Hello American. I'm from one of those other pesky countries that make up most of the human population of earth, and which usually have other keyboard layouts. I have to type shift+, to get the semicolon.
Still, even on an American keyboard () are not terribly well placed.
I've been thinking about adopting the NEO2 layout(with some modification so that I get all of åäö) but haven't gotten around to it yet. Has anyone tried that for programming?
I have all my symbol characters easily accessible from the normal A-Z keys using a third shift state. It's awesome, and works with any keyboard layout (QWERTY, or even Swedish QWERTY are all fine, as is Dvorak, Colemak etc). Typing a previously uncomfortable sequence like "for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i)" is even pleasant now.
It takes about two weeks to get used to. If you try it, make sure the third shift state can be accessed from either hand (i.e. you have to have left and right keys, just like with shift or control).
I wasn't aware of NEO2 so I developed my own symbol layout using a genetic algorithm running over my code corpus, then adjusting to taste.
"practically all computers (except custom-made, e.g., in public sector and some Apple computers) use standard US layout (commonly called Polish programmers layout, in Polish: polski programisty) with Polish letters accessed through AltGr (AltGr-Z giving “Ż” and AltGr-X giving “Ź”)." http://keyboard-layout.info/#Polish
Russia uses shift+4. Can't imagine how annoying that is.
The Dutch commonly use the US keyboard layout, which makes sense because Dutch and English have the same alphabet.