Chacham's Journal: Verbiage: switch places of the ;/: and '/" keys

I think i;m gonna start a movement to switch the key order of the ;/: key and the '/" key. It;s so annoying how often i hit it, and i can;t even find a common use for the colon.

Uses for the colon

[duffbeer703]

I've compiled the following list of observations regarding the colon:

* You use it more in writing than programming.
* It is useful for compiling lists
* The colon is infinitely more useful that the semi-colon

Some programming languages

[StalinsNotDead]

They use the ; as a line terminator, so it's used a fair amount in that case.

But in standard word processing the ' and " are probably far more common than ; and :.

Although the vast majority of people wouldn't be able to correctly use any of those symbols in correspondence (aside from those symbol faces that seem very popular nowadays), so the point is probably moot.*

* I make no claims that I am able to use the symbols correctly; I'm just a glass-house-dwelling stone-thrower.

Make your own

[trmj]

Make it the width of both, but only pressing the button of the apostrophe key.

Here:

[Cyberdyne]

When programming in C/C++/Java/Perl/etc, you use the (semi-)colon key at least once on most lines, twice or more in constructs such as for(;;){}. The single/double quotes, on the other hand, only normally appear in strings, which are quite rare - likewise, in English prose, the apostrophe isn't that common (only one in this paragraph) and you can go for many sentences without using a single double-quote character for anything!

As an aside, for some odd reason UK keyboards have " and @ swapped around relati

Re:Here:

[Chacham]

When programming

Good point.

"pound sign"

octothorpe [dictionary.com]

Re:Here:

[Chacham]

When programming

Good point.

"pound sign"

octothorpe [dictionary.com]

Re:Here:

[Cyberdyne]

"pound sign"
octothorpe

Only on one of the two keyboard layouts, hence my wording - it's a pound sign but not an octothorpe on the keyboard I'm using now :-)

Re:Here:

[Chacham]

You're just trying to push my buttons, aren't you?