[Pixel C General] jimzenn:
I always want to use my android as my main productivity device, but one thing that really troubled me was that I thought there were no keys for [ ] ~ { } | 'escape', which are essential for programming. I used External Keyboard Helper to remap those keys to get around that, but recently it becomes very buggy.

I decided to fix this today, so I dug a little deeper and I found this...

OH MY F**KING GOD, I actually could type these characters this whole time. There is even an

escape

key!

Look at the keymap below. The menu key "..." is the "ralt" (right alt) key. You can almost find all the characters you need...

This does not require any system modification or app or anything, it is shipped with stock image.

I really want to share this, in case you are still finding a solution. Cheers!

# Copyright (C) 2015 The Android Open Source Project
#
# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
# You may obtain a copy of the License at
#
# [licence link hidden due to xda limitation, please google yourself]
#
# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
# limitations under the License.

#
# US key character map for Google Pixel C Keyboard
#

type OVERLAY

### ROW 1

key 1 {
label: '1'
base: '1'
shift: '!'
ralt: replace ESCAPE
}

key 2 {
label: '2'
base: '2'
shift: '@'
ralt: '`'
ralt+shift: '~'
}

key 3 {
label: '3'
base: '3'
shift: '#'
}

key 4 {
label: '4'
base: '4'
shift: '$'
}

key 5 {
label: '5'
base: '5'
shift: '%'
}

key 6 {
label: '6'
base: '6'
shift: '^'
}

key 7 {
label: '7'
base: '7'
shift: '&'
}

key 8 {
label: '8'
base: '8'
shift: '*'
}

key 9 {
label: '9'
base: '9'
shift: '('
ralt: '['
}

key 0 {
label: '0'
base: '0'
shift: ')'
ralt: ']'
}

key MINUS {
label: '-'
base: '-'
shift: '_'
}

### ROW 2

key Q {
label: 'q'
base: 'q'
shift, capslock: 'Q'
}

key W {
label: 'w'
base: 'w'
shift, capslock: 'W'
}

key E {
label: 'e'
base: 'e'
shift, capslock: 'E'
}

key R {
label: 'r'
base: 'r'
shift, capslock: 'R'
}

key T {
label: 't'
base: 't'
shift, capslock: 'T'
}

key Y {
label: 'y'
base: 'y'
shift, capslock: 'Y'
}

key U {
label: 'u'
base: 'u'
shift, capslock: 'U'
}

key I {
label: 'i'
base: 'i'
shift, capslock: 'I'
}

key O {
label: 'O'
base: 'o'
shift, capslock: 'O'
ralt: '['
ralt+shift: '{'
}

key P {
label: 'P'
base: 'p'
shift, capslock: 'P'
ralt: ']'
ralt+shift: '}'
}

key EQUALS {
label: '='
base: '='
shift: '+'
ralt: '\\'
ralt+shift: '|'
}

### ROW 3

key A {
label: 'a'
base: 'a'
shift, capslock: 'A'
}

key S {
label: 's'
base: 's'
shift, capslock: 'S'
}

key D {
label: 'd'
base: 'd'
shift, capslock: 'D'
}

key F {
label: 'f'
base: 'f'
shift, capslock: 'F'
}

key G {
label: 'g'
base: 'g'
shift, capslock: 'G'
}

key H {
label: 'h'
base: 'h'
shift, capslock: 'H'
}

key J {
label: 'j'
base: 'j'
shift, capslock: 'J'
}

key K {
label: 'k'
base: 'k'
shift, capslock: 'K'
}

key L {
label: 'l'
base: 'l'
shift, capslock: 'L'
}

key SEMICOLON {
label: ';'
base: ';'
shift: ':'
}

key APOSTROPHE {
label: '\''
base: '\''
shift: '"'
}

### ROW 4

key Z {
label: 'z'
base: 'z'
shift, capslock: 'Z'
}

key X {
label: 'x'
base: 'x'
shift, capslock: 'X'
}

key C {
label: 'c'
base: 'c'
shift, capslock: 'C'
}

key V {
label: 'v'
base: 'v'
shift, capslock: 'V'
}

key B {
label: 'b'
base: 'b'
shift, capslock: 'B'
}

key N {
label: 'n'
base: 'n'
shift, capslock: 'N'
}

key M {
label: 'm'
base: 'm'
shift, capslock: 'M'
}

key COMMA {
label: ','
base: ','
shift: '<'
}

key PERIOD {
label: '.'
base: '.'
shift: '>'
}

key SLASH {
label: '/'
base: '/'
shift: '?'
}