Subject: Euro symbol key assignment (ISO 9995)

From: Markus Kuhn <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 11:06:07 +0200 (CEST)

Alain LaBonté - SCT wrote:

> It is recommended that level 3 of key E03 of national keyboard
> layouts be used to harmonize the entry of this character [Euro symbol]
> in different countries.

Thanks for the info.

I can report the first problem with this proposal in German language
countries:

Level 3 of E03 (also known as AltGR-3) is already used on the German
standard keyboard for SUPERSCRIPT THREE and frequently used to write
the abbreviation for qubic meters (m³) or qubic centimeters (cm³).

On the German DIN keyboard that is sold with every PC, the following
keys have already assigned level 3 meanings:

AltGR-2    E02     SUPERSCRIPT TWO        ²
AltGR-3    E03     SUPERSCRIPT THREE      ³
AltGr-7    E07     LEFT CURLY BRACKET     {
AltGr-8    E08     LEFT SQUARE BRACKET    [
AltGr-9    E09     RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET   ]
AltGr-0    E10     RIGHT CURLY BRACKET    }
AltGr-ß    E11     REVERSE SOLIDUS        \
AltGr-Q    D01     COMMERCIAL AT          @
AltGr-+    D12     TILDE                  ~
AltGr-<    B00     VERTICAL LINE          |
AltGr-M    B07     MICRO SIGN             µ

Better keys for the Euro sign from a German point of view seem to be
E04 (AltGR-4), because this key has already in level 2 (Shift-4) the
dollar currency sign. Also appropriate would be D03 (AltGr-E) in my
humble opinion, because the Euro symbol is related to the letter E,
just as the micro sign is related to the letter M.

Markus

-- 
Dipl.-Inf. Markus Kuhn, Schlehenweg 9, D-91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
mkuhn at acm.org, http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn