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@typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt

Post #2536679

2026-05-14 14:30 UTC

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@0xabad1dea/116573282583168387 There's a point here that should be reiterated for anyone doing programming language design, or any text-based user interface: Certain characters that are very easy to type on US keyboards, like [ ] { } \ ` and so on, tend to be much harder to type on any other keyboard. When I first got into programming, the Portuguese keyboard i used meant the learning curve was even steeper in the beginning. Remember the anagram "ASCII" doesn't start with "Universal" it starts with "American".

Replies (9)

  • @slava@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-14 14:34

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt Factor’s heavy reliance on punctuation also made it difficult to *talk* about code, which perhaps was a blind spot of mine because the language was primarily designed and discussed on IRC

    Open ##2904089

  • @drj@typo.social 2026-05-14 14:39

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt there was a good/bad period when i literally saw Swedish programmers using ø (for {?) and Japanese programmers using ¥ for \. Like, in their on-screen listings. Because it was all 8-bit and the actual compiler didn't care about the so-called encoding.

    Open ##2904092

  • @deech@mastodon.social 2026-05-14 14:57

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt sexps win again!

    Open ##2904093

  • @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt Uiua is always fascinating here cause all it's symbols have a short textual name that the language can reshape into the symbols for you. It does have the effect that Uiua conversations look like you are speaking a conlang.

    Open ##2904094

  • @dt@mastodon.top 2026-05-14 14:58

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt i constantly switch (alt-cmd-space on macos) between us & fr-ca keyboards when programming precisely because of this. (the physical keyboard itself is french-canadian so i have to thank 25 years of muscle memory for knowing exactly where those [ ] { } characters are).

    Open ##2904095

  • @Tumby@meow.social 2026-05-14 15:23

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt I'm German. I have made my own keyboard layout specifically to make typing ()[]{} easier. Programming was just getting too painful on my hands. Oh, and I switched ` with ´ so that I don't have to hold the Shift key whenever I want to write a code block in Markdown. I recently also learned that JavaScript uses ` as a delimiter for some strings too. Why was this symbol even added to ASCII instead of, say, the degree sign (°)? Now, the next problem I have is that I have no idea how to easily get this custom keyboard layout on a Linux system. (It's super easy on Windows!) The only information I found is to edit some specific file that lists all keyboard layouts and hope that it doesn't get overwritten after an update. Not to mention that editing the file requires admin privileges, something I still don't understand how to easily deal with other than doing everything inside the console, at which point I would rather go outside.

    Open ##2904097

  • @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt the italian keyboard does not even have a `

    Open ##2904098

  • @RosaCtrl@social.vivaldi.net 2026-05-14 15:58

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt this is why I can’t just leave macOS. I switched to English layout when I learnt to touch type, and because I was on a Mac I could still type in Spanish easily. Same now that I write some Norwegian. One layout, three languages, no problem. Your point still stands though, but I won’t shut up about macOS being great in this regard

    Open ##2904099

  • @ddg@techhub.social 2026-05-14 16:45

    @typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt I wonder how much overlap in easily-to-type special characters there is over all the major keyboard layouts, though… I know this isn't happening anytime soon (for good reason), but in the case of Portuguese ç is a waste of a key; I'd love to see it assigned to alt-c, to open up a key.

    Open ##2904102