I don't understand the fascination with keyboards by software developers. I spend a lot more of my day thinking, testing, navigating code, etc, than I do punching keys. There are a lot of professions where keyboard interaction is critical but I don't think software development is one of them.
Same in Emacs. I always watch with fascination (and some frustration) when my friends and coworkers use IDEs—Visual Studio and Xcode, mainly. Some navigational tasks are much faster with pointing or gesturing, but many basic tasks require the same context switch between mouse and keyboard, which I can’t tolerate.
My desktop is currently lacking a screen, but I have purchased a small Thinkpad keyboard for it: great, lite keyboard with a trackpoint - the trackpoint essentially solves the context switch problem and is good enough for everything apart from games.
That's not a context switch. Changing to email is a context switch.
Using a mouse, or trackball, or trackpad, is just input. On my laptop, I don't even lift off of home row to 'mouse' -- I just move my thumb.
At my work desktop, I've got one of those apple wireless keyboards and trackpads and it's actually quite ergonomic, except for the staggered keys.
If I were to switch out, I'd probably get a Kinesis Advantage (I once had a QD Ergo Pro) or a TEK or a TypeMatrix thanks to suggestions in this thread. All three have straight-line keys.
The old ergo I had wore out because I think it was a pre-cherry design.
What slows me down isn’t necessarily the same as what does you. I find it difficult to start engaging with a pointing device after using a keyboard, though as I said, it is quite fast for many tasks once you’re already in that mode.
Furthermore, it’s possible that I am simply out of practice using pointing devices, because I don’t generally—when drawing or modelling I use a tablet. Absolute space is very different from relative space.
I don't see anything wrong with picking tools you like to use. I'm not a writer, but I do like the crisp feeling of a nice pen on nice paper. A Bic ballpoint on a cheap pad is just not the same, even though it gets the job done.
It's all about the effortlessness that comes when you do start typing. You want it to be as automatic as possible so you're not wasting any of your attention on it. If a keyboard lets you type faster or with fewer typos, that's a win.
P.S. I prefer the mechanical switches but I had to give mine up for the sake of my wife, who was driven batty by the noise.
I went with Cherry MX browns for a combination of tactile feel and quiet operation. Plus, you can get damper rings for the switches so that the keys don't bottom out, which is the majority of the noise, in my experience.
It's not so much that I spend a lot of time punching keys, it's just that I don't want to /think/ about punching keys. If a keyboard is off, it's always a slight distraction while you're trying to focus on other things.
