Computer keyboards 3.0: a standard for better French spelling
The future standard will define a new model of complete computer keyboard for the French market. Without overturning the AZERTY1 layout, the future keyboard will offer new possibilities, respecting the particularities of writing.
Following on from typewriter keyboards and conventional computer keyboards, users will now have a 3.0 keyboard, making it easier and more intuitive to enter the special characters specific to each language, starting with French.
The technical shortcomings of French keyboards introduce a number of biases, starting with mispronunciations of words, place names and family names, often written in capital letters only. Other consequences, this time of a spelling nature, have been observed, such as the impossibility of capitalizing the “ç” (c cedilla). The countless user tips shared on the Internet and compensations offered by automatic correctors would be insufficient.
A PUBLIC ENQUIRY OPENED IN SUMMER 2016
The draft standard will be put out to public inquiry in summer 2016 to gather opinions and contributions from all interested parties. Starting with manufacturers, who are represented on an international committee2 led by France.
Today, this “Keyboard 3.0” community is brought together in a standardization commission under the aegis of AFNOR, bringing together, for example, the French Ministry of Culture’s Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France, the Imprimerie Nationale, manufacturers, universities and user associations. The commission draws up the draft standard in a broad spirit of consensus.
Background:
Following work carried out under the aegis of AFNOR, the Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France (General Delegation for the French language and languages of France), a department of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, published a booklet on its website on January 15 entitled “Towards a French standard for computer keyboards “3, with the aim of developing a new keyboard model for the French market, featuring accented capitals in particular, to improve the spelling of the French language on computers.
Despite the recommendations of numerous official bodies (Académie Française, Imprimerie Nationale, Cour de Cassation, etc.), many people believe that capital letters should not be accentuated.
It was the technical limitations of the old-fashioned typewriter that reinforced this idea, which is still reinforced today by French keyboards. But other French-speaking countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Canada) have emancipated themselves from it. What’s even more astonishing is that European countries (Germany, Spain, Finland, for example) often respect the French script better than the French can, because their keyboards allow it!
About AFNOR
AFNOR is the French reference organization for voluntary standards. It maintains and publishes the collection of all existing ones, anticipates future ones, and supports their creation at French, European and international levels. Launched on the initiative of market players, a voluntary standard is a reference framework designed to provide guidelines, technical or qualitative prescriptions for products, services or practices serving the general interest. It is the fruit of a consensual co-production between the professionals and users involved in its development.
Any organization may or may not refer to it. This is why the standard is called voluntary.
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1“AZERTY” takes its name from the first six alphabetic keys on the keyboard. This is a variant of the world-famous “QWERTY” layout.
patented in 1868 for typewriters, as it prevented the machine’s hammers from jamming.
2JTC1/SC 35 “User interfaces
