Why I can't seem to switch my damned keyboard

Ovid on 2006-08-09T14:57:34

After finally getting sick and tired of the subtle differences between US and British keyboard layouts, I figured I would just figure out how to switch the key mappings on my Ubuntu box and rely on touch typing. Oh, wait. I can't. It's not just that the keys are remapped. They keys are physically different.

Here's an image for a US Keyboard. (My first search, for just "keyboard", turned up a "not safe for work" image despite the fact that "moderate safe search was on". You've been warned.)

Here's an image for a UK Keyboard. (I searched for that on Google images and it's a complete coincidence that Ricardo Signes owns that domain).

Can you spot all of the differences between the two? Why the heck have the @ and " been switched? The backslash is now left of the 'z'. The key where it was doesn't exist on the British keyboard. The tilde is moved and some funky '¬' character is there (does anyone use that?). I do like that I no longer have to hit shift for the hashmark since I often use that for searching in vim, though. That makes one tiny pleasure to offset the pain. Just hitting 'z' all the time instead of a backslash is getting annoying as hell.

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US != UK

ajt on 2006-08-09T15:24:13

I've long puzzeled over the diffeences in keyboards. The UK keyboard is the same keyboard as the rest of the world, though the letters and such may be on diffent keys. The US is usualy a phyiscally different keyboard with a similar but annoyingly different layout to the UK keyboard. If you count the keys you will find that a standard US keyboard has a different nunber of keys to the rest of the world.

Having worked and lived in both the UK and US, I must confess that I prefer the UK layout, the double height and wide are two of the main benefits of the UK keyboard. I also like the backslash and pipe between the left shift and z. I managed to get rid of my last US keyboard at work when someone wanted it instead of a UK one, otherwise I'd offer you mine...

They're almost the same

Juerd on 2006-08-09T19:17:35

There are only two differences, physically.

1. The US backslash key is located left to the weirdly shaped Enter key, next to the QWERTY quote key.

2. There's an extra key located left of the QWERTY "Z", right of Shift.

Backslash keys are in different locations for US keyboards too. Sometimes they're above Enter, sometimes left of Backspace. Sometimes right of the right Shift, under Enter.

And I can't see how having an extra key can really bother anyone - if it's in the way, map it to the key that you were used to have there.

The problem for me, with "international" layouts, that is: non-US layouts, is the key in between QWERTY quote and Enter, that in a US mapping is backslash. My little finger is too short to still reach Enter without lifting my hand, with this layout. And that sucks.

Fortunately for me, the de facto standard in the Netherlands is the US layout. A Dutch layout exists, but almost nobody uses it (despite IBM's constant annoying opinion that we should).

possible spare keyboard

fireartist on 2006-08-10T10:24:27

Looking at the Silicon Graphics keyboard sitting next to me, it matches the US picture you posted.

I can't remember for sure, but I /might/ have a spare keyboard in my attic at home, from my old SG box. It'll be a PS/2 connector.
If I still have the spare, would you want it?
I could bring it along to YAPC in Birmingham later this month, if you'll be there.

Re:possible spare keyboard

Ovid on 2006-08-10T10:31:32

Might be OK. However, right now, finding an ergonomic keyboard which actually works is a much higher priority for me. Typing is beginning to hurt again.

Re:possible spare keyboard

fireartist on 2006-08-10T10:32:02

(I have to admit though, you might find it has a bit of a clunky action, as it's about 15 years old)