I'm not entirely sure why you would lose <>| and * keys, I have them on my ANSI keyboard. I think what you will lose though is easy access to accented characters. I could be wrong about this, but doesn't Swedish use many extra diacritical marks not common in English? Umlauts, for instance.I would set it to use a swedish layout and get blank keys. This is what a swedish iso keyboard looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Sweden.svg
Given that your profession requires that write professional copy that will be read by, I assume, many people, in Swedish, why would you want to add that headache?
Unless, of course, you're going to leave it mapped as a Swedish layout, but still use an ANSI keyboard. In that case, everything I wrote above you can safely ignore. The key above the return key could easily be used for <> and |, using the base key, shift, and alt-gr. You could probably toss * on there as well, as shift+alt-gr plus the key. And you can decide which would go on what layer, to optimize for what you do.
Also, Solutor, you have the order backwards in that pick.
How easy is it to remap keys? If I remember correctly the key above return gets set as * when you just set an ANSI keyboard to Swedish. Would I need to use something like AutoHotkey or can I do it without having to use program?
You could also just use the US International Layout which has all of these symbolsShow Image(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/KB_US-International.svg/800px-KB_US-International.svg.png)
Show Image(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5381/evolutionr.png)
I've made the change, requires some getting used to, but its doable. Do you make much use of the accented characters on the Swedish layout?Å Ä Ö are part of the alphabet just like A B C. So yeah, they are used quite a bit.
Do you make much use of the accented characters on the Swedish layout?
You mentioned getting a keyboard for home and work. That makes sense. But do you ever have to use a somebody else' keyboard? If so, that can make it harder to adapt as you will not be able to focus on a single layout.
Or does somebody else ever have to use yours? That could make them not like you :-)
Show Image(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=15054&stc=1&d=1295808890)
But korean, chinese, thai, russian...all use the ANSI physical layout.
IMG
Then again, most of those extra characters aren't characters, precisely, but rather accented characters. Devoting a key to them seems a bit excessive, in that some layouts (western spanish, for instance) you simply type the accent you want, followed by the vowel that you want, and you're good to go. If it works for them, why doesn't it work in Europe? You have `, ', : all easily accesible (where : would be umlaut), and it seems like it would be much more flexible.
ISO is for alphabets with many accented letters that need to be placed on keys that can be reasonably touch-typed. Like most European alphabets. So the Enter ends up being farther away.
I have nothing against ISO in languages with larger alphabets, but in many cases, it does seem a little weird. For instance, why does the standard ANSI keyboard have []\|{}<> all accesible on the default layer? It seems sort of wasteful, when you think about the fact that a very small portion of the population even needs those keys with the regularity that putting them on the first layer implies. Replacing those with the extra characters in extended alphabets seems like it would be a reasonable thing to do, and just move those to the AltGr level.
Then again, most of those extra characters aren't characters, precisely, but rather accented characters. Devoting a key to them seems a bit excessive, in that some layouts (western spanish, for instance) you simply type the accent you want, followed by the vowel that you want, and you're good to go. If it works for them, why doesn't it work in Europe? You have `, ', : all easily accesible (where : would be umlaut), and it seems like it would be much more flexible.
But I guess not as easy to type. Or then you'd be using the same keyboard as the filthy americans, or the dirty brits, or the evil french, or whoever the flavor of the week to hate on is.
I wish I knew the history of the BigAss key and why Taiwan uses it so much. As mentioned I don't think it is used that much in China.
Also, to be precise, they are exactly accented characters, as is Ñ in spanish. They are simply common enough in usage that they were added to the character set to simplify typing and writing. If they were truly characters in their own right, they would have different glyphs, rather than additions to existing glyphs. But that's neither here nor there, as in practice they are *treated* as characters.Bit like saying that n isn't a real letter because its just an m with one less stroke. Listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-4VdZIN8ag
Also, to be precise, they are exactly accented characters, as is Ñ in spanish. If they were truly characters in their own right, they would have different glyphs, rather than additions to existing glyphs.
My issue with the ANSI layout is not what is printed on the keys but rather that keys are gone. I came to the conclusion that it probably wont be too big of a hassle to rebind something like * and ' or <>| to the key above enter
What really pushed me towards ANSI was not that I thought that it was necessarily better than ISO, just that learning it will give me access to a wide variety of keyboards that will never be available in ISO.
(Unlike the other remapping you mentioned) you don't need to do this. :)
The ANSI key between Enter and Backspace is functionally identical to the ISO key cradled in Enter's corner. All keyboard drivers ever treat them as the same key. Here, I'm switching to Swedish right now (on Ubuntu) with an ANSI physical keybaord and I'm hitting that key: ''''' ****** ´´´´´´. The third one is with Alt.
I salute this line of thinking :)
The learning in this case though will consist of getting used to hitting just three keys differently. No pains of the "is the damn ampersand on the 6 or 7 now" sort.
I still don't get this picture. Half of those enters don't exist, and the evolution is in reverse, both in terms of chronological order and usability.
Imagine if the computer industry was instead dominated by the Italians
who generally don't need no steenkin J K W X Y
Don't get me wrong: the French used AZERTY well before IBM did anything about that, and that's not what I'm talking about; the doofus move was defining the Enter shape differently from American, which was not part of any standard by then.
This isn't really accurate. The right-hand side of the keyboard has an equal total number of keys in ANSI and ISO. The only difference in count is that one single extra key next to the left Shift
You must admit, you are Mr Data from Star Trek TNG.
I hope you'll find soon your emotional chip, whit the humor dedicated subroutines fully working.:becky:
I have nothing against ISO in languages with larger alphabets, but in many cases, it does seem a little weird. For instance, why does the standard ANSI keyboard have []\|{}<> all accesible on the default layer? It seems sort of wasteful, when you think about the fact that a very small portion of the population even needs those keys with the regularity that putting them on the first layer implies. Replacing those with the extra characters in extended alphabets seems like it would be a reasonable thing to do, and just move those to the AltGr level.
Keyboards are serious business.
That, and posting the same picture over and over again is kinda lame.
Then again, you're the guy who starts arguments with people for saying "capacitive switch".
What's the Italian for "The pot called the kettle black?"
Quite a number of European programmers use US layout keyboards because keys like that are readily accessible...
Il bue da del cornuto all'asino
But I really can't see how is applicable here.
Idioms have a funny habit of dying in translation.
.
I have a lot of friends, are both linguists and letterpress people, some of whom agree with you, some who agree with me, in regards to "what makes a letter a letter". I don't think there can ever be a firm, 100% correct definition...
Fun arguments for grad students, but for real people (what we call people not in academia), if it's on the keyboard, or they see it in a book, it's a letter. Full stop. Which is what I meant
What are the two keys, may I ask? There is only one key given by an ISO layout, the one beside LShift. The \ key is only moved a bit.
You must resist to the assimilation :-)Show Image(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5381/evolutionr.png)
BTW: dont google "big ass enter"