Editing Latvian language (section)

=== Latvian on computers ===
[[File:Latvian Ergonomic Keyboard Layout.png|upright=1.5|thumb|The rarely used Latvian ergonomic keyboard layout]]

In late 1992, the official Latvian computing standard LVS 8-92 took effect. It was followed by LVS 24-93 (Latvian language support for computers) that also specified the way Latvian language (alphabet, numbers, currency, punctuation marks, date and time) should be represented on computers. A Latvian ergonomic keyboard standard LVS 23-93 was also announced several months later, but it did not gain popularity due to its need for a custom-built keyboard.<ref name="Gross">{{cite web |last=Gross |first=Arnis |url=https://latviansonline.com/the-next-challenge-for-the-latvian-language/ |title=The Next Challenge for the Latvian Language |date=July 4, 2015 |publisher=Latvians Online |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>

Nowadays standard [[QWERTY]] or the US keyboards are used for writing in Latvian; diacritics are entered by using a [[dead key]] (usually ', occasionally ~).<ref name="Gross"/> Some keyboard layouts use the [[modifier key]] [[AltGr key|AltGr]] (most notably the Windows 2000 and XP built-in layout (Latvian QWERTY), it is also default modifier in X11R6, thus a default in most Linux distributions).

In the 1990s, lack of software support of diacritics caused an unofficial style of orthography, often called ''[[Transliteration|translits]]'', to emerge for use in situations when the user is unable to access Latvian diacritic marks (e-mail, newsgroups, web user forums, chat, [[SMS]] etc.). It uses the [[List of Latin letters|basic Modern Latin alphabet]] only, and letters that are not used in standard orthography are usually omitted. In this style, diacritics are replaced by digraphs&nbsp;– a doubled letter indicates a long vowel (as in Finnish and Estonian); a following ''j'' indicates palatalisation of consonants, i.e., a cedilla; and the postalveolars ''Š'', ''Č'' and ''Ž'' are written with ''h'' replacing the [[caron|háček]], as in English. Sometimes the second letter, the one used instead of a diacritic, is changed to one of two other diacritic letters (e.g. š is written as ss or sj, not sh), and since many people may find it difficult to use these unusual methods, they write without any indication of missing diacritic marks, or they use digraphing only if the diacritic mark in question would make a semantic difference.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Veinberga |first=Linda |date=2001 |title=Latviešu valodas izmaiņas un funkcijas interneta vidē |url=http://politika.lv/ |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120524124909/http://politika.lv/ |archive-date=2012-05-24 |access-date=2007-07-28 |website=politika.lv |language=lv}}</ref> Sometimes an apostrophe is used before or after the character that would properly need to be diacriticised. Also, digraph diacritics are often used and sometimes even mixed with diacritical letters of standard orthography. Although today there is software support available, diacritic-less writing is still sometimes used for financial and social reasons. As ''š'' and ''ž'' are part of the [[Windows-1252]] coding, it is possible to input those two letters using a [[numerical keypad]]. Latvian language code for cmd and .bat files - [[Windows-1257]]