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?
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.
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.
I’m a German that uses an US keyboard with the US intl layout. I think it solves all of my keyboard needs: I have the benefits of the US layout for programming and access to all common umlauts.r RAlt+S = ẞ e.g. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tastaturbelegung_US-International
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?
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.
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.
I’m a German that uses an US keyboard with the US intl layout. I think it solves all of my keyboard needs: I have the benefits of the US layout for programming and access to all common umlauts.r RAlt+S = ẞ e.g. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tastaturbelegung_US-International
Yep US intntl FTW!