Functional - (adj.) Of or having special activity, purpose, or task, relating to the way in which something works or operates. Utilitarian - (adj.) Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.
If an object does something but that something is not useful, is that object functional? This thingy is a notation devise Sort of. It is fully spring loaded and mechanized and has the ability to type 8 characters. So, unless I devise some sort of code that uses only 8 characters, this object is essentially useless. But you want one anyway dont you.