Programming

use Vista speech recognition} fantastic

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I use the German Layout Neo which has especially nice layers for programming https://neo-layout.org/

I'm columnar-ortho now, but for standard it's ISO or bust. You can keep your shitty enter key and your overly long shift key

I've used various layouts of non-US keyboards over time since I've lived and worked in various countries in Europe and whilst you do start by looking down to find stuff and for a while will at times unthinkingly choose the "old" position for a symbol when touch typing, you just get used to the new layout in a month or two, even if touch typing - your brain just starts directing your fingers to the new positions.

That said, for seldom used symbols you still have to look down and check on which key that symbol is (it's generally printed on the key), I suppose because you don't really exercise those enough for your brain to reliably start sending your fingers to the new position without looking.

(So given the languages I usually program with, for stuff like semicollon and open and close brackets and parentesis the brain quickly adjusts but stuff like the dollar sign I still have to look down and check, which is really noticeable if for some reason I have to do some shell scripting or similar)

Things like letters and numbers don't change position so that's not a problem.

Once you've become accustomed to a new layout, switching keyboards between those layouts is a bit like switching the side of the road you're driving (say, between the UK and Continental Europe) - you get a couple of hours of extra memntal tension and having to think things a bit more at first and after that you've fully readjusted.

Does Dvorak count? I switched over when I made an egrodox style keyboard which in itself made typing generally more comfortable.

I began programming java climate model with UK keyboard. When I moved to the continent, switched to swiss then belgian keyboard to better type emails/docs in french, but it was so tedious for code brackets {[()]} and some other punctuation, eventually switched back. Recently converted whole codebase to Scala 3 (here's the model), now can drop most of those brackets. I speculate whether one motivation for creating scala3 (made in in Lausanne) was swiss/french keyboards.

I use the FR-AZERTY layout. You honestly get used to the layout you have to work with.

I use Coleman DH and symbols have never been an issue because I just put them on another layer 😅

My laptop has an italian layout keyboard because it was a pain to find a good priced one with the US layout. On windows there's no way to do the ` and ~ symbols without using Alt combinations and on linux you need to use a weird compose key. Also square brackets require you to press Shift and curly brackets require both Shift and Alt.

I'm using the Czech keyboard, I've put in the time to learn where the various symbols are because I didn't really want to switch constantly between CZ and US like most programmers do. When I write something like těžiště I prefer it not to look like t26i3t2, then delete it, switch keyboards and write it again.

Regarding the various types (like long/short enter, pipe symbol position etc.) I don't have a particular preference, when I switch laptops, I make mistakes for a while, then get used to it

They wouldn't be using them if they didn't think they were superior. Even if it is just because they are used to them.

My os is running with a slightly modified us qwerty, which then is mapped through keyboard firmware to a modified us dvorak.

Spanish kb here

I use the International keyboard because it allows me to type a lot of symbols, but US also serves me fine

Edit: to program, I use the US layout.

I pretty much grew up on Ubuntu's default polish layout - a modified version of the polish programmer's keyboard , which itself is a modified version of ANSI

(the preview is slightly broken , but oh well)

I cannot begin to stress how used I am t o having an extra key layer accessible by just pressing alt . Note that the current version I have has some dead keys as well on the third and fourth layer .

I believe most people in Europe use a localized ISO layout. I used ISO for most my life but in my personal opinion ANSI is way better for software development. I just don't see myself ever going back to ISO.

I wish I was brave enough to try Colemak or Dvorak, tho!