cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12826007

Is this a thing?

I always have spare keyboards out of use either from old machines or pulled out of the trash. Many of them have a dead key which ruins their purpose as a primary keyboard. It’s probably not worth the effort to bypass a bad trace. So why not have a 2nd keyboard just for symbols and emoji? ATM to enter a €uro symbol I have to type 3 keys ($specialkey+c+=). Or more importantly, the properly angled single and double quotes (’ ‘ “ ” ) each require typing 3 keys. That shit is annoyingly tedious. And consider all the superscripts¹.

I attached a qwerty keyboard and azerty keyboard at the same time (Debian, wayland + sway). The AZERTY board was treated as QWERTY. So that’s bizarre. Sure it’s useful that the layout is controllable by software, but strange that the keyboard’s native layout is not the default. It seems as if the layout choice (man xkeyboard-config) is universally imposed on all attached devices. Is it possible to configure a QWERTY or Dvorak layout for keyboard 1 and a totally custom or symbolic layout for keyboard 2?

¹ all the digits on a secondary keyboard could be superscripted like this footnote. E.g. ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹.. typing each of those requires 3 key presses.

update

Possible answer: I hear this project enables different layouts to be assigned to different physical devices:

https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd

Bit annoying that that project has not made it into Debian official repos, but at least there are deb files.

I've been looking around to find a good keyboard for myself after having used a sad wireless membrane, so, after reading around a bit, as my first foray I decided I wanted a 75% with mechanical brown switches, but I'm finding it really hard to find a good list of keyboards that matches my description because I'd like the layout to be Italian and most, if not all of the ones I found are US instead, I'm not a touch typer so I still care about that.

So is there any comprehensive website that allows you to filter by all the relevant characteristics?

I'm looking for something like the Logitech Craft. Is that the only keyboard with this feature, or are there others?

I don't like them.

I needed a numpad to go with me TKL keyboard, because I occasionally do data entry. I picked up an Epomaker TH21 with yellow switches and I hated it. I'd naively thought "I'll get a numpad from the same folks that made the keyboard that I love" and didn't check the switches.

My keyboard (Ajazz k870t) has brown switches. They're loud and bouncy and I love them.

i have a Unicomp ps2 keyboard that I've been using for about 25 years that seems to be nearing the end of its service life. it gave me a scare a few years back so i bought a cherry mx board as a backup but the thing gave me doublestrikes all the time so that's not a long-term solution for my next iteration. considering going for another unicomp since i like the chonkyness of it. i always think about a keyboard i encountered back in the 90s that had a special MACRO section onboard, and the old SIIG ALPS keyswitch keyboards. anyone used one of those new-fangled optical keyswitch boards?

Your keyboard is (probably) gross!

A ritual cleaning and cap refresh can be a spiritual experience