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Comment by blacksmith_tb | Hacker News Reader

I like the idea, but can't you achieve most of the functionality just with an add-on $10 USB 10-key, and your choice of scripting? I have used the crazily versatile Controllermate[1] on macOS to do something similar with a gaming keypad that triggered Applescripts and shell scripts.

1: https://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/

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It'll send the same codes as any other 10-key you have. That was my issue when I was looking for something similar, as I still use the 10-key on my keyboard occasionally. I ended up getting a Logitech G13 for the same purpose but never ended up clearing the desk space so I could set it up.

Ah, much less of an issue for a Macbook. Looking at this one (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682317...) I'm not sure any of those keys even exist on the Macbook keyboard, other than BS (delete).

In addition to a few more keys next to the keyboard, how about adding a simple voice interface?

"Keypad 1"

"Keypad 2"

or even name the macros:

"Keypad sort"

If I'm not constantly repeating a macro, I like to keep my hands on my main keyboard.

;)

I use VoiceAttack when playing Elite Dangerous in VR.

https://voiceattack.com/

What kind of things do you get to control with your voice? ED in VR looked cool as hell.

Controllermate at least can prevent the normal keypresses from registering for the OS (it's actually tampering with all the HID devices, via its .kext - your comfort level with that will vary, of course). Otherwise, yes, I can imagine that having the odd "6" inserted into the text of the active window could get old.

Yeah, I was thinking this might have a niche in medium businesses/etc, but tbh if they have a bored tech guy they've probably already asked him/her to help automate basic tasks (for which any number of Python/AHK scripts already exist or can be trivially created)

You're right about automating repetitive tasks. Usually they're going to get automated if they come up often enough. But what if you're going to do something tedious for the next 10 minutes, like editing numbers in a data base. You wouldn't write a script because it would take too long. However, with the keypad, you could spend 45 seconds setting up some basic automation and it may save you 4 or 5 minutes in total.

The speed of setting it up makes it possible to do short-term automation which I've not come across before.

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