Most keyboard reviews are about gaming. Can any of you recommend a good keyboard for coding/programming?
Here’s some criteria for selecting the keyboard:
- Comfortable keys, easy to click and write coding quickly
- Must be a bluetooth keyboard
- Prefer using replaceable batteries instead of charging port
- Full keyboard keys including function keys, arrow keys and numpad
- Size can be compact or full-sized
- Doesn’t matter if back-lit or not
- Doesn’t matter if loud or quiet clicks
- Budget around USD 50
I’d go with an ergonomic one to avoid pain on the outside of the wrists.
I might be totally wrong, but I firmly believe these ergonomic risk factors are not the root cause of these health problems, and instead they are indirect factors that are correlated with fundamental problems affecting a person’s activity.
For example, tennis elbow isn’t caused by a particular model of a tennis racket, nor is jumper’s knee caused by a shoe model. Interestingly, I stumbled upon a post somewhere in the past that pointed out that Emacs users had a higher incidence of repetitive strain injuries than vi users. One of the most basic treatments of RSI is a combination of working on the patient’s overall posture and rest, regardless of keyboard format.
If you’re experiencing wrist pain due to keyboard usage, the time you spend typing is a far more important factor than what keyboard model you’re using.
Wouldn’t wrist position be considered part of your overall posture?
There are far more factors determining wrist position than the size of the keyboard, and only a very small fraction of all keyboard users end up developing any form of issue.
Moreover, I’d wager that the number of people enduring bad laptop keyboards greatly outnumber those developing any kind of RSI issue, let alone those who feel strongly enough to buy ergonomic keyboards.
It would be interesting to see how many ergonomic keyboards end up being snakeoil preying on people with more disposable money than good judgement.
