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Are the characters used in syntax of most programming languages dependent on the keys of the standard keyboard or was the standard keyboard made specifically to allow programming with these keys? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by sylowosa@lemm.ee to c/programming@programming.dev

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The title would probably be confusing, but I could not make it better than this. I noticed that most programming languages are limited to the alphanumerical set along with the special characters present in a general keyboard. I wondered if this posed a barrier for developers on what characters they were limited to program in, or if it was intentional from the start that these keys would be the most optimal characters for a program to be coded in by a human and was later adopted as a standard for every user. Basically, are the modern keyboards built around programming languages or are programming languages built around these keyboards?

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[–] OofShoot 17 points 1 year ago

Programming languages are build around the standard keyboard. Keyboards had most of the symbols you're thinking of from their typewriter days. You can see most of the special characters in these small typewriters from the mid 1900s.

https://dealdashreviewed.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/typerwriter.jpg

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gdj1kOXgkTY/UqYxNGAxBBI/AAAAAAAA8T0/DTeg3C_ydXM/s1600/71-6zsvcleL._SL1500_.jpg

With things like electric Wheel Writer typewriters, adding extra keys and symbols were less of a complexity issue and you started to see a few more extra symbols.

https://www.imagine41.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ibm_wheelwriter_2500_002_1.jpg

Recognize that there never has been a hard standard for layouts and symbols, just the industry copying and converging on systems that became popular.

[–] Turun@feddit.de 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not only do the Languages orient themselves to fit to the keyboard, they pretty much only consider the English keyboard layout.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Rule Britannia mother fuckers!

[–] Die4Ever@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I won't consider any keyboard to be designed for programming unless it has dedicated keys for characters like {}() < >_+| & !*:" without needing to hold shift for them (Lemmy seems to be improperly escaping my less-than sign and ampersand)

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 5 points 1 year ago

There's "programming" layouts, like dvorak-programming that replace the number rows for special characters and you need to shift to get the numbers.

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