What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
So, the CODE keyboard has always been intriguing to me, and the way the Clear switch is described is making me curious as hell as what this is all about. So I ordered this one thru the drop and expected the heaven. I would say the best description of Clear is that it is a much stiffer Brown, so much stiffer in fact that it feels squishy while bottoming out, which is what I wanted to avoid in a mechanical keyboard. Not only that, the backspace has this loose ringing sound every time you press a key, definitely so when you press the backspace itself, even worse than I had it with the DAS. So here it is, a squishy-feel keyboard with a ringing sound that made it sound cheaply made rather than professional grade, that I paid a fortune for, and that is supposedly cheaper already thru the drop. It certainly made the DAS look like a bargain but I was able to return them to Amazon quite painlessly, twice. Free shipping to boot too.
Of course the nature of these different keys and why they exist are simply because of personal preferences that differ for each person, and you simply must try to find what is good for your own experience. For myself, it is definitely going to be brown, with its muted "clack" and requiring fairly light touch with an instant bounce. Blue, with its high-pitched clicking, perhaps, but not for long extended period of typing. Clear, it would be a struggle to keep my fingers from getting tired of having to work so hard to push down the keys and getting back a squishy feel in return instead of a satisfying bounce. I don't know about green yet, but I highly doubt I would be impressed with it from what I can tell.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed in clears as well on my Poker II. Every key I press rings. This is indicative of the spring in the switch itself. It's a tough type and not really that different from browns. I'm also sticking with Browns/Blues and ditching the clears...