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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: spremino on Sat, 18 June 2016, 10:59:32

Title: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: spremino on Sat, 18 June 2016, 10:59:32
Both round and curly/square brackets are swapped - that is: the closing bracket is on the left of the opening one - when compared to all other layouts that I know.  Does anybody know the reason for sure?

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Hebrew_keyboard_layout.png)
Title: Re: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: demik on Sat, 18 June 2016, 11:06:53
jew know i never noticed that
Title: Re: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: davkol on Sat, 18 June 2016, 15:15:27
Right-to-left writing system.

Sincerely,
Cpt. Obvious
Title: Re: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: HeeCh2ei on Sat, 18 June 2016, 15:19:35
Both round and curly/square brackets are swapped - that is: the closing bracket is on the left of the opening one - when compared to all other layouts that I know.  Does anybody know the reason for sure?

Show Image
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Hebrew_keyboard_layout.png)


Just another instance of QWERTZ leetness.
Title: Re: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: davkol on Sat, 18 June 2016, 15:21:52
…and for the really lazy, a direct quote from the relevant Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_keyboard#Standard_Hebrew_keyboard):

Quote
One noteworthy feature is that in the standard layout, paired delimiters -– parentheses (), brackets [], braces {}, and angle brackets (less/greater than) <> –- have the opposite visual representation from the standard in left-to-right languages. Thus, an open parenthesis in a right-to-left language has the same visual representation as a close parenthesis in a left-to-right language. Key mappings follow the logical rather than the physical representation. For instance, whether on a right-to-left or left-to-right keyboard, Shift-9 always produces a logical "open parenthesis". On a right-to-left keyboard, this is written as the Unicode character U+0029, "right parenthesis": ). This is true on Arabic keyboards as well. On a left-to-right keyboard, this is written as the Unicode character U+0028, "left parenthesis": (.
Title: Re: Why the Hebrew layout has its brackets swapped?
Post by: Malenky on Sat, 18 June 2016, 16:03:36
The answer to this is so oddly satisfying.