Re: Keyboard shortcuts for international characters

[Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net>]

Thanks for the reply!

Στις 21/Δεκ/2004, ημέρα Τρίτη και ώρα 00:08, ο/η Danilo Segan έγραψε:
> Yesterday at 20:57, Simos Xenitellis wrote:
> 
> > 1. I could not find the location of the keyboard configuration that
> > gnome-keyboard-properties uses.
> > Doesn't gnome-keyboard-properties use as well (with XKB) the X server
> > files found at gnome-keyboard-properties?
> 
> XKB files are usually provided with your X server, and are commonly
> located in /etc/X11/xkb/.  Perhaps Owen was referring to now
> deprecated gkb-new applet which provided xmodmap files?  Though, I
> have not looked into any of this in a looooong time, so I may be only
> confusing things even more :)

Yes, it looks to be /etc/X11/xkb/

> 
> > 2. When I add three keymaps with gnome-keyboard-properties, I am not
> > able to switch between them with a shortcut. With two it's fine.
> 
> I don't have that problems, and I use 3 layouts in my everyday work,
> and "Both Shift keys change group" option.

Some bugs probably exist here.
For testing I tried out also English/Serbian/Spanish and I noticed it
does not make a differece with English/Greek/Polytoniko.

I prefer Alt+Shift for switching but I gave a try with ShiftL+ShiftR.
Indeed it works for three layouts, with a catch. If you keep pressing
the right Shift-key and hit the left Shift key several times, it will
take you back to USA (English) and then you cannot switch more. You need
to depress the right Shift key if you want to switch language again.

When you set it to Alt-Shift to switch between three layouts, the left
(Alt+Shift) keys do not work well. They will only work to take you back
to the primary layout (English). You need to use the right Alt+Shift to
switch succesfully between layouts.

Danilo, can you verify?

> > 3. Me wonders who manages localisation of 
> > /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.xml
> > It has been touched by 10 languages only, it's relatively unknown.
> 
> Translation Project: from the top of my head,
> http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/translation/.  Look for xkeyboard-config or
> xfree86_xml module (the latter is the old one if it still exists).

Cheers. 
I translated the common Greek messages and sent it off.

> > 4. For a distro, how can you configure the default keyboard
> > map when the user chooses a specific locale?
> 
> It would depend entirely on the distro itself, and the way a locale
> is chosen.  Perhaps it's worth looking into GDM.

I looked at GDM, did not find some table there. I have to look more into
the Fedora configuration apps on this.

> > 5. I realised that Greek Polytonic does not work (dead keys do not produced
> > accented characters). Who should I bug on this?
> 
> Check if proper Compose sequences exist in Gtk+ source code (note that
> Gtk+ can produce only precomposed characters, it cannot produce
> sequence of characters like X can [at least it was so last time I
> checked]).  If they don't exist, try looking into your X Compose file,
> $XROOT/lib/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8.  If they exist there, and are not
> using only precomposed glyphs, I think it should be treated as RFE for
> Gtk+.  You can test this either in xterm, xev or in Gtk+ programs
> with "X Input Method" enabled.

>From gtk+ sources, I see 
/gtk+/gtk/gtkimcontextsimple.c
does not include the affected composed letters.
The GTK+ sources currently cover the basic modern Greek composed
characters.
Owen autogenerates this file from the compose tables of the Xorg files.

I changed  to "X Input Method" in gEdit and I managed to input the
missing composed characters.

Owen, in the RFE for GTK+, do I simply ask "Please, autogenerate
/gtk+/gtk/gtkimcontextsimple.c including information from 
$XROOT/lib/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8" or do I create it myself from the
scripts you mention in gtkimcontextsimple.c and send a patch?
If (B), please send me the appropriate scripts.

Cheers,
Simos