Re: To be or not to be (ordinary keys ~ ^ `)
On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
<jordigh@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 26/05/2008, Luis Fernando Llana Diaz <luis@ramonvazquez.net> wrote:
>> But I ussually work with LaTeX, and therefore I use the chars ^ and `
>> much more often.
>
> I realise that this is probably not the best solution, but I notice
> that so many coding languages are built for usage with a US keyboard
> layout, that I often code with the US keyboard layout and switch to
> Spanish (international sort, the one with the symbols needed for
> Catalan as well) whenever I need to write prose in Spanish or French
> (not Catalan, unfortunately). Since my coding is also in English in
> order to make it easier to share (aren't you disappointed when code is
> commented in a language you don't know?), it all works out with the US
> layout.
>
> This seems to be even more true when using Emacs, where many of the
> keychords seem to be optimised for the US keyboard layout. I have
> honestly tried writing C++ with a Spanish layout, but most of the
> necessary symbols are in very uncomfortable keys. When writing LaTeX,
> I also use the English layout and type \'acc\^e\~nts l\`ik\"e th\'is.
> It seems like a small price to pay to type one extra key before typing
> all accents. Every command in LaTeX begins with a backslash anyways,
> and I have yet to see a Spanish layout that has a backslash in a
> comfortable position for frequent usage. Indeed, most Hispanophone
> Windows users I see that need to use a backslash memorise its ASCII
> code and type it with Alt+$ASCII_NUMBER combinations.
>
> So my own advice is to get used to the US layout for LaTeX and coding.
> Whether that's feasible or not, I'm not sure, but if you touch-type, a
> different keyboard configuration seems to be no more difficult than
> learning a different language. It seems to involve a similar kind of
> switch in your brain.
Venturing even more in the off-topic direction, I'd recomend the
keyboard listed as "US (international)", or sometimes as "Brazilian
(US International)", or something like that. It's a US keyboard, but
with dead keys. All accented letters in Portuguese, Spanish, French,
Italian, and possibly other languages can be typed. For example, '
(apostrophe) followed by a gives á.
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