Think of the money that could be saved if the Danes and Norwegians would just use the same keyboard...
Around the World in 33 Keyboards
41–50 of 74 posts
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#42Earlier 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.
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There are only two different versions for key shape and positions if I didn't miss one: the US variant and everything else.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#43Earlier 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.
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.
Can you really call it "region-locking" if you are free to use anything else but your users prefer not because it provides advantages for them? Separate keys for ÄÖÜ are important to German users. It's not done to lower the resale value but to sell it to the first user at all.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#44As a french person, I use an AZERTY keyboard, it can become really tedious when programming in some languages. The ` for instance is a pain to type : Atl Gr + 7 then space (though on apple keyboards it seems to have a dedicated key, but I'm pretty sure the space is still needed)... and of course numbers need the shift key to be held ... The issue is I can't really switch to QWERTY (accents).
I feel with you, but there is a nice solution :-)
I moved to France from Germany, I had first to unlearn the German layout (QWERTZ) and then learn the French AZERTY. But as you say it is so bad! Additionally I was travelling for work and sometimes was exposed to type on different layouts and was very frustrated because I was accustomed to AZERTY. After one week in Russia I took the decision and switched to QWERTY, configured it to US International with AltGR dead keys [1]. This give the advantage, to have all the accents you might, the French, the German ones as well as Turkish and some more by combining. Plus you have the convenience of a keyboard layout that was used to design most of the programming languages. When you are in a front of somebody's French computer - the English layout it is just some clicks away (Left Alt + Left Shift on most Windows).
Just to give you some idea of how to get the accents:
AltGr + ' + a -> á
AltGr + ` + e -> è
AltGr + " + e -> ë
Shift + AltGr + x -> Π(I don't even know if it possible to get this one on AZERTY)
Shift + AltGr + , -> Ç (This one as well is not possible on AZERT AFAIK. I think for this character the , was used because the key has on the top half 'and so on.
If you buy ThinkPads you can chose to get the US International keyboard layout. Not so sure about other brands.
This was definitely one of the better life hacks for me - I never looked back.
[1] On Linux you get the US International AltGr layout shipped. But on Windows there is only a US International, but without AltGr dead key. I find it very disturbing, because for example if you want to type a double quote (") you have to type " + Space and the same for tilde, single quote and back tick. So I had to dig around to find US International AtgGr dead key layout. This comment gives some info and hints to another alternative that I didn't yet try out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10948810
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#45No one uses Polish keyboard in Poland. Since windows 95 the first thing you do is to change from polish 214 (QWERTZ) to polish programmer keyboard (QWERTY)
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#46As someone who lives in a russian-speaking country, I must note that the russian keyboard layout is a nightmare. It's already been written about (http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/105/) but I only realized how bad the situation is when I learned how to touch type.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#47The Italian keyboard has a £ symbol. I wonder why.
That is also the currency symbol of the Italian lira [0], which was in use before the euro.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#48Apple only do one keyboard layout, it's US of A, anyone from the countries listed there will tell you that.
How could you possibly be more wrong?
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#49I 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.
It's what you're used to. I'm used to the UK keyboard and when I tried a US macbook the only thing that bothered me was the height of the return key. I found that I must have been hitting the top of it when touch typing and on a US keyboard I was hitting the \ key instead.
Re: Around the World in 33 Keyboards
#50Earlier 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.
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The left shift on an ISO keyboard is the same distance from your left pinky as the right shift is from your right pinky. I don't see how it would be (objectively) harder. Plus with an ISO keyboard you get to move the `~ key down closer. I prefer to program on a US-International / Dutch Apple keyboard. It may be Stockholm syndrome from having to work with German keyboards.