Keymap wizardry: Typing out the Harry Potter saga
Typing out all the Harry Potter books would be crazy, right? What would be the point? Seems like a weird flex even by keyboard enthusiast standards. Yep, that's right. Typing it out once makes no sense. That's why I'm going to type out the books a few million times! For the benefit of humanity and especially of you, fellow keymap wizards. This is a demonstration of the power of alternative/custom layouts. Given the huge extent of this topic, we can barely scratch the surface here so consider this write-up a mere teaser. Imagine you are an aspiring writer with a brilliant idea, just about to start typing out your magnum opus, staring at a yet empty document on your screen. Cursor blinking, annoying orphan relatives locked up in the cupboard under the stairs. Your story, about a young boy who ends up saving the world, is quite complete. You "just" have to type out heaps of your manuscripts and notes: about 6.5 million keystrokes. Everything is prepared for the...
Jun 4, 2024
Hopefully you didn’t catch yourself having spread some of these switch myths around during your time in the mechanical keyboard hobby. If you have, though, take this as a learning opportunity! As I mentioned at the start, there’s been a lot of historical knowledge and wisdom about keyboards passed down by way of oral tradition rather than in documents or videos, and it’s really hard to correct for that kind of ingrained community belief. To be fair, even I am guilty of having believed a few of these when I first started getting into the hobby myself. However, if you’re new to all of this and wanting to start out on the right foot, you should probably go read some more of my guides about switches to make sure you don’t get tricked by any incorrect takes out there. ‘The Secret Beginner’s Guide to Switch Lube’ is a good one to choose if you think you may want to modify switches, and the ‘Switch Marketing Terms: What to Know and What to Ignore’ is great if you’re thinking about picking up any switches soon! (edit: formatting)