Continues from Part 2
Let’s compare this design with the conventional layout. I’m not going to try and compare it to all the other designs because there are so many.
| Issue | Conventional | PKB |
|---|---|---|
| Width of keys area (max) | Typically 42 to 50 cm | < 42 cm (exact size coming) |
| Height of keys area (max) | Typically 10 to 16 cm | 16.5 cm |
| # normal keys (not Multimedia etc) | Typically 104/105, some have more. | 121 |
| Characters which HAVE to be Shifted | A-Z, ~!@#$%^&()_+|{}:"<>? | A-Z |
| Mouse easily accessible for | Left handed people | Left and Right handed people |
| TenKeys easily accessible for | Right handed people | Left and Right handed people |
| Arrow Nav keys easily accessible for | Right handed people | Left and Right handed people, if the mappings on the two sets are switched. |
| Enter key easily accessible for | Right handed people | Left and Right handed people |
| Language on keys | English | Language-independent |
| Shortcuts for Copy/Cut/Paste | No | Yes |
| Shortcuts for Undo/Redo | No | Yes |
| Separate Top/Bottom/Start/End | No | Yes |
| Functional groups colour-coded in way cool colours. | No | Yes (well maybe the colours are not so cool. Had to compromise.) |
| AltGr (Alternate Graphics) a different colour | No | Yes, gray to remind you it's AltGr |
| Currency symbols | $ | $ £ ¥ € Ƀ, meaning the UK can now use the same keyboard as the rest of the English world. And they get the #. Plus Bitcoin. |
Some criticisms and responses:
| It's not QWERTY | That's a feature, not a bug. Just because you're been using it for 20 years doesn't mean it was a good idea. Besides, you can remap it to QWERTY or Dvorak if you want to. |
| How am I supposed to unlearn the muscle memory for QWERTY to learn this? | Same as learning to ride a backwards bicycle. |
| This keyboard sucks for gaming. | Probably. It was designed for programmers not gamers. But gamers might find the extra keys useful, and the extra nav controls ... |
Continues in Part 4