• ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 days ago

      Ok I’m probably the idiot here, but why not just make one key umlauts, and one for both directions of apostrophe, and then make it a key combo with the standard vowel?

      Like how shift+a = A, it would be umlaut+a = ä, and shift+umlaut+a = Ä?

      How do the real keys (pic) even work?

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 days ago

        I’m guessing (not sure) that AltGr, visible in the picture, switches between the two options like Shift would. Shift still switches case.

        I think the main reason they didn’t make an umlaut modifier is that ä is considered a distinct letter from a. It would be like asking why have a key for w (“double u”) when it could have been typed as uu. Not a perfect analogy but the best I can think of right now.

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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        10 days ago

        Swiss here, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

        In all seriousness; it’s for german, french and italian. Guess it was just determined to use the limited keys more effieciently in typing. And some are combinators and 9 of 10 people don’t know which or what.

        https://kbdlayout.info/KBDSG/

        Ah, btw, we can only type uppercase ÄÖÜ via capslock.