Author Topic: Euro keyboard (Read 5580 times)

hingyfan · « **on:** March 01, 2003, 08:18:00 PM »

As i said in another post, i just got back from Paris. My wife had a company-lent IBM laptop in the room, but she quickly found out that even dialing into their network, hotel phone bills can quickly add up.
So with some free time while she was working, i wandered into an internet cafe. The price seemed right at 3 euros an hour but i quickly got bogged down when i realized the keyboard was completely different. Ive been to similar places in Ireland but i guess since they speak English (sort of), they use our setup.
This keyboard was basically different with the letter keys scattered around and all the numbers on the shift. The @ sign was almost impossible to find.
I checked a computer store and they were all like that, even Macs. But a look at a keyboard in a museum showed a regular setup.
So is this new and what countries use it?

krissel · « **Reply #1 on:** March 02, 2003, 01:16:00 AM »

I doubt it was the DVORAK layout with your description of the numbers.

But there are different layouts for different countries, at least for special keys. keyboard discussion

Bit of history

The definitive answer will come from mriousbe, taliesen, Spartacus, etc.

[ 03-02-2003, 02:22 AM: Message edited by: krissel ]

krissel · « **Reply #2 on:** March 02, 2003, 01:31:00 AM »

Better history of touch typing and more...

Now here's a keyboard we all need.

Spartacus · « **Reply #3 on:** March 02, 2003, 05:41:00 AM »

Not quite sure what that keyboard layout you saw must have looked like, hingyfan.

The standard European keyboards have the Q W E R T layout which I believe is the same in the US. The @ is on Apple's Pro Keyboard on option-L. On PC keys it's somewhere else - I'm not quite sure where, but I believe it is a combination of crtl and a key.
On German keyboard's you'll find special characters such as ü, ä or ö. And on a British you'll probably find a key for pounds (right?).

[ 03-02-2003, 06:43 AM: Message edited by: Spartacus ]

CyberPet · « **Reply #4 on:** March 02, 2003, 10:19:00 AM »

Dunno about French keyboards but I'm sure they have QWERTY-keyboard layout just like us in Sweden. Only diffrence is the special characters that each language use. They often switch places. For instance the $ sign is shift-4 for you but we have the €-sign there so if we went to get the dollar sign we have to press option-4 (shift-option for the cent sign).

A picture of my keyboard: http://homepage.mac.com/petrah/.Pictures/K...KeyboardSWE.jpg

Petra

hingyfan · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2003, 04:40:00 PM »

It was not like that at all.
The basic letter keys were way different. The Q and A were reversed and the W was on the right. Even for a hunt-and-peck typist like me it was maddening.
Also the numbers were on shift. Im guessing now the accents they use were on the normal part.
This layout was used in both inetnet cafes i tried and was the norm on all computers sold in stores including Macs. i did see a normal keyboard in the Louvre.

taliesin · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2003, 04:53:00 PM »

It is done to confound you.
The best pic I can find right now is this (I'm not taking a photo of my own and this is but half of it):

MS as well, I'm afraid. An Apple Pro keyboard is slightly different, with the @ in the top left and one or two other changes.
But this is more or less what you encountered.
AZERTY.
It works both ways.
I'm used to it, but it's a right sod when it comes to playing games.

However, now you know why it used to drive me crazy back in the days when I used an AZERTY at home and they insisted on a QWERTY at work!
Roll on the RSI.
Some people can switch without a hassle, but I'm no longer one of them.

[ 03-02-2003, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: taliesin ]

CyberPet · « **Reply #7 on:** March 03, 2003, 06:03:00 AM »

That's the first!

Has A and Q switched place because the use of Q is more common than the A in french? Because as far as I know the least used letters are the ones far from your strongest fingers (index and long fingers).

Oh well... very funky!

hingyfan · « **Reply #8 on:** March 03, 2003, 07:49:00 AM »

That's the bugger. Cost me 7 seven euros just to find the @.

Gregg · « **Reply #9 on:** March 04, 2003, 12:46:00 PM »

krissel, those history articles are interesting, because.... In downtown Milwaukee (Wisconsin) there is a bronze plaque (at the corner of 4th and State) commemerating the invention of the first typewriter on that site! Now I'm gonna have to go down there and read it again!

[ 03-05-2003, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: Gregg ]

taliesin · « **Reply #10 on:** March 04, 2003, 01:27:00 PM »

Seven euros, ouch!!!

I wish I'd warned you. When I've gone on about AZERTY before, I'd sort of taken it for granted that people realized how different these things were; I hadn't realized myself that in fact in Roman characters there are essentially two types of keyboard.
Because you're right in part, Petra, some of the differences are based on letter frequency in the language. And others, presumably like your own keyboard, arise from the need for é, ç, ö and the like.
Even from one make to another, there are changes. On the French keyboard at work, hingyfan, that blasted @ is not only near the top right, but requires an "alt" to get it!!

I much prefer having the accents to hand, though. Before that, I had to remember a host of abstruse combinations with the number pad.
The morning I told them, after a bout of RSI, that I was walking out that instant if they failed to give me the French keyboard, wicked tongues said that the only reason I wanted one was to write trade union tracts...

Highmac · « **Reply #11 on:** March 04, 2003, 04:37:00 PM »

On my iMac keyboard @ is Shift-2, Shift-3 is the pound sign, Shift-4 is dollar; I would guess the rest are as the US keyboard, more or less... (Duh! Tried to take a snapshot of Keycaps but of course key combination just puts a character in the window )

[ 03-04-2003, 05:40 PM: Message edited by: Highmac ]

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Author Topic: Euro keyboard (Read 5580 times)