🔑🏄‍♀️ Keyboard and Mouse 🐭

For most programming activities, having a hand or a pair of hands is fairly important. Looking after them should be a top priority. I am unfortunate enough to have convinced myself that a magic mouse and Apple keyboard look great on my desk so I don't get the feeling that my hands are well looked after, infact most of the time they are really sore.

Day to day I will frequently squeeze my hands together in an attempt to curve the repetitive strain, nobody will see me doing this so that I still look as cool as my desk set-up. 🤫

My questions to you are:

• What is the best keyboard and mouse you have ever owned?
• Was your mouse wireless or wired?
• Have you used ergonomic stuff?
• Did you use a mechanical or membrane keyboard?
• Have your MacBook Pro switches fallen off yet?
• Do you use macros?
• Will we write code differently in the future?
• What would you do if you couldn't use your hands anymore?

Comments

[Debashis Dip]

The most expensive keyboard I have owned is a Rapoo v510 Mechanical keyboard. And currently I am using a non branded mice coating around 3 usd. These are my primary input devices. Other than that I do have a bluetooth keyboard by logitech however I dont really like the feeling of that particular keyboard.
About macbook keyboard: This is the 2nd time that I have taken my macbook to the service center because of the keyboard issue 🤯
About the future, the rise of AI, quantum computer might change how we work. Might make our job more easier.

[Austin S. Hemmelgarn]

Keyboard, I can't say. As long as it's a full keyboard, not too noisy, has good tactile feedback, and has at least 6-key rollover, I don't care much.

For the mouse though, I'd have to say the Swiftpoint Z easily takes the cake. It's got:

• Insane levels of configuration for the button mappings. It lets you program arbitrary sequences, including looping, of actions in response to any of the 18 buttons being pressed or released, as well as any of the other input triggers it supports.
• Full six-axis motion control (three-axis accelerometer plus a three-axis gyroscope), which is smart enough to even work on a hard surface (so you can tilt or twist the mouse to trigger actions, and it's able to tell when it's been picked up).
• Pressure sensors in the five most readily accessible buttons, which you can set multiple trip points for.
• The ability to present as a game-controller in addition to a mouse and keyboard.
• Arbitrary complexity modifier key support. It's actually possible, with some serious effort, to make it behave as a full one-handed chording keyboard.
• Insane resolution range on the tracking sensor.
• Adjustable caps on the fingertip and trigger buttons.
• Tactile feedback in the form of a vibration motor, which you can bind in just like any other action in a sequence.
• 256k of on-board memory for storing profiles, so you don't need the configuration software just to use your macros.

Essentially, with this thing I almost never have to actually use the keyboard unless I'm coding. Only complaint is that the scroll-wheel doesn't tilt.

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As far as the future, I don't think coding will change much, if at all. The exact method of input may change, but text is just too powerful a medium to get rid of for something like this (and it's way more easily extended than any of the visual approaches that have cropped up over the years).

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No hands? Not sure, that's one of the few disabilities I don't have a contingency plan for (I can already use a screen reader for most stuff without issue, and I also already use visual feedback for system sounds most of the time anyway, so the two obvious ones are covered for me).

[Adam Crockett 🌀]

Love that keyboard and mouse pad!