Thumb Buttons
Thumb ButtonsI want (and have prototypes of) keyboards with buttons below the spacebar - thumb buttons.
We all don't run hardware factories, so it's not like they are going to be in stores tomorrow. WeWish?.
MaltronKeyboard and KinesisKeyboard both have thumb buttons.
There were some models of laptop that experimented with this, probably for mouse control.
I found that on my old laptop with that setup, I could use the mouse buttons simultaneously with the keyboard sometimes (clicking dialog boxes, etc.). It was a laptop with that eraser head mouse between the G and H key, with the mouse buttons below the space bar.
The eraser head mice were almost convenient since you could MouseAndKeyboard? at the same time.. but the eraser head mouse was very poor control over the mouse. I suppose touchpad users on laptops have access to their mouse buttons too. I'd like access to keyboard keys with my thumbs where the touchpad mouse would normally be. (say about 6 or 7 buttons below the space bar.. Or say a smaller spacebar (right thumb space bar?) with keys in place of it.)
Why thumbbuttons? Do we have enough keys already?
There are many times when one thumb goes unused. There are many times when the arrow keys could be below the spacebar instead of way over there to the right. There is no place else to put keys in an accessible area of the keyboard, other than below the space bar (Keys above the function keys are just way to far away. But below the spacebar is not). Your left thumb is free almost all the time, and using your thumbs would keep your hands on the home keys...Using ThumbButtons would be very efficient keyboarding.
Taking your hands off the home keys disrupts your programming thought. Using CTRL keys could be reduced. Text editors that use the CTRL-letter keys as the arrows to move around in the editor could become obsolete (Vi? Emacs?).
Also, instead of using the Pinky Finger as the CTRL key master, you could try it out on your thumb instead.
This is very easy on the Mac since the Command key (CTRL equivalent) is right next to the space bar
Arrow keys, Left and Right and/or Up and Down could be useful thumb buttons for text editing. Using ctrl-letters are still illogical compared to having a more direct dedicated key approach. Having some arrows available at your thumbs would be more handy than reaching over to the right.
ViEditor places the arrow keys right on the home row (h = left, j = down, k = up, l = right). It might be nice to have an 'escape' ThumbButton to exit out of edit mode, though.
Yes I remember this when trying Vi, but you have to use the meta or control or shift key? That's what I found awkward. Xemacs probably can be set up that way too (but I don't use either of those editors myself).
Emacs (X or Gnu) can be set up to emulate the vi key map. In fact, it's quite simple to remap almost any key / key combination in Emacs, with the main exceptions being control-c, control-x, and meta-x (Alt-x on most Windows keyboards). Also, there is a "cua.el" (http://www.cua.dk/cua.el) module that will re-map control-(x|c|v) to their usual Windows meanings when you have a region selected, and the usual Emacs meanings when you don't.
Other ideas would be having a backspace/delete key for the thumb since it's used often.
Could reduce repetitive stress or weak feeling fingers.
There are some keyboards with thumb buttons now, but they are "gaming" keyboards and have two problems:
If someone were to make a mechanical keyboard (Blue Cherry switches) with a standard US layout and two keys centered below the space bar, each about the size of Caps Lock, I would immediately buy five of them, in order to have a lifetime supply.
A list of ideas for the thumb keys:
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(last edited September 14, 2012)
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