[deleted]
It only really matters for laptops, though. And even then you can use a different layout, except that the keys might not match the typed characters.
Around the World in 33 Keyboards
31–40 of 74 posts
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#32It seems difficult to program on many of these, as best as I can tell, many are missing symbols common to programming notation -- [] {} | Portugal, Norway, Germany, Belgium, France, Czech R, and Croatia specifically.
It's still there but not labelled as such. It's a bit harder to press but not prohibitively so. For example, on a German keyboard you press Alt+5 for [ and Alt+9 for }.
The German Windows keyboard has those somewhere else for some reason though...
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#33Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#34It seems difficult to program on many of these, as best as I can tell, many are missing symbols common to programming notation -- [] {} | Portugal, Norway, Germany, Belgium, France, Czech R, and Croatia specifically.
At least on a 'real' Norwegian keyboard {,[,] and } are on AltGr-7,8,9 and 0 respectively. I'm guessing it's the same on an Apple keyboard, but Apple just didn't draw the character on the keys for some reason.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any real evidence that Dvorak layouts are better? I've only seen anecdata.
My understanding is that they're fractionally better speedwise and a bit better for RSI issues, but not enough to justify switching, it would take forever to make up the lost productivity while re-training.
I had major wrist issues and made the switch to programmer dvorak around 2 years ago. Took around one to two months before my wrist got better and about the same time before I didn't feel constrained by the new layout.
Now two years later I would have to say I'm at about the same speed I was with qwerty, except for when I have to write numbers with the horrible positioning on the programmer dvorak layout :)
Would never recommend someone to make the switch unless they have problems with RSI.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It only really matters for laptops, though. And even then you can use a different layout, except that the keys might not match the typed characters.
[deleted]
Sorry, I meant the case where the layout is the same but button markings are different. If the layout is actually different, then yes, you'd have to adjust even more.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#37[deleted]
Except for some programmers (the kind that frequents this site but far from the majority) I can assure you that almost any German laptop buyer expects and prefers a German keyboard. Every keyboard in an office will be a German keyboard. All apps that are used and almost all games work fine with the German layout. Might be different in small countries of course but I expect it to be the same in France, Spain, etc.
That's kind of the point - because of the keyboard you cannot buy your laptop from Bulgaria, Taiwan, or the US where it might be cheaper because your users will want a German keyboard instead of Bulgarian, Chinese, or American.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#38I once bought a MacBook pro with an Arabic keyboard online thinking it had the standard US keyboard layout, it didn't, so I returned it. I just couldn't get over that return key. So tiny and cramped, basically unusable.
[deleted]
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except for some programmers (the kind that frequents this site but far from the majority) I can assure you that almost any German laptop buyer expects and prefers a German keyboard. Every keyboard in an office will be a German keyboard. All apps that are used and almost all games work fine with the German layout. Might be different in small countries of course but I expect it to be the same in France, Spain, etc.
[deleted]
If Wikipedia is to be believed both variants were introduced at the same time by the same company (Key Tronic). The European one fits one key more.
I never had problems to hit the European-style return-key for what it's worth and need a long time to adjust to the US variant whenever I have use them.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#40The Italian keyboard has a £ symbol. I wonder why.