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I've used a US-QWERTY keyboard layout my entire life. I've seen other layouts that do things like reduce the size of the enter/backspace keys, move the pipe operator (|) and can't wrap my head around how I would code on those.
What are your experiences? Are there any layouts that you prefer for coding over US English? Are there any symbols that you have a hard time reaching ($ for example)?
Used US and JP qwerty, both are fine after a while, but switching can be annoying (mostly I mix up whether " or @ is Shift-2).
The one thing I hate is the fragmentation of the bottom left cluster. I started out on keyboards with Ctrl Fn Super Alt, but now I much prefer Fn Ctrl Alt Super.
I used to use the Brazilian ABNT-2 layout, it's pretty much just a US layout with accent keys that activate like a second layer for some specific keys to display specific Portuguese language characters such as ç á à â ã é è etc. It's surprisingly ok for programming as it doesn't get in the way because you have special keys to activate the 2nd layer and most of them you need to spread shift + something in order to activate them. I'd say it's a good layout.
I use Coleman DH and symbols have never been an issue because I just put them on another layer 😅
If I have to work on an American QUERTY keyboard, I have to look for each and every special character. Because our QWERTZ-keyboard has them in other places to make space for all the interesting characters an American keyboard simply fails to offer.
I'm columnar-ortho now, but for standard it's ISO or bust. You can keep your shitty enter key and your overly long shift key
As a German I have to admit that the ANSI US layout is the one American standard that's superior to the European ones. That said, I still need some Umlaute and accented letters from time to time, which is why I use the EurKEY layout, which adds all of those keys back and many morek, most of them accessible without having to use a dead key.
Pro tip for fellow yuropean devs: you can change the layout, and learn it easily.
Pro tip for fellow ISO enjoyers living in yurop: a keyboard on Amazon costs 20$. If you're using a laptop you can order one from the UK, it's mostly the same, except beware of the mental asylum layouts that move this | key to the bottom left. You can also buy a laptop from amazon.com if you filter by "global shipping". Power bricks always work with 110/220/240, the cable that goes into the plug is easily exchangeable for 10$.
Some premium brands let you choose the layout. E.g. xmg, slimbook.
ABNT2 here, this layout is necessary due to many brazilian portuguese words containing accents. Plus, having ç as a separate key is great. For coding, the \ | key is left to Z and the : ; key is near the right shift, with brackets and curly braces usually around Enter, while ' " is left to 1. It's very good for programming, I'd say.
ANSI all the way. I get irrationally angry about any other layout 😡
My os is running with a slightly modified us qwerty, which then is mapped through keyboard firmware to a modified us dvorak.
I use the International keyboard because it allows me to type a lot of symbols, but US also serves me fine
Edit: to program, I use the US layout.
I'm using Finnish keyboard layout (same as Swedish basically).
I like how AltGr+7/8/9/0 gives me { [ ] }, it's a very nice grouping. The key next to Z is < > and you get | with AltGr, which is very handy.
Only thing that's mildy annoying from programming viewpoint is that for tilde and backtick, the keys do diacritics - you need to press the diacritic key and space. Backtick is especially fun, because it's shift+acute, space. Meanwhile, the key next to 1 does § ½, which aren't that handy most of the time. I often just stick backtick on that key if I'm particularly assed to customise keyboard keyouts. Similarly, shift+4 is ¤, which is another not a particularly useful character (but I don't mind that, because £ $ € all need to be produced with AltGr, which is at least consistent).
I'm using the Czech keyboard, I've put in the time to learn where the various symbols are because I didn't really want to switch constantly between CZ and US like most programmers do. When I write something like těžiště I prefer it not to look like t26i3t2, then delete it, switch keyboards and write it again.
Regarding the various types (like long/short enter, pipe symbol position etc.) I don't have a particular preference, when I switch laptops, I make mistakes for a while, then get used to it