It's logical that the US keyboard layout doesn't contain various international characters like ü and é. However many non-US keyboard layouts contain characters that aren't there because they're international characters, but things that, afaik, are also used in the U.S, like ° (degrees), ? (micro), ±, § (section), ½ and ².

I think the US layout is the only one not using AltGr to enable typing many more symbols, and with a longer shift key on the left instead of an extra key there.

So I'm wondering, don't you guys miss the ability to easily type those characters and have a picture of them on your keyboard?

Disclaimer: I once used Belgian azerty keyboards but have fully switched to standard US layout around a year ago and used them at work years before that.

For the most part it isn't too bad. the Degree symbol is about the only thing I find myself missing from the standard layout. Personally I would love a keyboard layout with an extra shift/function key, and a lot more 'international' characters directly printed along side the standard alphabet.

Actually I could do with a half width space bar, and put a set of quick toggles in the rest of that space. Would be cool to have all the Greek characters and such that are commonly used in Math right at my finger tips.

Fortunately there exists this US International layout, but the disadvantage is that by default it makes " and ' dead keys, totally ruining the ability to easily type "strings" when programming... Those dead keys should really have been put behind AltGr imho.

Fortunately there exists this US International layout, but the disadvantage is that by default it makes " and ' dead keys, totally ruining the ability to easily type "strings" when programming... Those dead keys should really have been put behind AltGr imho.

I think most keyboard layouts could be alot better, there are alot of unused combinations in pretty much all common layouts (we're no longer restricted to a 8 bit codepage so its something that really should move with the times a bit)

I don't think we should encourage the use of inferior character sets.

You want the United States International Alternate layout from the Jargon File's keyboard layout repository.
It is quite similar to the US International (AltGr dead keys) keyboard layout of recent X.org releases, in that it doesn't have dead ticks, citation marks or tildes. Instead it has the characters you can build with those on AltGr chords, like AltGr+w for å, etc. It's quite beneficial if you're say a swede and still want to type the last three letters of the alphabet while not having to suffer the braindead placement of brackets and braces on the canonical Swedish layout.

My hp laptop has a function key that does various laptop functions on all the F keys, but gives you access to symbols on some other keys on the keyboard. I think that's probably the best way to do it without alienating people with layout changes as the ctrl/alt/shift area is usually different on most keyboards anyway.

So I'm wondering, don't you guys miss the ability to easily type those characters and have a picture of them on your keyboard?

Can't miss what you've never had

I have memorised some alt+numpad codes though, to type things like the degrees symbol.

I used to work with a swede who insisted on using a swedish keboard on his PC, and it took me quite a few months of working with him to get used to his non-US keyboard layout - using shift a lot more, and that AltGr key that I'd never seen before. After getting used to it, I'm not fussed either way.