Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
These are the worst Cherry MX clones I have ever felt. I ordered the white/white in brown switches and it feels absolutely terrible. The wobble is something I've never seen in any respectable mechanical keyboard and the switches feel like they're on the edge of browns and reds, the tactile bump is almost non-existent and feels on the verge of wearing out and becoming completely linear.
Look elsewhere for a mechanical keyboard because these are probably scraping the bottom of the barrel of Cherry clones.
Although I like the 987, compared to the HP Mini, I am finding the 987 browns to be quite a bit lighter and/or more sensitive, so I tend to be making more typing mistakes.
Which 87 backlit keyboards do you recommend?
Edit: I do really like the 987 though, especially as I get used to the more sensitive touch.
I'm no great keyboard connoisseur, by any stretch of the imagination. I have actually never owned a keyboard with original Cherry MX switches. I have, however, used Unicomp/IBM buckling switches, and have over the past few months been typing on Kailh brown switches (on a Noppoo Spyder Lolita keyboard), which I've enjoyed quite a bit.
Having now switched between two of these R987s for over a week (one with brown Greetech switches, one with blue), all I can say is they are both a real joy to use.
I actually find the the brown Greetechs quite a bit more pleasing to type on and consistent in feel than the Kailh switches on the Noppoo. There may be other factors at work here, such as the height of the keys on the Noppoo requiring slightly greater force to push down, but all in all, my experience with the Greetech switches has been a pleasant one, despite EdzelYagos negative opinion of them, which, admittedly, nearly caused me to leave this drop.
I hope this slightly different feedback proves useful.