What does happen when one switch keyboard layout (alt+shift in Windows) for e.g. from en
to pl
. Does it change the charset from english to polish or maybe encoding? Why when for e.g. setting it to en
gives an ø
character while setting it to pl
gives ł
?
1 Answer
Switching keyboard layout (alt+shift in Windows) leads to switching between keyboard functional layouts.
A particular keyboard functional layout provides mapping between scancodes from a physical key (or a key combination) and some software events, e.g.
- e: the letter “e” appears on the screen;
- shift+e: the letter “E” appears on the screen;
- alt+shift: circulates through installed keyboard layouts/languages/input methods;
- ctrl+shift+Esc launches Windows Task manager;
- etc.
Another example:
- AltGR+e
- gives the
€
Euro Sign on a Czech keyboard layout (243), but - gives the
ę
Latin Letter E With Ogonek on a Polish keyboard layout (457), while
- gives the
- AltGR+u
- gives nothing on a Czech keyboard layout (243), but
- gives the
€
Euro Sign on both Polish keyboard layout (457) and Polish keyboard layout (214).