Hi again. :No doubt you’ve read Peter’s response by now, so much of this is moot, but to answer your question: I have a $230 keyboard that has a programmable macro keypad of 18 keys off to the left of the main board. It does not work natively with the Mac, and Peter was kind enough a few months back to get it working with KM.
The point here is that 1) there is a keypad and 2) it has only 18 keys. That keypad allows me to press a single key, without requiring a modifier key. So instead of command C, I just press the G8 key. You might think single key vs double key is trivial, but when you’re editing photos or video, you are often using that macro hundreds or thousands of times at a sitting. The single-key turns out to be extremely important, and significantly faster.
In FCP and Photoshop and Lightroom, there are literally hundreds of shortcuts, not to mention the sequences that I create for my own workflow. In each case I have to pick out the 18 or less that I want on the keypad. Yet keeping Cut, Copy, Paste on G7, G8 and G9, Illuminated with a different color for just those three, is useful regardless of the program that is running. However, in Photoshop, I want to select the next or previous blending mode with a single key (instead of the default 2-key shortcut) so I’ve dedicated G13 and G14 to that. I can quickly cycle through layer blending styles looking for a blend I like. I don’t need that anyplace else, except in PS. Otherwise those keys are used activate Liquid, and perform a Google search (neither of which I need in PS.)
This all comes down to workflow, and my own preferred way of doing it. Having used macro programs for over 25 years now, I’m pretty darned familiar with what they can and cannot do, and how much energy it takes to make a good, bullet-proof one.
After reading Peter’s reply, I understand what he’s up against. After repeatedly being told that mine “is an edge case” on the one hand, and Peter being asked the same question “regularly” it’s hard to reconcile those two. Either a lot of people think it’s a good idea, or it’s only me.
I’d suggest the evidence indicates that it’s useful to more than just me.
That said, it’s Peter’s software, and it works the way it works, and so be it.
It’s not my intent to argue, cajole or belittle. I used to write this stuff for a living. (I was the first non-employee programmer Apple ever hired, in 1978, and I’ve been at the keyboard ever since. Making suggestions that I feel might better a product is what a good customer does. Whether I’m right or wrong; whether the idea is accepted or not, is an entirely different matter.
That said, I stand by my suggestion, and appreciate the courtesy extended me by one and all during this exchange.