xkb, dead keys, multi keys, xmodmap, etc. Seeking guidance.

Mol_Bolom — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:40:09 GMT

I have found a bit more information today on xkb and after thinking through it as well as other information I have gathered over the past couple of months, I've come to a new realization that perhaps I've been going about keyboard configuring all wrong. So I've decided that I should seek some of the experienced users for ideas on which aspect of keyboard configurations I should concentrate on.

I gather probably the easiest way for me to configure my system is with two entirely different keyboard layouts, which I would rather have just one. Also, I have already done this, but unfortunately, it is a major hassle.

Another way in which I could do so would be adding more levels into an xkb symbol file. I haven't been able to get a functioning symbol file to use groups yet. Thus, I would be able to create Mode_shift keys throughout the keyboard, but I believe that would be fairly problematic.

The major language layout I need to use is en_US, the secondary language is Cherokee.

There are 85 characters in the Cherokee language. So, a basic keyboard is fairly difficult to type in a language such as that and have access to common quotation symbols and numerals, too.

However, by going the dead key route, or some way similar, the keyboard could be cut down a lot.

Using the Romanized alphabet the only letters that would need to be dealt with in Cherokee are a, e, i, o, u, v, g, t, y, s, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n. Actually, not even j would need to be used, but however, the letters ts together are pronounced in the dialect I know as j, so it cuts down on typing.

That is a count of 18 characters that I would only need to use for typing in Cherokee using some method such as dead keys. Also, if I were to add a dead key, or some other method, to where I could type in g+g, then I would not have any need for k, thus breaking the keyboard down to only 17 keys needed, also, leaving the rest of the keyboard for the common symbols used such as the period, comma, numerals, etc.

So, once I figure out how to initiate shift_lock and/or caps_lock states, then I could create a second level which could thus trap the Romanized characters. Such as pressing CAPS would trap the keyboard into level2, thus the characters in level two would be abcdef..., and by pressing shift in this level should yield ABCDEF...

Or I could reverse this and set the Cherokee keyboard layout in level2.

Well, this is the ideal solution. I have made a keyboard layout that comes close to that solution, however it only works in the Opera internet browser and in no other program, which I presume is because I do not use Gnome or KDE and have no wish to use either of them. Also, I presume that the programs I use regularly are not interacting with whatever is used by xim.

By using that method I am able to type in Cherokee very quickly, but for the most part I am left with the older layout which uses almost every single key on the keyboard as well as almost every single shifted key. Leaving only the apostrophe, quotes, period, comma, and parentheses. Also, using this layout is tricky at best because of the need to press shift so often.

Some people have stated being against using dead keys and some others have even stated that they are against Unicode.

Either way, I'm left wondering exactly what would be the right way to do it, or which method would work the best, and yet everything I've tried hasn't worked out so great.

Anyway, I'm not looking for answers as such telling me how to do all this. I'm looking for a little guidance.

If you were in my shoes, so to speak, which method or route would yield the greatest results? Using dead keys or not? Using shift_lock/caps_lock or not? Learning xkb or xmodmap? Learning the internals to X or not? Or something else that I have not seen nor heard of?

Cherokee Unicode in Linux

Mol_Bolom — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:37:22 GMT

On Zenwalk just copy the contents to a file either named cherokee, che, or whatever you want the file named. I have it named usche because I had edited the us symbol file to make it.

Then save the file under /etc/X11/xkb/symbols

On other linux distro's the xkb directory might be somewhere else.

Code:

default
partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys 
xkb_symbols "basic" {

    name[Group1]= "Cherokee";

    // Alphanumeric section
    key  {	[     	U13CA,  U13CB             ]       };
    key  {	[	U13E3,	U13B1 		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A3,	U13C7		]	};
    key  {	[	U13E9,	U13E7	]	};
    key  {	[	U13D9,	U13B0		]	};
    key  {	[	U13E6,	U13B9		]	};
    key  {	[	U13DC,	U13DD	]	};
    key  {	[	U13E1,	U13BA	]	};
    key  {	[	U13D6,	U13BB	]	};
    key  {	[	U13D2,	parenleft	]	};
    key  {	[	U13C4,	parenright	]	};
    key  {	[     	U13BF,	U13BC	]	};
    key  {	[     	U13F3,	U13BD		]	};

    key  {	[	U13AA,	U13C6		]	};
    key  {	[	U13B3,	U13EB		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A1,	U13E3		]	};
    key  {	[	U13DB,	U13CF		]	};
    key  {	[	U13D4,	U13D8		]	};
    key  {	[	U13EF,	U13F2		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A4,	U13AD		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A2,	U13F1		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A3,	U13EC		]	};
    key  {	[	U13C1,	U13EA		]	};
    key  {	[ 	U13D5,	U13D1	]	};
    key  {	[ 	U13B6,	U13E4	]	};

