But I've been amazed at how many programmers don't like to have them. Why?
Even on normal keyboards I don't use it, and they are annoying because they make the mouse position awkwardly more to the right than it should be healthy for the arm (I really envy left handed people, they don't have to deal with this).
And it is next to impossible to get a keyboard without the numpad, fortunately I found two such keyboards and I have one at work and one at home (Logitech K310 and Microsoft Sculpt).
And I haven't seen in live any person that uses numpad, I always thought it is used by accountants only (and those that don't want to use two hands to enter numbers).
- It's own tactile identifier
- Easy access to numeric operators
- plus without shift
- Diminished use of the pinky finger
- The only actual 'enter' key on the keyboard
I admit that it's subjective. 'Tenkeyless' is a standard mechanical keyboard trope for a reason.
What can you actually do faster on the numpad if the starting position is your right index finger resting on J?
Because that's where it should always be.
Also, numerical operations / form filling while consuming liquid or holding a pet. It's surprising the number of times the ability to perform even a subset of tasks while not having both hands to dedicate has allowed me to maintain focus and interest instead of stopping dead and having to spool back up slowly.
> Because that's where it should always be.
I must admit, I have yet to figure out how to maintain this discipline while whiteboarding, let alone walking, or sleeping.
What line of work are you in? A cross between hardware and software?
If one is in pure software it seems extremely error-prone to be typing in numbers all the time manually.