Special characters [, ], {, }, \, ~, and | are often used in programming, and yet are notoriously strenuous to type on the Danish keyboard layout.
Some hackers simply switch to a English keyboard layout altogether to accommodate for this, but this can lead to a lot of frustration because of the unfamiliar placement of ;, (, <, etc., which were not relevant for the motivation to switch in the first place.
Replace æ, ø, å with these special characters, and make ~ type out instantly instead of functioning as an accent:
| original character | new character |
|---|---|
æ |
[ |
Æ |
{ |
ø |
] |
Ø |
} |
å |
\ |
Å |
vertical pipe |
~ (accent) |
~ (character) |
The reason that the mentioned keys are so out of the way in the Danish keyboard layout is that they had to yield for æ, ø, å. But since we don't need them for programming, why not add another keyboard layout that makes this change, and no other? That is exactly what the dk_prog layout does.
The intention is that the user switches to this layout when programming, and then goes back to the normal one when needed.
Simply run the relevant MSI installer and restart your computer. On Windows 10, you can swap between layouts using Win + Space.
The source is based on the Danish layout and is found in dk_prog.klc. Download the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Editor 1.4, open the layout source, and navigate Project->Build DLL and Setup Package to build. I edited the source by hand because the GUI did not work properly.