[justlearning]

quanaut, sorry if i sound pedantic.

Here's my question - could you please share your experience with a mechanical keyboard to conclude on your statement "For coding, you're gonna be fine with literally any keyboard, including some $20 logitech piece". I am genuinely interested to know.

In my opinion, what you wrote in reply to jiggy2011 is b.s. Mechanical keyboards are good for gaming and equally good for coding (or for that matter even data entry/processing jobs). The reason is they are way more responsive and quicker than a membrane one that usually is on a laptop. It (imho) also helps in your wrist pain and is easy on fingers (as in you don't have to go pressing a key all the way down). If you have hands on a blue-cherry mechanical keyboard, try for a month and then try typing on a laptop keyboard.

@jiggy2011 - i have many keyboards of varied styles. my personal favorite is the CM QuickFire Rapid(tenkeyless and cheaper compared to others). If you are looking for the best in the class (go Filco - made in japan and flawless). Don't fall for the hyped keyboards - daskeyboard,razer,steelcase etc. They are good, but not up there in quality. Specially daskeyboard used to be good when they started out - i would not pick on any daskeyboard built after 2008. They used to make keyboards sourced from Taiwan(better quality), but now source it from an OEM from China. good luck!

[quaunaut]

My experience is that while a mechanical keyboard is more enjoyable and slightly easier, I've never once in my life gotten frustrated at some cheapo keyboard while coding. I've never needed to know the exact millisecond a key was pressed, the rebound is just fine.

Lets be honest here. Programming is not some intensive exercise. Nor should you be getting carpal tunnel as a programmer- if you are, you need to dial back the boilerplate.

I don't enjoy laptop keyboards if only because they force my palms to be raised- I have large hands, so for me it's natural to rest the bottom of my palms on the desk or even on the side of the desk, whereas on a laptop it's at an equal height to the keys- which is annoying as hell. I also dislike the shape of too many laptop keyboards, if only because they seem to prioritize style over feel and key differentiation(lookin' at you, Apple).

But this isn't intense stuff. If you're gaming, or doing high-speed data entry, or even if you're a prolific writer, you may have a real claim. But as a programmer, claiming that you need a mechanical keyboard is nonsense. They're nice, and if you want nice tools, that's okay, and I encourage you to invest. But they're not required, and they're never going to make you a better programmer.