What alternatives are there for easier access to {, [, \ in non-US keyboard mappings?

Question

All my life as a developer I was annoyed that on german keyboards some common programming characters are mapped to very awkward combinations:

• [ = AltGr + 8
• ] = AltGr + 9
• { = AltGr + 7
• } = AltGr + 0
• \ = AltGr + ß

As I'm touch typing with 10 fingers, I regularly have to leave the standard finger position to type the above characters. While I've somehow got used to it, it still makes me shiver whenever I have to type lengthy combinations of the above symbols.

There are suggestions to use US keyboard layout instead but this again makes it very hard to type the umlauts äöüÄÖÜß.

So i wonder: What smart solutions have other non-english developers come up with to avoid these awkward shortcuts?

I'm primarily interested in workarounds for Windows. But as a vim user I'd also like to hear vim-only solutions.

Answer 1

Not an actual workaround, but an alternative solution that works well for me: use the US keyboard layout for programming.

Vim's choice of keys is closely related to the US keyboard layout. On a US keyboard,

• / is to ? (Shift/) what n is to N;
• / is extremely convenient to reach, and unshifted;
• { and } are in the same place as [ and ], they differ only in shifting;
• + "line down" and - "line up" are adjacent;
• : is on the home row;
• < and > are neighbours;
• all characters commonly used in programming are accessible with Shift, there is never any need for AltGr or CtrlShift etc. combos.

The last point is especially important. Vim's command language is about eliminating modifier keys so having to use only the Shift modifier is good.

At some point I realized how my keyboard layout held me back. I switched to the US keyboard layout for programming only. I have been doing all my programming and terminal hacking in the past few years on a US layout and I'm very happy with it. Whenever I need to write an email or make notes I can just switch back. The keyboard layout is like a representation of the mindset I'm currently in: US for programming, native for other things.

I say, give it a try.