Hacking gnome-shell OSK/caribou's GUI

[Fadi R <mo mashi69 gmail com>]

Hi, I'm trying to use xml and css trickery to convert gnome-shell's pop-up OSK (caribou) into a split keyboard: a configuration that I found to be way easier to use on a touchscreen laptop  than the current default configuration. The spit keyboard design would also allow for easier reading of the bottom part of the screen while the OSK is still up, making it less intrusive.

Here's what I have so far:

a) modified gnome-shell.css to make the big black strip under the keys completely transparent and to make the keys themselves semi opaque.

b) modified /usr/share/caribou/layouts/touch/us.xml to change the alignment of half the keys so they're on the left and the other half so that they're on the right. I'm also adding some really needed meta keys to this layout such as escape, ctrl, alt, win, menu.

Here are some issues I'm having and I had these three questions:

- I'm a having problems setting the alignment, no matter how I set the alignment of rows and letters in us.xml, the keys are still centering on the strip. I managed to get around this by making the space bar big enough to make the osk take up the whole strip and then the alignment's getting respected. Problem with this is that as soon as the screen resolution will change, the alignment will be off again. I wonder if someone knows of a better way? Some syntax that I'm not aware of for us.xml or gnome-shell.css?

- is there a way of setting up the meta keys so that they can lock when you press them, so that I can use them to do hotkeys?