I'm guessing, like me, most DOpus users like their keyboard short cuts, so I thought you might like this program " Multi-Keyboard MACROS" by MediaChance (I have no affiliations outside of being a costumer).
It allows you to add keyboards to your system and map macros to a single key without effecting the primary keyboard. Simply put, keyboard 2 can have the 1 key as copy without the need to press ctrl+1 and the main keyboard's 1 key is unaffected.
The program is new and I don't know if similar exist elsewhere.
I've set up a small bluetooth keyboard as my second one and it works well.
There's also the Elgato StreamDeck line where you get a small (sadly wired) separate keyboard for macros where the buttons have little screens in so you can assign custom icons to help remember which is which. More expensive and fewer keys than a standard keyboard, but also less space and easier to remember which key is which.
This is certainly one way to solve this problem but its the one that confuses me the most. I collegue of mine does this too and a few a Youtube people I follow as well but to each their own.
I solved this issue with AHK and some clever hardware.
I dont even use a keyboard anymore. between Bcon zone, 3DX mouse and my trusty mouse I can write code, manupulate 3D objects at a breeze. at first it felt like tying my arm and legs together but now its just me and my cockpit.
But one problem so few anticipate is running out of key combinations a target software will recognise. while with AHK you can generate an almost infinite hotkey combinations a target app will only accept some comination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift. Right side modifiers are not diffrentiated from the left side in most programs.
I was using on screen automation (getting AHK to watch for a certain pixel, image, icon on screen) as a temporary solution but it ended up freeing allot of key combinations and memory estate as well
