Huh true, I'll have to check again see if it works with the usual programs (it probably does)

Do you use a macro keyboard for shortcuts?

No. I think that macro functionality is useful, but I don't do it via the physical keyboard.

My general take is that chording (pressing some combination of keys simultaneously) that lets one keep one hands on the home row is faster than pressing one key. So, like, instead of having separate capital and lowercase letter keys, it's preferable to have "shift" and just one key.

I think that the main arguments for dedicated keys that one lifts one hands for would be for important but relatively-infrequently-used keys that people don't use enough to remember chorded combinations for -- you can just throw the label on the button as a quick reference. Like, we don't usually have Windows-Alt-7 on a keyboard power on a laptop, but instead have a dedicated power button.

Maybe there's a use to have keyboard-level-programmed macros with chording, as some keyboards can do...but to me, the use case seems pretty niche. If you're using multiple software environments (e.g. BIOS, Windows, Linux terminal, whatever) and want the same functionality in all of them (e.g. a way to type your name), that might make some sense. Or maybe if you're permitted to take a keyboard with you, but are required to use a computer that you can't configure at the software level, that'd provide configurability at a level that you have control over.

In general, though, I'm happier with configuring stuff like that on the computer's software; I don't hit those two use cases, myself.

I already did so when looking for a macropad but didn't find anything that would fit my criteria. Macropads with a bigger amount of knobs are stupidly hard to find which is something I didn't expect when looking for one to buy.

Wow. I updated the post above with some cheapo alternatives that have mechanical keys

36????? I have trouble doing a 70

The first three have one too little horizontal row for a comfortable hand position. The last one is something I contemplated but with knobs instead and I failed to find something like that. I also get an impression that it would be uncomfortable to constantly move my hand between two keyboards but maybe I'm wrong as I never had two small keyboards to use. When hunting in the past I also read that a lot of this stuff has some shitty config apps and/or quality problems. I gave some thought making an ideal macropad myself but I'm too broke for an expensive hobby like that. I'm very happy with the macropad I managed to get because it was really hard to find something that would fit what I was looking for. It's my first macropad ever and my first mechanical keeb as well so I was very lucky to settle on something good despite my lack of knowledge on this stuff. The settings app, onboard memory, and layers with display are also very satisfactory. It feels so good to use that the macropad I sent above feels like the only thing that would fully satisfy my more advanced needs and I would be willing to buy it if I could afford it. The size is perfect as well, it has a lot of buttons and enough knobs while not taking up too much space to leave a lot of room on my desk for the drawing tablet.

I'm really happy that it works for you! Well done on doing the hard work to find it!

Yea, doing all the research was a grind. I expected it to be a simple purchase because I thought macropads weren't that niche but I was proven very wrong on that. xD

Mechanical keyboards have a huge, fanatical following! /c/mechanical_keyboards - shame it's dead. I expected to see posts of why the IBM Model M is better than everything else!

I use an old Stream Deck- not the Steam deck- from Elgato. It's essentially a small touchscreen with a transparent button pad laid over the top, making for a fully programmable macropad with fully customisable screen-per-key.

Not only can I have esoteric shortcuts, but I can also dynamically label them, depending on layer. I have a 'home' layer with icons representing each other layer. So, for example I can load up a video game, and press the corresponding icon on my macropad. It will then change the icons to match whatever command it does- various whistle commands in Ark, for example. I can then change programs into my CAD, and have the icons now be various shortcuts for modelling tools.

It sounds beautiful! It'd be really nice if there were transparent rubber keypads available that could be put over phone screens. Then you could fashion an old phone as a keyboard with infinite layers. A simple flutter app to set up the shortcuts and make them configurable and badda boom!

Which keyboard is that?

I have 6 programmable keys on my keyboard. I have macros for a few snippets that I have to type a lot and my email because my company has a stupid long name that I'm sick of typing out.

Not sure if your interest is specifically the programmable split keyboard or rather programmable in general but my Launch Heavy has this programmable layers feature. Its not split though.

I have a keyboard with 10 macro keys, 5 on each side. I don't have a whole lot of uses for them except when using Blender, I have buttons set to switch between vertex, edges, and face selection modes, one to zoom in on the selected objects, and another one or buttons to quickly scale things down to zero on a single axis.

Then I set another mode to do some repetetive things in Dwarf Fortress.

It's called a chocofi https://github.com/pashutk/chocofi

It's based on a corne. I've got a bunch of bare pcbs available still if you want some, will just have to pay postage, I'm not really going to be doing anything with them.

Sorry commented on a different comment down in this thread with the answer, but for other people to see it easier:

https://github.com/pashutk/chocofi