Some of the Happy Hacking Keyboard design tenets, as dictated by Wada, include a minimal 60 key design, no cursor or function keys, and standard keyboard pitch, all optimized for use in
UNIX environments.
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Happy Hacking Keyboards lack a
numeric keypad, and keys outside the typewriter key area are mainly accessible through the
Fn key. The keys are arranged in a layout resembling the Sun Type 3 keyboard. Specifically:
- The control key is found where most keyboards place the caps lock. This is the only control key on the keyboard.
- The esc key is located to the left of the 1 key; the tilde key normally found there is at the right end of the same row.
- The delete key is located directly above the enter key; the key normally found there is the second rightmost key on the row above it. Furthermore, this is an actual delete key, not a historically named backspace. Backspace is accessible through Fn+Delete.
- The meta keys are located between the space bar and the alt keys.
On the far side of the keyboard there are
DIP switches. These may be used to:
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- Turn the delete key into a backspace. Fn+Delete remains backspace, and Fn + top-right key remains delete.
- Swap the alt and meta keys.
- Enable/disable downstream USB ports on USB models.
