Moonlander Keyboard Productivity: Coding on MacOS

MOONLANDER PART 1 👇

PATREON

SECOND BRAIN ACCESS
(Get access to my Second Brain Notes Repository on Notion by signing up for my Substack weekly video email)

KEYBOARD SWITCH TESTER AFFILIATE LINKS

MY CONFIG

0:00 - Intro
1:11 - General Layout
2:50 - Major Key Mappings
4:08 - Navigation on MacOS
5:51 - Arrow Keys (vim)
7:10 - Symbols (vim)
8:00 - Brackets
10:05 - Shortcuts
10:58 - Outro

[DylanShroll]

I've been on my moonlander for ~2 years, absolute gem of a keeb. wrote a bunch of macros to automate my work. Life is good.

[jascooly]

Nice! I have been losing my mind over this keyboard layout for months now, this gave me some inspiration. Hope to speak to y'all again in five months when I re-learned how to type... again.

[Albinjonfelt]

Also a moonlander enjoyer!
One recommendation from my own usage is having the brackets on both sides, so I’ll have the <{[( on the left bottom row (you could instead have them over the home row if that’s more comfortable for you) and then the opposite on the other. I think it’s fantastic, and it offloads the right hand a bit which otherwise has to work quite a bit, especially if you don’t have super-good motion habits (j/k multiple times for vertical movements).
Thanks for an enjoyable video!

[johnoerter]

Yours are the best videos on the Moonlander keyboard I've found. Thanks!

[Nathankthanks]

I had to chuckle when I saw your layout. Malazan references out the whazoo

[BrianPrisbe]

I am commenting from my new moonlander! I am even trying out your layout! I think I will use your layout as I learn but will probably customize over time! Thank you so much for the inspiration!

[Paddy-McNasty]

seconds in and you got yourself a new sub bruh

[VHangout]

My Moonlander will be here soon, and this is great. New Subscriber 😊

[teeesen]

Thanks for the video. The thing I did with mine that I’m most happy with is to map the Z key to CMD when used as a modifier. This makes cut, copy, paste, and save very easy. One of the big red keys is mapped to CMD-Z. I have another layer that’s identical except with Z mapped to CNTL and the big red one mapped to CNTL-Z. This just removed a lot of the cognitive dissonance when switching between macos, linux and windows — once I remember to switch layers.

[dinoanic]

you should definitely install aerospace or yabai window tile manager - made for keyboard. nive vid 😊

[Sntia]

Glad to see someone enjoying the custom aspect of the keyboard. That's all about it! 1qq: with you config, how do you do vim combos with counters like for instance d4j to deleted for lines downwards?

[razz]

I just started getting a hold of vim in order to do my job as a firmware engineer more efficiently. It just so happens I also ordered a moon lander! This video was exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

[zebapy]

Ugh I just got a moonlander and deciding where to put fundamental characters for coding like brackets is so difficult to adjust to. Everything else isn't so bad. Same with minus and plus. I'ma give your layout a try!

[jam]

I'm using the kinesis advantage 360. I Iike the adjunct layer you have quite a bit. Going to steal most of the right side and the shift key on the thumb cluster. I also have the escape key in the thumb cluster which could help when using vim.

[VictorZamanian]

Moving to the number row just to hop to the end of the line and start of the line is very cumbersome indeed. Especially when you think about the fact taht the $ symbol is to the left of the ^ symbol, which is the opposite of what they do.

That's why Kakoune and Helix mappings are so much better. gh to go to the start of the line, and gl to go to the end of the line. There are very few actions that require modifier keys -- most actions are done by leading keys and a modal action system. Muuuch more convenient, and faster actually, and there's less movement away from the home row with Kakoune and Helix bindings. And this comes from me as an avid vim user of ~10 years before I made the switch.

[pointeplusplus]

Welp I’ve definitely been throwing. That looks amazing! And I thought learning that command + backtick was command + tab for the same program was life changing lol

I thought I’d be a vim girlie originally but the combination of location based keys and letter based keys devolved into utter chaos so quickly for a Dvorak typist that I had to throw up my hands. No amount of vimrc could save me🙃

I’m starting to plan key mappings in my head and I haven’t even picked a keyboard yet 😅

[EbonySeraphim]

I think anyone can do anything that screams productivity in a single OS and predominantly limited set of tools (vim/MacOS). The problem you'll run into as a career dev, if you work across various companies that are larger than your personal preferences, is needing to be just as productive in any environment, and not always your equipment or set up. Linux, Windows, maybe you can't even use actual vim/neovim, or you have to be logged into a remote system.

If you're working with POSIX tools (terminal, vim), spend the extra 10-15% effort to learn the defaults and normal ways to increase productivity that you can execute anywhere without plugins or hardware shortcuts, and avoid the "easy speed haxs" tied to your own to thinks you can't do anywhere else. You can still add specific speed increases later when you've reached the limit of the core tool and configuration. The advantage of doing it this way is you'll know why you can't do something on other systems.

[Qrzychu]

I am not sure how I ended up here, but this is a really good video. Why do you stick to VS Code and didn't go with ful on Neovim setup? I am using the vim mode in Jetbrains Rider, because LSPs for C# suck by comparison. But for Python? If you are not in PyCharm, why not go full vim?

As for the keyboard, right now I am on MS Sculpt and I really like the soft wrist support. Is the plastic one on Moonlander comfortable?

[willwright]

With this keyboard layout, do you find you don't have the need for a second monitor? Do you think this setup is actually easier without a second monitor?

[pnwdrew]

Curious that you set up the halves rotated slightly inward in a sort of wide A position. Not that it's right or wrong...I just feel more comfortable exactly opposite from that so my wrists are neutral.

I went through countless versions of my keymapping. Initially I went for a lot of keys having tap + hold/double tap uses. I found that the slight delay that the software took to see what I was doing caused errors. I also dropped to one layer, I don't code so have fewer needs.