How to Survive Without a Numpad. Alt ♫ Code ☼ Emulation ♥ on Tenkeyless (TKL) and Laptop Keyboards With Autohotkey, the "Unix Way"
I recently obtained an extremely hard to find retro keyboard I always wanted.
It's one of those models with tactile mechanical switches, but not the deafeningly loud buckling spring ones. It both looks majestic and can actually be used on a modern PC thanks to the USB 1.0 interface.
Take a look. It's glorious!
Typing on it brings back memories of the old-school terminal computers, and the time when I typed my first words on a similar mechanical, solidly built keyboard. Which might explain why I have come to love expressing my thoughts through writing so much.
Ahem, anyway… There is just one tiny little issue with this keyboard. Coming from the early 2000's it completely lacks n-key rollover. Which makes it entirely unsuitable for gaming or any other applications where you're expected to press and/or hold several non-modifier keys simultaneously.
Think "WASD" 1st person shooter controls. That's not possible on a "retro" keyboard. And neither is something like this:
BTW, you can test your keyboard's rollover capabilities here.
I don't game much on my main PC, instead usually going for either one of my consoles or a fairly powerful guest-room laptop, which are all connected to a projector. So it's not really an issue. But I would like to have an option to make use of my monstrous RTX 4080 not just for rendering, video editing/encoding and running CUDA-accelerated apps, but for gaming also.
Consequently, I decided to get one of those compact wireless/wired "gaming" mechanical keyboards that are all the rage right now.
My Little Keyboards, My Little Keyboards...
After an extensive research, initial confusion and even shock, I landed on these two cuties. They both look so retro and slick, that I had to get both. Don't you judge me.
And if you look carefully enough, you might notice that they both lack a numpad!