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I'm curious. Might it be that the multiple languages you're thinking of use different alphabets? I ask because that's (in a way) a much simpler situation to de

I'm curious. Might it be that the multiple languages you're thinking of use different alphabets? I ask because that's (in a way) a much simpler situation to deal with. If you're dealing with different alphabets then you will notice from the first keypress if you need to change the keyboard layout. In contrast, when switching between AZERTY and QWERTY, you might not notice that you're using the wrong keyboard layout until you have finished typing two sentences with three silly typos. A similar problem occurs on mobile operating systems if you use the same layout for different languages but have autocorrect turn off. You might finish two sentences and notice the spellchecker 'corrected' five words. This is because there is no visual indication as to what language your keyboard is set to (on iPhone the language is displayed only for about two seconds after you switch keyboards).

babuskov 12y ago
I'm using US English and Serbian (Latin) keyboard all the time. The difference is that US one has W,Q,X and Y, and the Serbian one has Š,Č,Ć,Đ and Ž. Except for Z and Y all other characters have the same position (QUERTY vs QUERTZ). I'm also using Hungarian which is also Latin and has Ő,Ú,É,Á and Ű. The other keys are the same. Since I have three quite similar layouts, I always have to be careful which one is currently active. And I'm also using Serbian Cyrillic which is completely different alphabeth.
- bluerobotcat 12y ago
  Interesting. In Belgium we use a version of AZERTY that's optimized for Dutch and French. Naturally, it works great for English too. That is one reason why the notion of switching keyboard layouts when switching between languages with the same alphabet struck me as odd. Nowadays I use an Apple US-QWERTY keyboard. It can be annoying when I need to enter diacritics, but it's great for programming. I never switch between keyboard layouts.
  - babuskov 12y ago
    Typing characters like [, ], /, \ with Serbian Latin keyboard requires using Alt or Shift key. I'm used to that (for about 2 years now), but many of my programmer friends still use US keyboard while programming and switch to Serbian layout for the other uses. If you switch between programming and something else often, it can become a PITA to switch the layout all the time.

babuskov 12y ago

I'm using US English and Serbian (Latin) keyboard all the time. The difference is that US one has W,Q,X and Y, and the Serbian one has Š,Č,Ć,Đ and Ž. Except for Z and Y all other characters have the same position (QUERTY vs QUERTZ). I'm also using Hungarian which is also Latin and has Ő,Ú,É,Á and Ű. The other keys are the same. Since I have three quite similar layouts, I always have to be careful which one is currently active. And I'm also using Serbian Cyrillic which is completely different alphabeth.

bluerobotcat 12y ago
Interesting. In Belgium we use a version of AZERTY that's optimized for Dutch and French. Naturally, it works great for English too. That is one reason why the notion of switching keyboard layouts when switching between languages with the same alphabet struck me as odd. Nowadays I use an Apple US-QWERTY keyboard. It can be annoying when I need to enter diacritics, but it's great for programming. I never switch between keyboard layouts.
- babuskov 12y ago
  Typing characters like [, ], /, \ with Serbian Latin keyboard requires using Alt or Shift key. I'm used to that (for about 2 years now), but many of my programmer friends still use US keyboard while programming and switch to Serbian layout for the other uses. If you switch between programming and something else often, it can become a PITA to switch the layout all the time.