Thanks guys, finally got my rift setup tonight and WOW!
With my old tir based rig flying falcon, a programmable keyboard was really beneficial for macros to ease the workload in certain areas such as going straight to the data link scratch pad by the press of a button, rather than half as frozen clicks on entering the pit. And changing UHF channel's from tower to guard after take off again by the press of a button. And 10 other macros!
Having had a go of the rift I reckon the way forward will be to buy a standard keyboard, and then somewhere down the line work out what I am going to do about Macros.
Thinking about it though, the technology is possibly in place for ED to develope some sort of in game system for firstly creating and then during a flight selecting, a custom made macro, now wouldn't that be good.