I feel the trackpoint is less relevant today on laptops considering designs like MacBook Pro or these Aura laptops that have massive touchpads that are easily reachable without much hand movement. I can mouse with my thumb on a MacBook trackpad without much downward shift in hand position, and I find that a faster and more accurate pointing device compared to the trackpoint.
The place I really want the trackpoint is on my Glove80 or Kinesis Advantage, with these ergo desktop split keyboards I really never want to move my hand to the mouse, yet there’s no easy way to get a trackpoint. For a while I lived with an Apple touchpad in between my glove80 splits but it doesn’t seem any quicker or more ergonomic than a good mouse, although it is a bit more compact. I would love to see a stand alone trackpoint stick “mouse” that could easily be adapted to a desktop ergo keyboard. The happy hacking keyboard has a variant with a trackpoint, but it’s hardly ergonomic and is missing various modifiers.
> The happy hacking keyboard has a variant with a trackpoint, but it’s hardly ergonomic and is missing various modifiers.
I'd like that too. I've seen a few other split custom keyboards that offer options for a trackpoint, ball or game controller thumb stick in the thumb panel position of a split. I think I recall seeing something like that as an option on a Moonlander keyb but it may have been someone's custom add-on or a mock-up. I think the reason there's not a standardized add-on is that the case edge geometry of these ergo splits varies so much between models.
Over the years I've purchased a few small, standalone modules with a ball or stick to put in the middle between the split halves - and I've seen lots of photos of people doing the same. I never use them very long. While they kind of work, the control needs to be tucked in close right near the thumb and it also needs to be attached to that side of the split so it moves as a unit.
Another complication is that I think a lot of us like granular control over tilt angles and that means the 'leaf' holding the thumb control needs to fit into the overall adjustable angle scheme so it can be secured at an ideal angle and distance offset below the main panel. And 'ideal' will vary per user hand size, mobility and preference.
As a related aside, I recently learned there are now high-end game controller thumb sticks which have adjustable height and stops. This isn't just telescoping stick height above the ball but actually moving the entire ball up and down inside the controller. On some models it can be changed in-place by turning the outer ring surrounding the stick clockwise or counter-clockwise.
I find having a trackpoint to be advantageous in situations like sitting in economy airline seats where room to move your arms or position your wrist for using a trackpad comfortably can be awkward, even with MacBook-class trackpads. I don’t like having trackpad sensitivity ramped up super high though so maybe that’s part of the issue.
The place I really want the trackpoint is on my Glove80 or Kinesis Advantage, with these ergo desktop split keyboards I really never want to move my hand to the mouse, yet there’s no easy way to get a trackpoint. For a while I lived with an Apple touchpad in between my glove80 splits but it doesn’t seem any quicker or more ergonomic than a good mouse, although it is a bit more compact. I would love to see a stand alone trackpoint stick “mouse” that could easily be adapted to a desktop ergo keyboard. The happy hacking keyboard has a variant with a trackpoint, but it’s hardly ergonomic and is missing various modifiers.