What’s “essential” varies a lot between users. As a mobile dev I’ve been using 60% and 65% boards almost exclusively since 2015 and haven’t missed the removed keys much at all.
Really though, to me the problem with full-size keyboards isn’t the number of keys but their positioning. The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the alpha cluster of such boards with how doing so pushes the mousing area uncomfortably far off to the right. So-called “southpaw” boards fix this by putting the home/end/arrows column and numpad on the left side of the board instead, but sadly this layout hasn’t broken into the mainstream and is only available in comparatively expensive small-batch enthusiast boards.
This is why for now I use 60%/65%/75% with a separate numpad on the left, which largely replicates the advantages of a southpaw board with added flexibility (the numpad can be put away when not needed).
I primarily use macOS, where shortcuts have been almost exclusively mnemonic (e.g. Command-R → Reload) since the earliest Mac models. F-key usage is relegated mostly to lazy ports from other platforms.
...which makes macOS-using developers' negative reactions to the 2016 MBP touch bar kind of odd/ironic, no? We all agree that nobody needs the F keys on a Mac... so why was it such a big problem when they got virtualized under the equivalent of a car infotainment display?
(Yeah, the escape key was taken out as well at first, but then it was brought back, and people still were quite hateful toward the touch bar after that.)
The biggest issues with the touch bar, from my perspective:
- It couldn’t be used without being looked at, due to it having no physical keys
- It was always kind of hacky, being essentially a long thin Apple Watch (down to running a watchOS variant) that would occasionally freeze up
I think it would’ve been better received had it been composed of Stream Deck-like display keys powered by macOS itself which would’ve brought much of the dynamicism of the touch bar while also keeping tactile feedback and eschewing bolted-on watchOS-variant bugginess.
> had it been composed of Stream Deck-like display keys
Mind you, a majority of the useful "things the touchbar can change into" involved non key-shaped interaction surfaces. The volume and brightness sliders; the iMovie/FCP video scrubber; the keyboard autocomplete suggestions; etc.
The only way this would have worked is if arbitrary regions could have been dynamically raised/tactile-ized to match the interaction elements being shown.
The last time someone tried to make a highly-tactile touchscreen we got the BlackBerry Storm, and it was awful. I owned one and dropped it in a lake by accident. I did not miss it.
That said, a touchscreen with software-positioned raised areas would be very neat, if it existed.
My Caps Lock key is a Control/Escape key (when tapped it behave like a Escape, when hold it's Control), and my left Control is a one shot layer switch key [1], which means I tap LCtrl once, and then press Caps Lock + 5 to get Ctrl+F5. Doable with single hand and more ergonomic as I have an unusually small hand.
> Ctrl+F5 with one hand
Maybe I have small hands or a bigger keyboard but I have to stretch hand out entirely from my pinky to my index finger to do this with one hand; how do you do this comfortably?
> The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the alpha cluster of such boards with how doing so pushes the mousing area uncomfortably far off to the right.
I developed tendonitis on my right elbow because of this. I fixed it by moving the mouse to the left. It took a few months to get used to it, but now my brain doesn't recognize the difference anymore.
Same for me. A side benefit is improved neuroplasticity, but the bummer is reduced options for mice. I use Microsoft's ambidextrous models, which are barely mediocre.
I tried proper left hand mice for a while (naturally-right-handed, switched to left-hand mousing for RSI reasons similar to above), and eventually I just embraced the idea of using a right-hand mouse with my left hand. It feels completely natural now. As an added benefit, I can use any "normal" mouse by just moving it to the left of the keyboard.
One of my favorite keyboards for a very long time was made by Cirque (the inventors of the Glidepoint trackpad) and was called, as near as I can tell, simply the "Cirque Glidepint Keyboard."[0]
It was a pretty normal 101-key layout, with mechanical clicky-switches[1]. Except, in place of the inverted T arrows was a small-ish Glidepoint. The three buttons for the touch pad were near the front edge of the keyboard, on the far left -- near Ctrl and Alt.
It lived clamped into an example of one of the old-school sliding, articulated, heavy steel keyboard-holder-widgets under my desk, and I almost never saw it.
Instead, I'd be typing and using GUIs with my desk completely free of input devices and ready for every other manner of thing that desks are useful for, with my hands under my desk just above my lap. My right hand barely had to move to reach for the pointer (I even got good at using it with my pinky finker), and it felt completely natural to use my left hand for the pointer-buttons (rather than the hateful contortions required by more-modern touchpad implementations).
It was very, very quick to use in those fairly early days of useful GUIs on desktop PCs, and the lack of inverted-T arrow keys was never problematic for me at all since I grew up with a near-clone of the IBM Model F's layout -- the Chicony KB-5160.
you're correct there about the southpaws. I wish they would break in! I have two SP111's and they are truly my endgame boards. Had them for years and haven't once had a desire to go look for anything different. Truly perfect for exactly what I want. I feel like a lot of other people as well would love it, if only they could try it. But .... this was a VERY expensive board, and was only available in a limited time group buy. I have no idea if it's even available for purchase right now.
Really though, to me the problem with full-size keyboards isn’t the number of keys but their positioning. The traditional full sized layout was designed prior to mice being common, which immediately becomes evident when you try to center the alpha cluster of such boards with how doing so pushes the mousing area uncomfortably far off to the right. So-called “southpaw” boards fix this by putting the home/end/arrows column and numpad on the left side of the board instead, but sadly this layout hasn’t broken into the mainstream and is only available in comparatively expensive small-batch enthusiast boards.
This is why for now I use 60%/65%/75% with a separate numpad on the left, which largely replicates the advantages of a southpaw board with added flexibility (the numpad can be put away when not needed).