Turkish keyboard remapping

Güle güle Mr Qwerty, hoş geldin Ğüerty Bey!

This software has been tested for Windows 95/98/Me only!

If you are a Turkish-speaker living abroad, you will probably have noticed that you are poorly served when it comes to typing Turkish in Windows (unless you happen to have brought a separate Turkish [physical] keyboard with you). If you wish to reconfigure the keyboard for Turkish input using Windows 95/98 Multilanguage Support, you are limited to one of the following two layouts:
Q type
The keyboard continues to have a QWERTY layout, with the Turkish letters crowded onto various keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard.
F type
The keyboard is remapped according to the layout used on keyboards in Turkey, in which QWERTY is replaced by FGĞIOD.
Each system has its own disadvantages:
  • Q type taxes your memory by forcing you to remember the quite arbitrary positions of the Turkish letters on the right-hand keys, as well as displacing the punctuation marks to unfamiliar keys (for example the colon [:] is where the question-mark [?] ought to be).

  • F type, it is true, is far better suited to the Turkish alphabet, and brings the Turkish letters centre-stage while banishing Q, W and X to the wings; however, the layout is now completely different from what you see in front of you—which is still good old QWERTY.
Faced with these two options, one is reminded of the Turkish proverb: Deveye yokuşu mu seversin inişi mi diye sormuşlar, deve düz yol ne güne duruyor demiş. (They asked the camel: "Do you prefer going uphill or downhill?" The camel replied: "What's wrong with a level road?") Could there be a simpler system—a düz yol? We believe there is.

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