this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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I've used a US-QWERTY keyboard layout my entire life. I've seen other layouts that do things like reduce the size of the enter/backspace keys, move the pipe operator (|) and can't wrap my head around how I would code on those.

What are your experiences? Are there any layouts that you prefer for coding over US English? Are there any symbols that you have a hard time reaching ($ for example)?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

If I have to work on an American QUERTY keyboard, I have to look for each and every special character. Because our QWERTZ-keyboard has them in other places to make space for all the interesting characters an American keyboard simply fails to offer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use US layout for programming because it is way better than SR latin. For documents and mails, I use both variants - latin and cyrillic.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (3 children)

quick AZERTY users this is the time to show we exist!

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 9 months ago (16 children)

Never used a US keyboard in my life. Why would you think US keyboard is the norm?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I just use the Swiss keyboard layout. Here's an image from Wikipedia.

Don't have any experience with any others.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Aren’t brackets hard to type in Swiss layout? Most of my Swiss coworkers switch to US.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I use a 42 key layout modified from bépo (french dvorak inspired layout) with the altgr layer of ergol. Go check this altgr layer it's awesome for programming, and there is a version compatible for qwerty and lafayette.

╭╌╌╌╌╌┰─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┰─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┬─────┰╌╌╌╌╌┬╌╌╌╌╌╮
┆     ┃   ¹ │   ² │   ³ │   ⁴ │   ⁵ ┃   ⁶ │   ⁷ │   ⁸ │   ⁹ │   ⁰ ┃     ┆     ┆
┆     ┃   ₁ │   ₂ │   ₃ │   ₄ │   ₅ ┃   ₆ │   ₇ │   ₈ │   ₉ │   ₀ ┃     ┆     ┆
╰╌╌╌╌╌╂─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┤
·     ┃     │   ≤ │   ≥ │  *¤ │   ‰ ┃  *^ │     │   × │  *´ │  *` ┃     ┆     ┆
·     ┃   @ │   < │   > │   $ │   % ┃   ^ │   & │   * │   ' │   ` ┃     ┆     ┆
·     ┠─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌┤
·     ┃     │   ⁽ │   ⁾ │     │   ≠ ┃  */ │   ± │   — │   ÷ │  *¨ ┃     ┆     ┆
·     ┃   { │   ( │   ) │   } │   = ┃   \ │   + │   - │   / │   " ┃     ┆     ┆
╭╌╌╌╌╌╂─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂─────┼─────┼─────┼─────┼─────╂╌╌╌╌╌┴╌╌╌╌╌╯
┆     ┃  *~ │     │     │   – │     ┃   ¦ │   ¬ │  *¸ │     │     ┃           ·
┆     ┃   ~ │   [ │   ] │   _ │   # ┃   | │   ! │   ; │   : │   ? ┃           ·
╰╌╌╌╌╌┸─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┸─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┴─────┚ · · · · · ·
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I use UK-Layout, with some remappings for my precious umlauts

q+altgr ->ü
a+altgr -> ä
s+altgr -> ß
z+algr -> ö

bonus: in contrast to the peasentry I have an uppercase ẞ (altgr+shift+s)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I believe most people in Europe use a localized ISO layout. I used ISO for most my life but in my personal opinion ANSI is way better for software development. I just don't see myself ever going back to ISO.

I wish I was brave enough to try Colemak or Dvorak, tho!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

If you don't live is the US, it's pretty common to not use a US keyboard!

Tried the maltron layout at one point. Nope.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I do! ISO-ES the only real annoyance is that / is locked behind Ctrl+7 instead of next to the spacebar. My laptop is also in ANSI despite me using ISO so I'm missing a couple of keys

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'm using a Dygma Raise split keyboard with Dvorak as my main layer. The thumb clusters are great for putting difficult to reach keys in more comfortable positions. Second layer has NumPad, Directionals and Functions. Still trying to decide how to make the best use of my other layers.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

A lot of us don't live in the US to begin with, so I assume a significant portion of us just use whatever the local standard is. That's where I've been at so far, the Brazilian layout is a QWERTY variant so not that different. It does make some things more awkward, but you get used to what you have to work with.

Brackets and curly braces are less convenient off the top of my head, backticks too. Vim is a tad less ergonomic without some extra fiddling, for instance. In fact, I've been considering getting a US keyboard for coding to make that kinda thing less of an issue, US international makes accents and whatnot accessible enough that I think I could make it work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I think the @ being a shift 2 would confuse me the most in the beginning, before getting used to it.

