the f keys, modifier keys, just leave the space bar. She literally looked at me with this face

Wife’s look when I asked I could remap her keyboard

And told me she would throw the keyboard in my face

What do you think? What layout do you use? Will you give this a try and let me know in the comments? Does it make sense? I convinced you right? It sounds really scientific and like the best thing ever, and it is.

Community-driven promotion

Do you want to promote yourself in my channel? I’m not talking about a company like notion, brilliant, and all those other ones we’re using to seeing. I’m talking about you as a person, do you have a project, course, youtube channel or product and trying to reach an audience?

If interested, pricing and all the details can be found in this other page

You’re a fraud, why do you ask for money, isn’t YouTube Ads enough?

• I explain all of this in the “about me page” link below:
  • youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough
  • Above you’ll also find links to my discord, social media, etc