My keyboard just died :(, and other keyboard layout discussions

[The_J]

It seems my keyboard just broke :/. Okay, it was more than 15 years old, and I have a replacement, but I'm still annoyed.
And I can't figure out on this keyboard where the bigger than/smaller than signs are .

EDIT: It's made by Fujitsu Siemens computers, so it must be from the era 1999-2009. Keyboard, you will be deeply missed .

Moderator Action: Moved from the rants thread into a separate thread.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It seems my keyboard just broke :/. Okay, it was more than 15 years old, and I have a replacement, but I'm still annoyed.
And I can't figure out on this keyboard where the bigger than/smaller than signs are .

I thought it was standard that they're above the comma and period. Or is there a difference between North American and European keyboards?

 

[MaryKB]

I thought it was standard that they're above the comma and period. Or is there a difference between North American and European keyboards?

I'd be very interested to see a picture of this keyboard.

 

[The_J]

Between the type of keyboard layouts, yes.
You have the English QWERTY keyboard, whereas in Germany we use the QWERTZ layout (and in other countries other layouts, like AZERTY in France).
Now, that itself is not an issue, but now I have a QWERTY keyboard set to QWERTZ (main actual difference for keys: Z and Y swapped, and special signs on different places; not an issue if you type blind). The bigger/smaller signs on QWERTZ should be to the left of the QWERTY Z-key, but this keyboard has an elongated shift-key, so there is actually no key there.
And I actually need these signs. I'll later today have a look into how to re-assing the keys, because the key to the left of the QWERTZ backspace is useless, it only has accents, which I never use. So If I can put the bigger/smaller signs there, that would work. Else I'd actually need a different keyboard.

EDIT:


So the bigger/smaller key, to the right of the left shift, this one isn't there, because this keyboard has a longer shift.

 

[Samson]

I have had to expose myself very briefly to xkbcomp. It is really powerful, but about as intuitive as most commands. But hey, there is only one intuitive interface.

Spoiler :

The nipple

 

[tjs282]

the key to the left of the QWERTZ backspace is useless, it only has accents, which I never use

But aren't you working in France at present? Are you not typing anything in French?

 

[The_J]

Yes, I am, and no, I do not .
Bloody pandemic, no real use to learn any French. And even then I'd probably not know where to put the accents .

 

[tjs282]

And even then I'd probably not know where to put the accents .

I never let a little thing like that stöp me: I jüst scätter Umlauts randömly and hope för the best...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yes, I am, and no, I do not .
Bloody pandemic, no real use to learn any French. And even then I'd probably not know where to put the accents .

Just use the Canadian English keyboard. It's the default on mine even though it's full of French letters.

Apparently Canadian English is actually French, which means I can't even type a question using it because the question mark comes out as an accented capital E.

So I switch to the American English keyboard.

 

[The_J]

That actually looks closer to what I need. But I'm so used to typing how I do it, that I really only want to re-learn minor things. Because otherwise I'd learn directly the QWERTY. Or heck, even Dvorak. But I can't be bothered, there's a better use of my time ^^.

 

[really]

When I was working in France IT met me the first day and gave me a new QWERTY keyboard.

Irish keyboards have a Euro symbol. €€€€€
Plus extra shortcuts for accents áéíóú - aigu only though, no grave.

 

[Sarin]

When I was working in France IT met me the first day and gave me a new QWERTY keyboard.

Irish keyboards have a Euro symbol. €€€€€
Plus extra shortcuts for accents áéíóú - aigu only though, no grave.

You should see Czech keyboard. The number row above standard keys has been completely changed, and is used for special characters-ěščřžýáíé. And it's not enough, some, like ť, or capital special characters, have to be written by awkward way of first pressing key next to backspace, or shift+that key, and then the letter "modified" by the accent.

 

[MaryKB]

*hugs her American keyboard*

 

[The_J]

It gets worse: In Slovenia they use either the QWERTZ or QWERTY, despite the Slovenian alphabet not having 4 of the latin characters, and having instead 5 additionally o_O.

 

[elmurcis]

Woah, never thought about keyboards "on global scale". So happy that all "special" letters are solved with simple ' use on otherwise regular Qwerty stuff ("special" letters are: ā; č; ē; ģ; ī; ķ; ļ; ņ; š; ū; ž)

 

[Birdjaguar]

I would approve of it if the rest of the world "culturally appropriated" American English and US keyboards without our permission.

 

[Samson]

I wonder how they work in China.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I would approve of it if the rest of the world "culturally appropriated" American English and US keyboards without our permission.

It was actually quicker and easier when I was using a typewriter. If any of my clients had foreign letters in their papers I'd just take a black pen and do them myself (it really does pay to have neat handwriting and know the French and Greek alphabets).

 

[Sarin]

I wonder how they work in China.

It's a mess. I read the Wikipedia entry on that when I tried to determine whether there's any truth behind the popular image of Chinese keyboard, and....basically there are over dozen systems that try to disassemble the characters into components that could fit the regular keyboard, either along graphical or phonetic lines, but they all need complicated rules to make it work with the limited amount of keys available, and usually work only for some dialects. So there's no "standard" Chinese keyboard.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It seems my keyboard just broke :/. Okay, it was more than 15 years old, and I have a replacement, but I'm still annoyed.
And I can't figure out on this keyboard where the bigger than/smaller than signs are .

Just to offer proper condolences: