I asked on twitter which symbols are hardest to type on non-US keyboards.
I didn't get a ton of responses, but I think it was clear which ones were most problematic.
| char | count | visual | notes |
|---|---|---|---|
& |
4 | #### | |
^ |
10 | ########## | Swedish: Dead Key, German: Typing vowels after becomes â |
$ |
3 | ### | |
@ |
3 | ### | |
# |
4 | #### | |
! |
1 | # | |
? |
2 | ## | |
~ |
5 | ##### | Swedish: Dead Key |
` |
9 | ######### | German: Typing vowels after becomes á |
' |
1 | # | |
" |
1 | # | |
( |
3 | ### | |
) |
3 | ### | |
[ |
6 | ###### | Swedish/French: AltGr |
] |
6 | ###### | Swedish/French: AltGr |
{ |
7 | ####### | Swedish/French: AltGr |
} |
7 | ####### | Swedish/French: AltGr |
< |
3 | ### | |
> |
3 | ### | |
, |
1 | # | |
. |
1 | # | |
; |
2 | ## | |
: |
2 | ## | |
+ |
1 | # | |
- |
1 | # | |
* |
1 | # | |
/ |
2 | ## | |
% |
2 | ## | |
= |
3 | ### | |
_ |
2 | ## | |
| |
2 | ## | |
\\ |
3 | ### | Swedish: AltGr |
I should also mention a few things I noticed about that survey:
- Lots of developers already switch to US keyboards because of use of these characters in various languages.
- Many of the most disliked characters are very common in lots of languages already, but their frequency also might be why they jump out as annoying to people.