SPI Driver for Remote Control?

I'm doing software development for an embedded-Linux device that has a remote control. The remote control has 9 buttons and uses RF to communicate with the device. The device has an RF transceiver with SPI interface.

Now, I want to know the best way to write a device driver for the remote control. I thought of making the remote control to look like a mini-keyboard to the Linux OS. I thought of cloning a keyboard device driver code and modify on it to suit my need, but I'm not sure if that will work.

So, any suggestion please?

There is a body of prior work for IR Remote Control in Linux. At best, it will already provide support for your device. At worst, it should provide a good model upon which to develop your own support for your device.
--- rod.