How can I obtain the backslash with a US keyboard configured with a Spanish (ES-ISO) keyboard layout?

Question

I have a Macbook Air with the typical US keyboard layout printed in the keys, but I want to use the keyboard as if it were a Spanish keyboard because I'm accustomed to that layout and since I don't look at the keys while typing I don't mind the layout not matching the characters actually printed in the keys.

The layout of my keyboard looks exactly like this:

I have configured the keyboard to behave as if it were an Spanish one, by going to Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources and adding the "Español - ISO" layout.

That works fine, mostly, with one exception: The key at the left of the top "1" key (with the printed characters "`~") doesn't behave the same as the key in the same position in a Spanish keyboard, even after configuring the "Español - ISO" layout.

Instead of the key being "ºª\", which is the key at the left of "1" in the Spanish keyboard, it behaves as a "<>≤" key. Why is that?

So, since this is happening, I can't use those symbols ("ºª\"), of which I miss the backslash the most. How can I get the backslash with this layout without having to switch to US keyboard just to get the backslash character (below the "delete" key), and then switching back to Spanish layout? (which is a cumbersome process just to get a single character each time).

Edit: I think the problem is that the Spanish keyboard actually has an extra key that the US keyboard lacks (please note that the Left Shift key is shorter in the Spanish keyboard to accomodate the extra "<>≤" key). It seems that, for some reason, the key at the left of the "1" key is actually moved (including its keycode) down to the right of the Left Shift key in European keyboards, and a completely new key with a new key code replaces the key at the left of the "1" (in the Spanish keyboard it is "ºª\", while in other European languages it's a different set of symbols but the key code remains the same), so with a US keyboard I can't really have the full Spanish layout because of the missing key.

Answer 1

You can always see what every key does with Keyboard Viewer.

With Spanish ISO, there is no backslash when you are using the US (ANSI) keyboard, you need the European ISO type.

You can make a custom layout which adds this character pretty easily with Ukelele.

The Apple layout "Latin American" has \ at Option -

The Apple layout "Spanish" has \ at Option 6.

Answer 2

I finally found out that the problem is that the Spanish keyboard (and other European keyboards) actually has an extra key that the US keyboard doesn't have. Not only that, the key at the left of the "1" key has a different key code in European keyboards, because the key that is there in US keyboards was moved to the right of the Left Shift key in European keyboards (key code and everything), for reasons I can't comprehend. If the European keyboards have an extra key, why not assign a new key code to the new key, instead of replacing the key code of an existing key and then moving the old key code to the new key? I'm sure there must be a good reason for that, but I don't know it.

So, since the US keyboard has one less key, European people stuck with a laptop with a US keyboard can't really have the full layout of their language, so some compromises have to be made.

I found several solutions that work for me:

• A little not-so-good solution because it only works on the Terminal: For some strange reason, pressing Alt+Y writes a backslash character ONLY in the Terminal application (in any other app it writes a yen ¥ symbol). It somewhat works for me because most of the time I need to write a backslash it's because I want to write an escape code in the Terminal (which begins with "\"). But it's still not an ideal solution because I might need to write a backslash in other apps.

• Using Karabiner Elements to remap the "grave_accent_and_tilde (`)" key (the key at the left of the "1" key in the US keyboard) to act as a "non_us_backslash" key (the key at the left of the "1" key in European keyboards). This works great, because I finally get access to the coveted backslash ("\") character (as well as the "º" and "ª" numeral characters) but then I lose access to the "<>≤" characters in that key, which are very important, too, so this isn't a good solution either.

• I can then remap the "backslash (\)" key (the US keyboard "\|" key located at the right of the keyboard above the "enter" key) to behave like the "grave_accent_and_tilde (`)" key with Spanish layout so I get the "<>≤" characters back in a different key while still keeping the "ºª\" key functioning so those characters are also accessible in the keyboard as well. But then I lose the "çÇ}" characters! I don't mind losing "ç" and "Ç" since I don't use those letters, but losing access to the closing brace ("}") character is far from ideal as well, especially if you're a developer. It would seem I can never get a completely satisfactory solution.

• I finally settled on remapping the "caps_lock" key to behave like the "grave_accent_and_tilde (`)" key, since I seldom use the Caps Lock key anyway (I only need to write single capital letters with Shift). That way I have access to both keys at the same time ("ºª\" and "<>≤") without having to lose the "çÇ}" key in the process.

This is the best I have found, considering that the US keyboard has one less physical key than the number of keys I usually have, and the lack of a physical key of course can't be completely fixed with software workarounds.

If anyone has better ideas to solve this problem, please do comment.