this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Mechanical Keyboards

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Why do so many split keyboards not have "F" keys? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Undoubtedly, programmers are a major user of keyboards, and IDE developers love function keys for esoteric shortcuts for debugging, moving around, and running code. So why do so many split keyboards not actually have the function keys.

I think makers are missing out a huge audience.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

I use the function keys regularly:

  • For programming
  • For gaming
  • For general functions when interacting with the desktop (continued)

Having once seen an infographic of F# key allocations, I considered it neat and it stayed in my memory, so I started using them in a similar way:

  • F1 help - thankfully, most programs implement that by default
  • F2 rename
  • F3 for either a search bar or split viewspace
  • F4: don't remember what was in the infographic, but apart from Alt + F4, I use it to open the embedded terminal wherever available. Other combinations using F4 are used to open the terminal in different ways
  • F5 refresh. I recently saw a bug report with a workaround that made me feel like KWin might actually benefit from F5 to force redraw all windows and the whole screen
  • F6: similar and complementary functionality to Tab for using keyboard focus.
  • F7, F8, F9: alright, not only did I forget what was shown in the infographic but also didn't find much use of these (I do use them for gaming though)
  • F10 for "New ..." menu as in New folder/file
  • F11 Fullscreen
  • F12 different things in different cases, but usually view related stuff. Sometimes an alternative print screen function

I have been trying to select and procure components to build my own keyboard and if I ever do, I'll be adding the F13 - F24.

But of course, I'm not very into splits and I go with the full 104 keys thingy