If you need a programming board and can;t afford the HHKB Pro version, I would get a KBC Poker or Pure. Cherry > Rubber Dome
And dante, even if you like RDs, why would you spend $90 on one that is pretty standard other than the layout. I don't see the incentive of this board.
I think the smallest, I get, needs at least to have the inverted t (arrows). If not, its extreme for me!
So the HHK 2 is not for me. Even pricewise does not make sense (again, to me)...
I'm also willing to do page up/down, printscreen, etc, and F keys with the Fn key (not sure about delete and backspace (I use them both often)).
So I need to test it first. Without having tested it yet, these are my pros/cons:
Pros - Full size keys (and spacing I guess), mini size. I'm used to small keyboards (laptop size and with no numpads)
Negatives - Price, and placement of some keys, ctrl, tab, etc.
The more I see it, long travel keys don't make sense to me (Cherry MX = 4mm) they slow me down...
In other words
a perfect keyboard for me would be a Cherry MX (Blue) with 1mm to 2mm key travel, but with a click sound (volume and frequency) of a mouse click.