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[ qwerty vs. qwertz ]
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Introduction
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This article briefly discusses why the
qwerty
keyboard layout is superior to
qwertz,
the keyboard layout predominantly used for German keyboards.
I started using the qwerty keyboard layout (in particular,
the
US keyboard layout)
a couple of years ago because I
wasn't satisfied with the qwertz (Germany) keyboard layout
(hereafter just called qwerty and qwertz, respectively).
qwertz has several drawbacks compared to qwerty. This
becomes especially true if you're using a Unix based
operating system and/or programs designed primarily for the
qwerty layout (examples include
vim and
LaTeX).
In the following I''ll try to give you an
overview of the advantages as well as the disadvantages of
qwerty over qwertz.
Note: I'll assume that you're able to type
with ten fingers. Otherwise it might be more difficult
to see any real advantage.
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Overview
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▪ advantages
▪ disadvantages
▪ switching to qwerty
▪ links
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Advantages of qwerty
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-
As mentioned before, there exist various programs which
can be used very efficiently with the qwerty layout,
whereas it feels rather awkward with qwertz. Let's take
vim as an example. There
are several commands where you'll have to press
{, }, [,
], etc.
Because you'll have to leave the Home Row (asdf
jklö) and, for example, reach "Alt Gr"
plus another key in order to type those characters, you
will probably end up ignoring most of this handy
commands.
-
Another example is
LaTeX.
When writing a LaTeX document you will make extensive
use of the characters
{, }, [,
], \.
Typing these
characters all the time really gets on one's nerves.
However, with qwerty all of these characters can easily
be reached with your right little finger (combined with
the Shift key in the cases of { and }).
-
Common programming languages (such as C, C++, Perl,
etc.) also require you to type characters like
{, }, [,
], and ;
pretty often. One might argue that
programming is not about speed, and this is definitely
true. However, it's much more comfortable!
-
In a Unix environment you very often need to type
/ (as well as |,
<, and >, though not
that often). The slash / is just where the
minus sign - is located on the qwertz
layout, and thus easily reachable. This is also true
with | (qwertz: Shift + #),
< (qwertz: Shift + ,), and
> (qwertz: Shift + .). Especially the
latter ones can be located at quite an unhandy position
on laptop keyboards.
-
If it comes to letters the only difference (apart from
the German umlauts) is that Y and Z are swapped. This
is sometimes referred to as a drawback but in my
opinion it is rather an advantage because it's easier
to reach Y than Z on the qwertz layout. Your mileage
may vary.
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Disadvantages of qwerty
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-
One obvious disadvantage is that you are usually not be
able to write ä, ö, ü, and ß anymore. You
can work around this by writing
ae,
oe, ue, and ss instead of ä,
ö, ü, and ß, respectively. (LaTeX offers "a,
"o, "u, and "s for this.)
-
If you need to write on a qwertz keyboard again, it
will probably feel as awkward as it currently does the
other way round (well, not quite as awkward but still
unfamiliar). Although I'm not quite sure how long it
actually takes to (mentally) switch between the two
layouts because the only time I had to use qwertz again
was for just a few minutes.
-
Some characters are better reached on qwertz:
- and +. These two are the
only ones I can actually think of.
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Switching layouts
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Of course, you don't need an actual US keyboard in order to
use the qwerty layout. Just change the keyboard layout
with the mechanisms provided by your operating system /
distribution. If you're able to type with ten fingers it
shouldn't be too big a problem to get used to the new
layout and to ignore the now wrongly labeled keys (you're
not looking at the keyboard while typing anyway, are you?).
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Links
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