If you use X11 (at least on Linux), and have a useless key in your layout, try to find its keycode from the output of "xmodmap -pke". If you want to enter the backtick without a modifier key, it should be the first symbol after the equals sign. Replace that symbol with "grave" and feed the whole line to "xmodmap -" (or, if you prefer, "xmodmap -e 'keycode XX = grave ...'").
This is not ideal, but I think preferable to flogging all those dead keys :)
I have no idea how to achieve the same on Windows or Mac; I suppose they have more user friendly mechanisms to remap keys.
I simply always have ` in one of my clipboards, and paste it. Using ctrl-shift-v to paste it is still easier than bashing that dead key. Still, on system start it’s not there, and I need to get it into that first, and that’s needlessly complicated.
If you use X11 (at least on Linux), and have a useless key in your layout, try to find its keycode from the output of "xmodmap -pke". If you want to enter the backtick without a modifier key, it should be the first symbol after the equals sign. Replace that symbol with "grave" and feed the whole line to "xmodmap -" (or, if you prefer, "xmodmap -e 'keycode XX = grave ...'").
This is not ideal, but I think preferable to flogging all those dead keys :)
I have no idea how to achieve the same on Windows or Mac; I suppose they have more user friendly mechanisms to remap keys.