How good/bad is QWERTY? Seriously.
So in my previous write-up, while highlighting the benefits of alternative and custom layouts, I declared without much evidence that QWERTY is not that bad at all, and also that it is in the top 2% of all the possible layouts. Well, like so many times in life: it depends. I did my original research many years ago - the exact value was in fact 1.82% -, but I forgot to mention that this is only valid in a special case: using my personal corpus and ruleset. It makes sense since back in the day I did this to support the design process of my own custom keymaps. Anyway, it was high time to redo my original experiment, dive in this topic a bit deeper, and reveal the logic and method behind my calculations. Spoiler alert: I was wrong! Or was I? ;) QWERTY Everyone knows QWERTY I guess. Christopher Sholes, Remington 2 typewriter, preventing jamming of type bars, path dependence, whatever. I'm not going to cover it here, check this previous write-up of mine if you are interested...
Jul 1, 2024
- The MT3 spacebar and R4 key are different:
- The R4 key is concave and the spacebar is convex
- The R4 key is slightly taller than the spacebar on both edges
- The vertical faces of the OEM and MT3 (I think) profiles are not symmetric, whereas the SA profile is mirrored across the Z axis
- The SA profile is higher, even at its lowest point, than the highest point on the MT3 spacebar (though it is roughly even with the highest point on the MT3 R4 key)
- The high edge of the OEM spacebar is only slightly lower than the high edge of the MT3 spacebar, but the low edge is significantly lower
- That may actually be a minor advantage when resting the thumbs
- The vertical face of the OEM spacebar on the low edge is much closer to plumb than the same face on the MT3 spacebar
- However, because it appears that the MT3 profile is not symmetric, installing the MT3 spacebar sloping towards the user would put this face out of line with the rest of R4 anyways
In terms of the keycaps I have specifically, the original spacebar is by far the crappiest in terms of material quality and the Drop MT3 spacebar is the best, being made of the thickest material. The SA spacebars are between them in material thickness and don't flex despite not having reinforcing bars in the mould. I like the colours I got in the SA bars and have a couple that work well with the kit (not including backup black). I'm going to try typing with the SA spacebar for a bit and see how it works, but I'm not anticipating good results. The switches on my keyboard are MX Browns and with the higher spacebar I actuate the switch just resting my thumbs on the spacebar. However, the same thing happens with the OEM spacebar if I deliberately relax my thumbs on it too, so I think that I might naturally suspend my thumbs when I am actually actively typing. Minor update: I've been typing with the SA spacebar and haven't encountered any difficulties or discomfort so for now I think I'm happy to leave it! If that doesn't work, I'll probably grab some spraypaint and spruce up the original OEM spacebar into a complementary colour as its profile is much closer to the MT3 spacebar than the SA. And if I get really desperate, I may try chopping slices out of the 7u MT3 bar and welding it back together with ABS solvent cement... However, this suggests that if you're looking for a 6.5u spacebar to go with an MT3 keycap kit, OEM profile might be a good choice (assuming Cherry would be too low, ignoring DCX because I'm not sure you can even get 6.5u spacebars in that profile, and noting that I haven't bothered comparing any other profiles - let me know if you find 6.5u spacebars in others!). Pictures: OEM - MT3 spacebar - MT3 R4 - SA SA - MT3 spacebar - OEM - MT3 R4 OEM - MT3 spacebar - SA - MT3 R4