Keystats Collector

Store keystrokes count in ~/.keystats.json.

The point is that I want to know which keys I type the most, to draw conclusions about which kind of keyboard I should have and what layout would be useful or not.

See below for how to conduct this experiment for yourself.

Conclusions

TL;DR: Get yourself an ErgoDox EZ keyboard with silent switches. I got one for myself, and I'm using this configuration.

This is based on two criteria:

I want to reach all of my top 50% keys (not keystrokes) without moving / rotating my hands.
I want a keyboard that is quiet enough not to annoy my peers when I'm working.

According to my collected stats from work I press 70 different keys.

The below table lists my top 50% keystrokes excluding letters (because all letters are reachable on all keyboards, so including them would just make the table larger). It also lists whether I can comfortably type these keys without moving or rotating my hands on different keyboards:

	MacBook keyboard	Kinesis Advantage2 / ErgoDox
Space	✅	✅
Backspace	🔄 Needs rotation	✅
Return	🔄 Needs rotation	✅
Shift	✅	✅
Arrow keys	❌	✅
Command	✅	✅
Period	✅	✅
Tab	✅	✅

ErgoDox and the Kinesis Advantage2 get to share a column since their layouts are almost identical.

So the choice is between the ErgoDox and the Kinesis Advantage2.

Kinesis Advantage2

I have used the Kinesis Advantage2 and its predecessor the Ergo Elan for 10+ years and I really love them. However, my colleagues have noted the keyboard's noisiness.

When I asked Kinesis (November 2017) whether I could get one with silent switches, they said that:

At this point we do not plan to start offering any other type of key switch. If we were to start seeing a high demand for these new switches, we may reconsider at that time.

So no silent Kinesis Advantage2 for me.

ErgoDox

"ErgoDox" is just a keyboard spec, but I want to buy a keyboard, not build one.

I found two suppliers of pre-built ErgoDox keyboards, and in December 2017 here are their offerings:

	ErgoDox EZ	FalbaTech
Nordic Keycaps	❌	❌
English Keycaps	✅	❌
Silent Switches	✅	❌
Built-in Wrist Rests	❌	✅

And since the silencing part is why I got into this in the first place, the ErgoDox EZ is my only option.

That said, if the FalbaTech offering had come with silent switches and at least English keycaps (they only offered blank ones when I checked) I would have preferred them; I really do like their options for cases with built in wrist support.

With the ErgoDox EZ I can pick my own switches, and one of the options is the Silent Red. This should make my peers happier.

The downside for me with the ErgoDox EZ is that it's currently (November 2017) not available with Nordic keycaps, so I may have to get the keycaps elsewhere, or just steal them from my to-be-replaced Advantage2.

The ErgoDox seems to be popular in Sweden though, and I did mention that to the ErgoDox EZ people so we'll see what happens :).

Conclusion

The conclusion given the above data is that the ErgoDox EZ keyboard is my only option.

Instructions

If you want to try for yourself.

Once you're up and running it works really well, but getting there isn't amazingly simple, patches welcome.

git clone git@github.com:walles/keystats-collector.git
cd keystats-collector
open "Keystats Collector.xcodeproj/"
In Xcode, press shift-command-R to build without launching
Quit Xcode
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Keystats_Collector-*/Build/Products/Debug/Keystats\ Collector.app
Give the Keystats Collector Universal Access in the security questionnaire
Quit the Keystats Collector
Start the Keystats Collector again

Keyboard statistics should now be available in ~/keystats.json. As long as the app is running, this file will be continuously updated.

For a toplist, run ./toplist.sh, or watch ./toplist.sh.

Future

Add chords to the JSON file. This could help you figure out if you're commonly using the wrong SHIFT key for example, or how to configure your ErgoDox layout.
Visualize the contents of that JSON file using https://github.com/pa7/Keyboard-Heatmap.