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

[Takhisis]

WHy do keyboards have three different speech marks ("'`) but no degree symbol? I need a degree more often than I need two speech marks, let alone three, and when I do it is usually something dodgy like metaprogramming that probably should be done another way.

Couldn't you check your OS for different keyboard layouts?

 

[Samson]

Couldn't you check your OS for different keyboard layouts?

I am sure I could, and I could use xmodmap to set any key to be any character. I may just have to try that.

 

[Takhisis]

You should! For some strange reason the ‘Spanish for Spain’ is the layout that best maps out and also most closely (read: least imperfectly) matches my needs in terms of symbols needed in this particular partition/OS, in terms of Latin character sets at least.

 

[MaryKB]

Can't you just remap one of your keys?

 

[The_J]

Are we talking about the °?
That is shift + the button the the left of the 1.

 

[Snerk]

Are we talking about the °?
That is shift + the button the the left of the 1.

No that's §

 

[The_J]

Bloody keyboard layouts.
Okay, that is the position where it is on the QWERTZ keyboard, but yes, I checked, indeed, you don't have it on the QWERTY.

 

[Snerk]

Btw what the hell is § anyway?

 

[Takhisis]

Section sign.

 

[Snerk]

Does this mean I'm getting sectioned?

 

[Samson]

Can't you just remap one of your keys?

Yes. Depending on your OS, for me it is:

xmodmap -e 'keycode <value>=<action>'

 

[uppi]

WHy do keyboards have three different speech marks ("'`) but no degree symbol? I need a degree more often than I need two speech marks, let alone three, and when I do it is usually something dodgy like metaprogramming that probably should be done another way.

I suspect that ASCII is to blame. 95 characters should be enough for anyone, right? And the degree symbol did not make the list. That the standard Qwerty layout has exactly the same characters cannot be a coincidence. Other languages which cannot be represented by ASCII, needed to break with that anyway and then rethought what character they would like. Although even they would not get rid of the ASCII character set, just put the supposedly lesser useful ones in awkward places.

Qwertz has an easy to reach degree symbol, but the curly braces are quite awkward. Which is good for writing weather reports, less so for writing C.

 

[Birdjaguar]

It's been over a year and my keyboard was getting pretty gross with lots of cat hair added to the mix of other stuff. So it is now reborn, clean and shiny.

 

[Takhisis]

To get hair and such stuff out from between and under the keys I recommend sewing needles.

 

[Birdjaguar]

To get hair and such stuff out from between and under the keys I recommend sewing needles.

I take all the keys off and wash them in bowl; use compressed air on keyboard base and then "scrub it" with Q-tips dipped in alcohol.

 

[Samson]

I hold it upside down over the bath and shake it.

 

[Takhisis]

I take all the keys off and wash them in bowl; use compressed air on keyboard base and then "scrub it" with Q-tips dipped in alcohol.

You remind me of olden days when we'd lovingly take the VHS player apart and do such maintenance.

 

[Broken_Erika]

You remind me of olden days when we'd lovingly take the VHS player apart and do such maintenance.

My parents had a "Cleaning Tape".

 

[Takhisis]

Wow, I'd forgotten about those, but yes!