    key  {	[	U13A0,	U13CC, U13A2, U13A7		]	};
    key  {	[	U13CD,	U13CE		]	};
    key  {	[	U13D7,	U13D0		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A9,	U13C8		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A6,	U13E5		]	};
    key  {	[	U13AF,	U13B2		]	};
    key  {	[	U13DA,	U13AB		]	};
    key  {	[	U13B8,	U13A7		]	};
    key  {	[	U13B5,	U13AE		]	};
    key  {	[ 	U13E8,	U13E0		]	};
    key  {	[ apostrophe,	quotedbl	]	};

    key  {	[	U13AC,	U13C3		]	};
    key  {	[	U13F4,	U13ED		]	};
    key  {	[	U13D3,	U13DF		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A5,	U13DE		]	};
    key  {	[	U13A8,	U13F0		]	};
    key  {	[	U13BE,	U13BB		]	};
    key  {	[	U13C5,	U13B7		]	};
    key  {	[     comma,	U13E2		]	};
    key  {	[    period,	U13B4		]	};
    key  {	[     	U13C2,	U13C9	]	};

    key  {	[ 	U13E9,  U13EE	]	};
    key  {	[ Caps_Lock	]	};
    // End alphanumeric section
};

Then in xorg.conf modify the inputdevice settings for "XkbLayout"

Code:

Section "inputdevice"
   Option "XkbLayout"  "yourkbdsymbol, cherokeekbdsymbol"
EndSection

Make sure yourkbdsymbol is the word that already exists in the XkbLayout option. Elsewise, you will only be able to enter text in Cherokee and the unicode fonts do not work under any terminal/shell.

In the xfce (4.x.x, I don't know if any other versions do it) window manager, you can right click on the xfce panel, click on Add New Item in the menu, then scroll down and select Keyboard Layout Switcher. That will allow you to click on an icon on the xfce panel to switch between keyboard layouts.

NOTE: When I learn more about xkb, or if I learn how to use xmodmap, I will change the entire layout of the symbol file, and probably other files, too.

For now, the layout is based on the Cheroke Nation Official Font and a keyboard layout can be viewed here http://arapaho.nsuok.edu/~lindee/cherokee/

Final:

When I am finished creating the keyboard layout, if it's possible, the keyboard will be similar to this...

key1+key2 = Cherokee unicode character.
Where key1 will be any character c,d,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,s,t,w,y,z

and key2 will be a,e,i,o,u,v

And also

key1+key2+key3 = Cherokee unicode character.

key1 will be d,g,h,k,q,t
key2 will be h,l,s,w,z,u
key3 will be a,e,i,o,u,v

For the characters dl_, gw_/kw_/qu_, tl_, ts_/dz_/ch_, hna, hl_/tl_
Where _ represents any of the 6 vowels used in Cherokee.

If anyone would like to give me some friendly advice on how to do this, or what I should read in order to be able to accomplish it, I'd appreciate it. I've given up on xkb for the time being. Everything I've found has been rather difficult to understand, but I will continue reading up on it every once in a while.

ᏩᏙ
Thanks.

I have learned a bit more and created an even better keyboard layout, one that does 'not' use the shift key, instead the shift key is used for typing in English/Romanized script, and the windows keys are used for typing capital letters.

Note, for some reason that I am too much of a noob to know why, in Zenwalk one would use uim where as in Ubuntu and perhaps others one would use xim. From what I gather you will need to make sure your system has it and if not look up in the repositories for your distro to see if you can find one of them. Then click on this link http://support.zenwalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20601 and hopefully I've written it well enough to guide someone in how to use it. Of course there's lots of information out there on xim, perhaps even uim (I pretty much just guessed it would work and tried it out and got lucky, Ha ha).
I have, also, written a new file to replace the one I wrote here. Instead it has two keyboard layouts created on it. One is the one I posted above, and the second one uses only the 26 characters of the keyboard, unshifted, to type in Cherokee. Just read the .XCompose file in the code and you should be able to figure out how to use the keyboard layout. Hopefully I have it well documented, if not, eh, just tell me and maybe I can fix it...

ᎤᎵᎮᎵᏍᏗ ᎤᏬᏪᎶᏗ ᎬᏗ ᏣᎳᎩ...:).

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xkb, dead keys, multi keys, xmodmap, etc. Seeking guidance.

Cherokee Unicode in Linux