i use one of those keyboards but one with a sane number of buttons (kinesis advantage) I have access to 12 thumb keys. Modifiers, space, backspace, delete, enter being the primary ones I use, but also pagup, pagedown, home, end.
Putting very commonly used charters on a modifier and probably two modifiers (layer+shift is common to get to a third layer) for keyboards with ~40 or under keys is connotative overhead for quite a while no matter how you cut it.
> Putting very commonly used characters on a modifier and probably two modifiers (layer+shift is common to get to a third layer) for keyboards with ~40 or under keys is connotative overhead for quite a while no matter how you cut it.
Sure, but it's a different cost, rather than an additional cost.
Any key that's not within reach of your hands at rest on home row, your hands will either need to move, or your fingers will need to stretch to reach them.
The sub-40-key keyboards trade-off the cost of a more sophisticated keymap, for the benefit of bringing the full functionality of the keyboard within reach of the hands.
well good luck with your optimal 10 key keyboard so that you never have to move your fingers. Or one of those crazy datahand style boards where there are four buttons surrounding your fingertip.
Putting very commonly used charters on a modifier and probably two modifiers (layer+shift is common to get to a third layer) for keyboards with ~40 or under keys is connotative overhead for quite a while no matter how you cut it.