I'm a Brazilian web developer living in Germany for 32 years and actually never used a Brazilian keyboard. I may be returning to Brazil for a while, i don't know yet if I'm adopting the Brazilian variant or just keep using the German one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ah, interesting! I'd have guessed about a dozen annoyances before that one even came to mind haha. Hope you have a good time around these parts at any rate :)

Also, I'd never taken a serious look at the German layout but going by the truly wild differences there you may as well stick with what you have IMO, I think it's what I'd do at least.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

It's all usable when you get used to it, but this is a great thread to link for people who develop scripting and programming languages, or just text-based technical interfaces. Because yeah, all that crap is designed with the US layout in mind and screw whoever chooses to use ~ and | as commonplace characters.

FWIW, I don't even code and I still keep a US layer in the background. I forget which one I'm using constantly, it's all muscle memory. I just Win-space and try again whenever I type a character and it's not what I expect.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I use the German Layout Neo which has especially nice layers for programming https://neo-layout.org/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Being Norwegian i code on the Norwegian keyboard layout. I get confused every time I get defaulted into English.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I'm using the Czech keyboard, I've put in the time to learn where the various symbols are because I didn't really want to switch constantly between CZ and US like most programmers do. When I write something like těžiště I prefer it not to look like t26i3t2, then delete it, switch keyboards and write it again.

Regarding the various types (like long/short enter, pipe symbol position etc.) I don't have a particular preference, when I switch laptops, I make mistakes for a while, then get used to it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I use the International keyboard because it allows me to type a lot of symbols, but US also serves me fine

Edit: to program, I use the US layout.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

ES represent! The most annoying thing is simply finding mechanical keyboards and keycaps for ISO-ES

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I use a sub-40% layout that I love. I wrote all about it here: https://natecox.dev/lets-talk-about-keyboards

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm using Finnish keyboard layout (same as Swedish basically).

I like how AltGr+7/8/9/0 gives me { [ ] }, it's a very nice grouping. The key next to Z is < > and you get | with AltGr, which is very handy.

Only thing that's mildy annoying from programming viewpoint is that for tilde and backtick, the keys do diacritics - you need to press the diacritic key and space. Backtick is especially fun, because it's shift+acute, space. Meanwhile, the key next to 1 does § ½, which aren't that handy most of the time. I often just stick backtick on that key if I'm particularly assed to customise keyboard keyouts. Similarly, shift+4 is ¤, which is another not a particularly useful character (but I don't mind that, because £ $ € all need to be produced with AltGr, which is at least consistent).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I began programming java climate model with UK keyboard. When I moved to the continent, switched to swiss then belgian keyboard to better type emails/docs in french, but it was so tedious for code brackets {[()]} and some other punctuation, eventually switched back. Recently converted whole codebase to Scala 3 (here's the model), now can drop most of those brackets. I speculate whether one motivation for creating scala3 (made in in Lausanne) was swiss/french keyboards.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Used US and JP qwerty, both are fine after a while, but switching can be annoying (mostly I mix up whether " or @ is Shift-2).

The one thing I hate is the fragmentation of the bottom left cluster. I started out on keyboards with Ctrl Fn Super Alt, but now I much prefer Fn Ctrl Alt Super.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I use a variant of the Neo-Layout called Bone. It's an ergonomic layout optimized for German and English text. The base layer is already different (see the linked page), but I also really like it for programming, since there's an entire layer with easily accessible symbols:

Bone layout layer 3 with symbols

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I should try that out. I've been using DVORAK for a while but have been thinking of switching to NEO

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I use a UK keyboard, | is pretty easy to access and $ is Shift+4.

I'm guessing you mean more exotic keyboards. I've used a Swedish keyboard while helping a friend and I had to ask where every key was. You probably just learn the combinations eventually.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I use UK standard layout, and Apple UK for work. It always takes me a few minutes to switch between them, but both are absolutely fine for programming. Just the odd placement of # that bothers me a little, but I tend to use that only for Python comments - which I tend to do more commonly from a keyboard shortcut anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

My os is running with a slightly modified us qwerty, which then is mapped through keyboard firmware to a modified us dvorak.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I use the FR-AZERTY layout. You honestly get used to the layout you have to work with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Did you know about the New AZERTY ? I've been using it for a few years now and it's definitely a great improvement, while remaining compatible enough with the standard one so you are not lost when you use a colleague's setup.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I heard about it, but the issue I usually have with other layouts is that I find myself looking for “infrequent” symbols a lot. Maybe this one would be easier to get used to than other layouts such as Bépo since, as you said, it is relatively compatible with regular AZERTY.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Does Dvorak count? I switched over when I made an egrodox style keyboard which in itself made typing generally more comfortable.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

use Vista speech recognition} fantastic

no

no

no

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