It is beyond me why keyboard enthusiasts measure keyboard sizes in percents. Like, for example "40% keyboard" or 60% or 65%. Why not just tell me how many buttons keys does it has‽
What is 100% even? The original IBM PC Keyboard had 83 keys, so 60% is 49.8 keys, right? On the other hand, Wikipedia says:
The standard full-size (100%) computer alphanumeric keyboard typically uses 101 to 105 keys;
So 40% is somewhere between 40.4 and 42?
And 65% is about 65.65-68.25? Are people really OK with this? 
Would "I use a 40 to 50 key keyboard" really be better?
But you use a particular keyboard with, say, 42 keys. So you could say "I use a 42-key keyboard", and it would indeed be more clear.
My frustration is caused by the fact that I'm a bit of an "outside observer" to the community, enjoying it, but not deep into it. So my brain hasn't been trained on enough data to easily determine "Oh, this is a 60% keyboard". So whenever I see such term, I try to perform the actual calculation, and the questions in the original post arise (what is 100%? How do I deal with fractional keys?), leaving my mind completely blank 😅
@bemyak @L29Ah That being said, I cycle through a variety of keyboards at any given time, so it's a bit laborious to try to say "well, I usually use a 34- key layout, but this week I'm on a 48-key ortho keyboard with a splanck layout" instead of a general "I use 40s". So my point about general categories being a useful language tool still stands. Do I sometimes just say exactly what I'm using at any given moment? Sure. And sometimes I want to speak in generalities.
@petejohanson @L29Ah Thank you, I see the point of having "buckets", or categories. However, percents doesn't seem to solve it? To call a 48-key board 40%, the base one needs to be 120-key 🙂 And the way sovle this is to fallback to ranges again. Buckets that percents give you are too small anyways.
Percents give a sense of precision, when in fact they are even wonkier because the base unit is a range. It would be much more accurate and outsider-friendly to use "ish" instead of "%" :)
I use fortyish key keyboard today, and tomorrow it'll be sixty-fiveish one!
Perfect! 😁
@L29Ah @bemyak here's the problem: the smaller you get, the more whacky the number of possible permutations, variants, and wackiness, so it's useful to have some grab bag terms to refer to a whole set of keyboards.
60% has just a few.. split backspace, maybe split right shift or split spacebar.
You get down to 40% and 30%? Good luck naming all the different layouts and variants.
Would "I use a 40 to 50 key keyboard" really be better? Why does the term "40%" cause such a problem for you?