Bleep Bloop.

Keyboard.io, deserves it's own thread.  I thought it might have been mentioned already, but it's difficult to search for.  It looks a bit 'maltron-ish', doesn't appear that you can separate each hand, and still looks awkward (hands flat with elbows wide probably isn't such a good idea).  Better than a standard keyboard but not revolutionary.  From my limited perspective.

Yup, you're good. I only managed 74 WPM today. :-)

hey dreymar - you are gracious in defeat, the sign of a true champion of the keys

yeh - i'm not going to get a keyboard.io, i can't afford it. One day I will have a home office and start getting the value out of my filco minila

its currently been gathering dust in a drawer, which is a tragedy I wish to rectify

pinkyache - thats slippery quick, I too would like the avatar where I grow multiple hands whilst drinking coffee

(I really want to hit 80 now)

I have a couple of lenovo laptops too - and concur that the keyboards are very pleasant (and fast)

crappy logitech rubber dome in the office which i don't rate so well - did try the old filco out there but i think it was getting on everyone elses tits (its a blue)

i am inching closer toward a 10fastfinger 80 - that will be a happy day for sure

OK - I'm having another push at trying to get extend to work

here is my setup:

$ setxkbmap -v 9

Setting verbose level to 9
locale is C
Trying to load rules file ./rules/evdev...
Trying to load rules file /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev...
Success.
Applied rules from evdev:
rules:      evdev
model:      pc105awide-sl
layout:     us,gb,us
variant:    cmk_ed_dbghk,,
options:    ctrl:swapcaps
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes:   evdev(pc105awide-sl)+aliases(qwerty)
types:      complete
compat:     complete
symbols:    pc+us(cmk_ed_dbghk)+gb:2+us:3+inet(evdev)+ctrl(swapcaps)
geometry:   pc(pc105awide-sl)

My /etc/default/keyboard looks like this:

XKBMODEL="pc105awide-sl"
XKBLAYOUT="gb"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="lv5:lctl_switch_lock,misc:extend,grp:shifts_toggle,compose:menu"

If I run xev & I get the following:

for Caps Lock:

KeyPress event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4400001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 16409372, (-460,966), root:(1250,1018),
    state 0x10, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4400001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 16409676, (-460,966), root:(1250,1018),
    state 0x14, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

And for LCtrl:

KeyPress event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 16494979, (-564,371), root:(1146,835),
    state 0x12, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe5, Caps_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 16495339, (-564,355), root:(1146,819),
    state 0x12, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe5, Caps_Lock), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

This isn't a typo - it seems the capslock and lctrl are switched - but I have no idea how to modify or disable this as the keyboard dialog has since changed and I can't find the option I ticked in there several versions of ubuntu ago.

I currently observe no extend behaviour when holding down either capslock or lctrl

So I'm a bit stumped for now..

UPDATE

I found gnome-tweak-tool, i.e

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

which gave me a dialog to inspect what is going with and also configure my caps and lctrl keys

i did have it set to switch caps and lctrl

i have no changed things to having caps as additional ctrl

so when I now run xev & I see:

for caps:

KeyPress event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4a00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 18822763, (-409,536), root:(1301,1000),
    state 0x10, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 37
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4a00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 18823075, (-409,536), root:(1301,1000),
    state 0x14, keycode 66 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 37
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

and for lctrl:

KeyPress event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 18835971, (-374,342), root:(1336,1012),
    state 0x10, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 37, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
    root 0x90, subw 0x0, time 18836211, (-374,342), root:(1336,1012),
    state 0x14, keycode 37 (keysym 0xffe3, Control_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
    XFilterEvent returns: False

So now I am thinking that Dreymars mod should work for me, but it doesn't

If I hold down the lctrl key i can't get any of the extend stuff

what is your use case for the extend stuff? i.e. what applications do you use it in? should i be able to use it within emacs

I'm not sure why I am finding all this so confusing but I seem to be.. it is only the promise of a land of bread and honey when it works that is keeping my nose to the grindstone with it..

So I have caps as lctl, and lctl as caps

having caps as lctl is critical to my emacs use

I would be happy to use the lctl key, which now operates as caps, as the extend key, as i don't need or want caps lock functionality

so by my thinking, if my lctl key is caps and thats the key i want to use for extend - all i should need to do is have the following /etc/default/keyboard file

XKBMODEL="pc105awide-sl"
XKBLAYOUT="gb"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS="lv5:caps_switch_lock,misc:extend,grp:shifts_toggle,compose:menu"

this doesn't work though - if i run:

setxkbmap -v 9 -option lv5:caps_switch_lock,misc:extend

then all hell breaks loose - it destroys the functionality of the caps key (which i have mapped to lctl) so I can no longer use emacs

I have removed the swap using gnome-tweak-tool and I *think* had the extend stuff working, but its no use to me in that format as it means I can't use emacs

I am wondering whether the fact I use emacs (and under linux) kind of negates the point of the extend stuff as emacs has its own completely different set of keyboard shortcuts of its own?

Yes thats what I want to achieve

I'll investigate the latest suggestions

many thanks for your patience

my new goal is to hit 400 (correct) keys in a minute on 10 fast fingers

i am currently up about 380 or thereabouts

I've got to hit 6 2/3 keys every second - wow! seems quite quick when you put it like that?

How's the Linux wrangling going? :-)

OK, I'll make a note in the right topic!

Grats, that's GREAT!!! Of course...

Visit the Typing Test and try!

Nah, just kidding! You're the winner today! Go you!