To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Unicode Keyboard Input Linux
Hello World,
I'm interested in using the Linux console as a
multi-language keyboard, disregarding graphical X (and
xterm) for the moment.
1) How do I switch the keyboard from language to
language?
I work in English, Greek, Latin (i.e. French, German,
Spanish, and Italian), and Russian. I am not
interested in right-to-left processing, nor
double-column glyphs, yet.
Do I use an escape sequence?
Do I use an alt-key combination?
2) Can I set up my own keymaps for these languages?
Are they defined already?
I might like to vary the dead-key sequence from
{accent, letter} to {letter, accent}.
3) What about console fonts? How do I get/create them
and install them? These fonts won't work on my
dot-matrix printer. That's ok, I can print from X.
I do not have a Linux PC yet. My computer is Windows
98. I have an older(=2001) version of cygwin
installed, but I haven't used it alot. Maybe I should.
I have been googling for this information. The
descriptions are plentiful, but they all seem to
ignore the obvious.
Can you help me?
Joe
PS
I read somewhere yesterday that you can switch between
Ukranian and English keyboards using the RightAlt key,
on Debian, I believe. Since no other examples were
given, let me make some proposals:
alt-a = ascii
alt-d = German
alt-f = French i.e. generic french, I don't care about
locale yet.
alt-g = monotonic Greek
alt-h = polytonic Greek (h=homer)
alt-l = Latin = {French, German, Spanish, Italian}
saves typing
alt-r = cyrillic Russian
alt-s = Spanish
alt-u = cyrillic Ukranian
I realize the locale would specify the keyboard layout
with more precision --for French, locale = {Belgium,
Canada, France, ...}, for Spanish, locale = {Spain,
Mexico, Columbia,...} -- but I don't understand
locales yet. I need a locale primer too.
The list of keyboards should be configurable, meaning
another configuration file, in the user's home
directory, I guess. Each keyboard would have a keymap,
but I didn't understand the man page for keymaps. Is
'keymaps' a console abstraction? Is there another
'keymaps' for X?
Then there is the problem of the 9-bit, fixed pitch
console fonts (we're ignoring X for the moment). Are
there simple tools I can use to roll my own? How do I
map unicode(=utf-8) characters to the glyph in the
font set?
I'm particularily interested in polytonic Greek.
Once I've selected the keyboard (alt-h), I could type
a small_omega_dasia_perispomeni_ypogegrammeni, like
this:
ascii '`', ascii '~', ascii 'w', ascii 'i'
psili = fine (breathing)
dasia = rough (breathing)
oxia = accute (accent)
varia = grave (accent)
perispomeni = circumflex (accent)
ypogegrammeni = subscript (iota)
prosgegrammeni = prescript (iota
omega = big-O, the final letter of the Greek
alphabet
omicron = small-o, our letter 'o'
small = miniscule, lower-case
capital = majuscule, upper-case
This is about as complicated as it gets in polytonic
Greek, three dead keys, two pre-position, one
post-position, 'w' representing omega, and an 'i' for
iota subscript.
The keyboard map is therefore more than a map, it is a
fsm, a stateful-map. If I change keyboards in
midstream (using alt-a, for example), the fsm would
output the components of an unaccepted character
individually. How far will keymaps go?
The alt key is used like the shift key. What ascii
character does it send?
(None, so how do I use it for the tty driver? It would
be ok for a real keyboard driver, where I have access
to keyboard events. I'm thinking the keyboard map
should be part of the tty(=ascii) driver, mapping
ascii to utf-8, and a teletypewriter only understands
ascii...)
Escape Sequences
Otherwise, I could use an esc sequence to change
keyboards, like { esc a, esc g, esc h etc.}
Is there already a standard way of doing this?
I know escape sequences have already been defined for
other control operations on the terminal, why not
changing keyboards?
What is ISO 2022?
The VT-100 had a whole bunch of escape sequences,
{blank screen, position cursor, etc.} then there were
the ANSI escape sequences, which mapped a standard set
of terminal-control operations to a vendor-specific
set of escape sequences.
The Ctrl Key worked like ths Shift key and was used to
output C0 control characters to the tty. Some of the
commands I remember are:
ctrl-c = break
ctrl-z = end-of-file
ctrl-s = stop scrolling
ctrl-p = print screen?
ctrl-b = backspace?
What is C1-safe, and why is that a problem for utf-8?
Since the C1 range is not part of the ascii table, I
don't know why a tty would care. How does a
traditional tty driver handle C1 control characters?
Anyway, this is how I imagine it.
Thanks again.
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