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Nice experiment. There's an issue with curly braces { }. When typing in Russian (and in other Cyrillic languages) you need to switch keyboard layout before and

by ash 14y ago

Nice experiment. There's an issue with curly braces { }. When typing in Russian (and in other Cyrillic languages) you need to switch keyboard layout before and after each curly brace. It quickly becomes tiresome to do: type-in-russian, switch-layout, type-{, switch-layout, type-in-russian etc. This problem also exist in Markdown too: square brackets [ ] and curly braces { } both live on the same keys as Russian 'Х' and 'Ъ'. Typing Russian Markdown with links is tiresome. Curiously, the only easy to type characters in Cyrillic layout are parens ( ). Update. I wrote about JCUKEN layout above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCUKEN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCUKEN. But on some keyboards the layout is extended. E.g. Mac keyboard allows you to enter square brackets [ ] with `~ key in default Russian layout [1, 2] [1]: http://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/2544/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/MC184RS?wid=800&hei=800 http://store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com/2544/as-images.apple.... [2]: http://store.apple.com/ie-business/product/MC184RS/B/apple-wireless-keyboard http://store.apple.com/ie-business/product/MC184RS/B/apple-w...

danielbarla 14y ago
Out of curiosity, do Russian developers permanently use an English layout, or just map these keys elsewhere?
- Derbasti 14y ago
  Pretty much all programming languages out there were designed with QWERTY layout in mind. You see, who in his right mind would make brackets more easily reachable than parenthesis? Hence, many many developers use a US layout instead of their native one, even if their native one is somewhat similar to the US one. This is true for pretty much all European layouts and certainly for more foreign ones. Its a mess, basically.
- anonymous 14y ago
  I'm Bulgarian, not Russian. But developers here all use standard US-English layouts. In fact, everybody I know just uses a US-English layout by default, you can't really do anything except write Cyrillic text with a Cyrillic layout.
- ash 14y ago
  Switching layout is not an issue when typing code. You just type in English because keywords and API are obviously in English. The problem exist only for markup languages where you type prose. Still (in addition to English letters) these are hard to type in Russian layout: { } ' @ # $ ` (and more - depends on a keyboard and operating system). Update. I've just noticed square brackets [ ] on my (Cyrillic) Mac keyboard. They are on a key with tilde ~ and backtick `. Before this very comment I didn't know I could type square brackets in Cyrillic layout... This should make Markdown much easier!
  - batista 14y ago
    Actually on Mac with a combination of alt/option key and the letter you should be able to right {} in cyrillic without switching layout. Search a little, and openthe "keyboard viewer" tool.

by ash 14y ago

danielbarla 14y ago

Out of curiosity, do Russian developers permanently use an English layout, or just map these keys elsewhere?

Derbasti 14y ago
Pretty much all programming languages out there were designed with QWERTY layout in mind. You see, who in his right mind would make brackets more easily reachable than parenthesis? Hence, many many developers use a US layout instead of their native one, even if their native one is somewhat similar to the US one. This is true for pretty much all European layouts and certainly for more foreign ones. Its a mess, basically.
anonymous 14y ago
I'm Bulgarian, not Russian. But developers here all use standard US-English layouts. In fact, everybody I know just uses a US-English layout by default, you can't really do anything except write Cyrillic text with a Cyrillic layout.
ash 14y ago
Switching layout is not an issue when typing code. You just type in English because keywords and API are obviously in English. The problem exist only for markup languages where you type prose. Still (in addition to English letters) these are hard to type in Russian layout: { } ' @ # $ ` (and more - depends on a keyboard and operating system). Update. I've just noticed square brackets [ ] on my (Cyrillic) Mac keyboard. They are on a key with tilde ~ and backtick `. Before this very comment I didn't know I could type square brackets in Cyrillic layout... This should make Markdown much easier!
- batista 14y ago
  Actually on Mac with a combination of alt/option key and the letter you should be able to right {} in cyrillic without switching layout. Search a little, and openthe "keyboard viewer" tool.