9 ms·

I'm looking at my English keyboard and it has Alt Gr...

Crito 13y ago
Qwerty keyboards intended specifically for the US market (opposed to the UK for instance) frequently do not have AltGr keys. The thinkpad I'm using right now doesn't have one, and the Das Professional I have next to me doesn't have it either. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've ever owned a keyboard with an AltGr key.. To get around this, I have taken to using xmodmap to turn my right alt key into altgr.
- markeganfuller 13y ago
  I'm surprised to learn that the Das doesn't have it.
  - bruceboughton 13y ago
    How would you tell…?
    - Crito 13y ago
      Ha. Only the Das Ultimate doesn't have printed keys. I got the Professional which has printed keys (http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-professional/ http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-professional/). I'm not that show-offy about touch-typing. ;)
      - StavrosK 13y ago
        Tip: I've got both, the blank one isn't worth the hassle. I can type fine on it, except when I need to find & or something. Then I have to press all the numeric keys to figure it out.
hnal943 13y ago
Living in the US, I've never heard of an AltGr key until this discussion.
- louthy 13y ago
  Living in the UK, I've always seen it and for some reason never questioned what the Gr meant!
  - Nilzor 13y ago
    so.. what does it mean?
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - flux_w42 13y ago
      According to wikipedia: The meaning of the key's abbreviation is not explicitly given in many IBM PC compatible technical reference manuals. However, IBM states that AltGr is an abbreviation for alternate graphic, and Sun keyboards label the key as Alt Graph. Apparently, AltGr was originally introduced as a means to produce box-drawing characters, also known as pseudographics, in text user interfaces. These characters are, however, much less useful in graphical user interfaces, and rather than alternate graphic the key is today used to produce alternate graphemes.
- spoiler 13y ago
  I'm from Croatia, and we have the AltGr key. However, I discovered that Alt + Control = AltGr when I needed to use it at work[1], so it's simply a shortcut, I think. [1]: We have (I recently switched to an UK keyboard, because it suits me better) keyboards at work, because the Croatian (all slavic languages, to be honest) is horrendously counterproductive for programming. Google the layout, and you'll realise why. An example: You need to press AltGr+B for `{` (if I remember correctly).
  - chinpokomon 13y ago
flux_w42 13y ago
Here in Belgium we have to AltGr-the hell out of our keyboard during development. These characters can only be entered using the AltGr key on a Belgian Azerty keyboard (be-latin1): '|' '@' '#' '^' '{' '}' '[' ']' '\' and '~' Its not realy a problem, as long as you're used to it :-)
- Crito 13y ago
  Of those, |, @, #, ^, {, } and ~ are all keys that you need shift for on US Qwerty keyboards, so I imagine that the typing experience for those is relatively comparable.
  - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
    IF those characters are actually displayed on the corresponding keys. If it's like the # on the Mac keyboard - not displayed anywhere - it's a right pain to learn in the first place without any visual cues.
    - egypturnash 13y ago
      I'm looking at a couple Macs sitting around the house and they all have a pretty obvious # right above the 3. Perhaps you mean some other key? (I do really miss the days when Mac keyboards had the weird symbol they use for "alt" in menus on the key.)
      - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
        Which keyboard do you have? The standard aluminium full size one doesn't label it, at least in the uk
        spolster 13y ago
        On US Mac keyboards, # is Shift-3. On UK Mac keyboards Shift-3 is the Pound (Sterling) sign. # becomes Alt-3 and is unlabelled on the keyboard. In the past, I've bought US Mac keyboards just for the #, or switched the keyboard layout in software to US.

Crito 13y ago

Qwerty keyboards intended specifically for the US market (opposed to the UK for instance) frequently do not have AltGr keys. The thinkpad I'm using right now doesn't have one, and the Das Professional I have next to me doesn't have it either. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've ever owned a keyboard with an AltGr key.. To get around this, I have taken to using xmodmap to turn my right alt key into altgr.

markeganfuller 13y ago
I'm surprised to learn that the Das doesn't have it.
- bruceboughton 13y ago
  How would you tell…?
  - Crito 13y ago
    Ha. Only the Das Ultimate doesn't have printed keys. I got the Professional which has printed keys (http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-professional/ http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-professional/). I'm not that show-offy about touch-typing. ;)
    - StavrosK 13y ago
      Tip: I've got both, the blank one isn't worth the hassle. I can type fine on it, except when I need to find & or something. Then I have to press all the numeric keys to figure it out.

hnal943 13y ago

Living in the US, I've never heard of an AltGr key until this discussion.

louthy 13y ago
Living in the UK, I've always seen it and for some reason never questioned what the Gr meant!
- Nilzor 13y ago
  so.. what does it mean?
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - flux_w42 13y ago
    According to wikipedia: The meaning of the key's abbreviation is not explicitly given in many IBM PC compatible technical reference manuals. However, IBM states that AltGr is an abbreviation for alternate graphic, and Sun keyboards label the key as Alt Graph. Apparently, AltGr was originally introduced as a means to produce box-drawing characters, also known as pseudographics, in text user interfaces. These characters are, however, much less useful in graphical user interfaces, and rather than alternate graphic the key is today used to produce alternate graphemes.
spoiler 13y ago
I'm from Croatia, and we have the AltGr key. However, I discovered that Alt + Control = AltGr when I needed to use it at work[1], so it's simply a shortcut, I think. [1]: We have (I recently switched to an UK keyboard, because it suits me better) keyboards at work, because the Croatian (all slavic languages, to be honest) is horrendously counterproductive for programming. Google the layout, and you'll realise why. An example: You need to press AltGr+B for `{` (if I remember correctly).
- chinpokomon 13y ago

flux_w42 13y ago

Here in Belgium we have to AltGr-the hell out of our keyboard during development. These characters can only be entered using the AltGr key on a Belgian Azerty keyboard (be-latin1): '|' '@' '#' '^' '{' '}' '[' ']' '\' and '~' Its not realy a problem, as long as you're used to it :-)

Crito 13y ago
Of those, |, @, #, ^, {, } and ~ are all keys that you need shift for on US Qwerty keyboards, so I imagine that the typing experience for those is relatively comparable.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  IF those characters are actually displayed on the corresponding keys. If it's like the # on the Mac keyboard - not displayed anywhere - it's a right pain to learn in the first place without any visual cues.
  - egypturnash 13y ago
    I'm looking at a couple Macs sitting around the house and they all have a pretty obvious # right above the 3. Perhaps you mean some other key? (I do really miss the days when Mac keyboards had the weird symbol they use for "alt" in menus on the key.)
    - oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
      Which keyboard do you have? The standard aluminium full size one doesn't label it, at least in the uk
      - spolster 13y ago
        On US Mac keyboards, # is Shift-3. On UK Mac keyboards Shift-3 is the Pound (Sterling) sign. # becomes Alt-3 and is unlabelled on the keyboard. In the past, I've bought US Mac keyboards just for the #, or switched the keyboard layout in software to US.