it seems like the layouts that lack a method to enter ASCII should be
changed somehow. It must always be possible to enter ASCII characters on a
UNIX system. Multiple layouts is one way - but what if those other layouts
just had the US English layout as a baked in thing along with the modifiers
to switch between entering native characters and entering ASCII.

Another thought. Do CJK, Cyrillic and other non Latin based languages
always use the same US layout for entering ASCII? I can see circumstances
that might exist where eg a Vietnamese keyboard might use French layout or
an Indian keyboard might use UK layout? (I am thinking specifically of how
alternate ASCII characters might be silk screened onto keys on such
keyboards. The Russian keyboards I have experience with have the US layout
for Latin.)

On Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 9:59 AM Alan Coopersmith <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On 10/29/17 12:31 AM, Alexander Pyhalov wrote:
> > Hello.
> > I was investigating, why when I choose Russian keyboard layout during
> > installation, it changes language in lightdm to Russian by default, and
> as it
> > results
> > in Xorg layout being just 'ru', not 'us,ru' and doesn't set any switch
> keys, you
> > can stuck trying to enter login name in Russian.
> >
> > The issue is evident and strange. I mean, I don't know what they should
> do.
> > Installer calls /usr/bin/kbd -s, and you can select your layout. Then HAL
> > in
> >
> https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate/blob/f7877f5d39900cfd8b20dd673e5ccc1ef7cc7447/usr/src/cmd/hal/probing/xkb/probe-xkb.c#L334
> >
> > sets input.x11_options.XkbLayout to "ru". When X starts and finds it, it
> does
> > what it was asked to do...
> > But we never set alternative layout. We never set toggle keys. So, user
> can't
> > switch to English.
> 
> The Solaris X server inheriting the console keyboard layout goes back to
> the
> Xsun days before XKB brought multiple layouts & layout switching.  When we
> updated to Xorg & HAL, we kept the same model because it's what we knew and
> what users expected - but none of us used a keyboard layout where
> alternatives
> were necessary or really knew how multiple XKB layouts worked, so what you
> have is more a result of our ignorance than a careful design decision.
> 
> --
> -Alan Coopersmith-               [email protected]
>  Oracle Solaris Engineering - https://blogs.oracle.com/alanc

------------------------------------------
illumos-discuss
Archives: 
https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/discussions/T83b946bc033900b2-M54dfe38460e351ce0533db5a
Powered by Topicbox: https://topicbox.com

Reply via email to