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)?

37 points
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I prefer a British keyboard layout as that’s where I’ve always lived and that’s what all the computers come with here.

Actually no, Apple fucks it up a bit by having a weird hybrid between US layout and British layout which is pretty infuriating to have to learn (opt+3 for the # character? wtf Apple?), particularly given I switch between PC and Mac daily

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-1 points

This drove me up the wall. And, I hate to admit it, but I’ve let Apple win. I use Windoze for work so I’ve swapped @ and " to be the same as Apple UK, and if I run Linux I choose the Apple UK layout as well. It’s just…easier rather than having to reset my muscle memory every day.

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8 points

Ahh, I can’t make that change I’ve used windows and Linux for many more years than I have Macs, the Mac way will always be the one that feels wrong to me!

Basically means I inevitably have to do the "@£`# dance a couple times a day

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14 points

I program with the italian layout and i’s fine, the only annoyances are that to use the slash you need to use shift, all while the backslash has a dedicated key; also you need to use alt codes to type a tilde.

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1 point

the only annoyances are that to use the slash you need to use shift

Oof, that sounds really annoying. I can’t possibly imagine how I would use the terminal that way

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3 points

On Czech keyboard I use AltGr+q and it’s fine, muscle memory really does the hard work for you.

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7 points
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After a while it becomes muscle memory; the good thing is that you can see if someone is a programmer/linux user because the key for the numer 7 is more worn out than most of the others

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3 points

Same. Forward slash always annoys me. It’s in the middle of the keyboard, so you have to either 1. make a very uncomfortable move with your right hand, or 2. make an uncomfortable move with your right hand, or 3. use both your hands, which sucks.

Luckily I’m using linux, so I have tilde and backtick (`) as AltGr+’ and AltGr+ì, which are pretty easy to type.

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1 point

Just a thing for making it more sufferable; i remember that there was a program for linux called xkeycaps to edit keyboard layouts; so you could swap the backslash with the normal one. I used it so long ago that I’m not even sure if it still available and working though

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1 point

Getting used to it is going to be a hell of a ride, but this is a wonderful thing.

Also using other pc is going to be even harder lol

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1 point

I mainly write JS and not having a backtick on my keyboard annoys the fuck out of me. Other than that the Italian keyboard is alright, never had any other problems with it.

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2 points
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Started on US, now using DE for decades. But able to still use us. Slash position is a plus there.

But Swiss, that’s the stuff of nightmares! Oh and mac while usable unnecessarily sucks too imo.

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1 point

But Swiss, that’s the stuff of nightmares!

Ha, that sounds funny (in a morbid kind of way…). What’s so bad about it?

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1 point
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If I recall correctly (it’s been a while) it seems just fine and familiar (to DE I think) but when you start using it it’s just different enough to basically mess everything up and require you to validate everything.

(from an it admin perspective)

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3 points
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use Vista speech recognition} fantastic

no

no

no

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4 points

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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1 point

I’ve been using Dvorak for over 15 years. There are dozens of us!

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