Ask HN: Does anyone use keyboard/mouse extra buttons for coding?

Mouse buttons on Atheris to go back & forth folders/pages

Keyboard shortcut for typing, creating builds etc

I have a Moonlander from ZSA. Flippin' sweet keyboard.

I have a layer for mouse movement with wasd. On the same layer, I've bound hjkl to the arrow keys, so I can get vimish movement wherever. Below these keys on the same layer I have some browser navigation shortcuts.

I use evil-mode in Emacs. The key below my left thumb is control on hold, escape on tap, and it works beautifully. On my left thumb cluster, I have a key that's option (meta in Emacs land) on hold, and option-x on tap (so I can easily hit M-x in Emacs).

On another layer I have hotkeys to manage window tiling. I use Magnet for macOS; works fine for my needs. One thing I wanted that Magnet didn't have was a half-width-but-centered hotkey; I was able to build that into a macro on my keyboard.

Keyboard macros are a beautiful thing. QMK firmware is the best!

My layout: https://configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/xK7zR/latest/0

I have a dedicated macro pad (a duckypad https://www.tindie.com/products/dekuNukem/duckypad-do-it-all... ) and I use it extensively. I have macros for lots of IDE commands, window management, launchers etc. I'm not so great at remembering keyboard shortcuts, so having the macro pad, especially one with a screen that can tell you what each button is, is a boost. I use every key on my pad frequently.

I have a programmable keyboard that I could use to achieve the same thing, but I really like having a dedicated device and find that I use it more than if it was just a function layer in QMK. IMO this is also one of the legit uses of individual key RGB on a keyboard beyond just bling-- you can color code keys.