Le ven 13/12/2002 � 03:35, David Dawes a �crit : > On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 08:59:51PM +0100, Nicolas Mailhot wrote: > >Le jeu 12/12/2002 � 13:54, Nicolas Mailhot a �crit : > >> (re-send after actually finishing subscribing to the list, sorry about this) > >> > >> Hi, > >> > >> For years the fr keyboard in xfree86 was broken and painful to use (I > >> can elaborate a *lot* more if anyone's interested). It even sparked the > >> creation of a very complete howto detailling how anyone needing to work > >> in X everyday could replace it with a version that actually worked ( ie > >> the francophones-howto aka the french-howto) > >> > >> This layout was merged in kbd. > >> > >> Unfortunately it has also been broken by recent changes in xfree cvs > > > >In fact I fixed my setup by moving the layout definition from > >/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc > > Can you point out an example or two of the differences between the two? > The symbols/pc version should be a version of the previous one that's > suitable for multi-layout use.
1. this layout matches the modern fr layout in kbd (fr-latin9) : X and the console behave the same on Linux. 2. this layout makes an important french character (oe) easily accessible by remaping the legacy key to [OE/oe �/�] 3. this layout makes accented keys behave like normal keys (i.e in caps lock mode � is accessible on the same key that � is in smallcaps - same with � � � �) 4. this layout maps �/� to <altgr> + w/x which are side by side on azerty layouts instead of using keys that are side by side on qwerty 5. circonflex ant diaresis accented voyels are accessible via altgr+voyel and altgr+shift+voyel which helps on apps that do not understand dead keys (except for e because of euro) That's all I can remember without looking into the definition files, but that's a lot of little things that help *immensely* in a not-ascii world. Except for the square and the currency symbol (which nobody uses) none of the differences affect what is usually printed on retail keyboards so from the point of view of users we are in � undefined � land. From a usability point of view this layout is a huge improvement, it's really easy to get hooked. It was met with very favorable reviews on french newsgroups when first published. And it's been doing this when the X layout couldn't even do euro yet. > >What would it take to get this layout merged ? > > The best way would be to provide it in a format that fits in with the > multi-layout symbols definitions in symbols/pc. I feared this would be the answer. However please note this layout is *very* different from the qwerty base in X, so I'm note sure what can be shared (without getting qwerty leaks like on the current layout). It would help me immensely if you could take a look at the definition file and tell me what should absolutely be shared and not duplicated. I'm ready to do the grunt work afterwards. Regards, -- Nicolas Mailhot
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