English (Irish keyboard) in Windows

JaTochNietDan

Well, this has been going on for a long time but I've actually only recently discovered that it's different on English (UK/US) keyboard layout in Windows.

I'm sure some of you have noticed but when you type ` (the key above TAB directly left of 1), the character doesn't appear immediately when you press it. It only appears after you've typed in another character.

Does anyone know why this is and why it's specific to the English (Ireland) keyboard set up in Windows?

It's not really an issue, just a curiosity!

AlmightyCushion

That symbol is a grave. It's for putting accents over letters (usually vowels). In programming it's used as a separate symbol. The reason it doesn't appear is that Windows doesn't know whether you want to use it as a separate symbol or if you want it as an accent over a letter. It only knows this when you put in the character that follows it. Trying hitting the grave key followed by the letter a. Then try the grave key followed by the letter q. In the first instance you'll see à and in the second instance you'll see `q.

JaTochNietDan

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

That symbol is a grave. It's for putting accents over letters (usually vowels). In programming it's used as a separate symbol. The reason it doesn't appear is that Windows doesn't know whether you want to use it as a separate symbol or if you want it as an accent over a letter. It only knows this when you put in the character that follows it. Trying hitting the grave key followed by the letter a. Then try the grave key followed by the letter q. In the first instance you'll see à and in the second instance you'll see `q.

Ah...I actually thought it might be something like this but I assumed it wasn't because we had Alt Gr for that.

It makes sense now why it's like that on the Irish keyboard configuration.

Snowbat

I think the dead key grave was added to the Irish layout in XP as an alternative entry method. Dead keys are the normal way to enter accents in many other languages.

Deadkey+space will get you the symbol alone (without a space).