After lengthy consideration, I have come to the conclusion xkb has
nothing to do with character mapping.
It only maps keyboard events to keysyms, which are not characters i.e.
it creates the (integer-valued, I assume) names of the key
combinations, and 2) it allows you to "group" the keysyms into
language-specific quasi-keyboards.
I have these two keymaps i.e. "groups" on my system:
/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/el -- The one I'm using
/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/gr -- The dirty bastard
Here is an excerpt from the latter:
partial alphanumeric_keys alternate_group
xkb_symbols "polytonic" {
include "el(extended)"
key.type = "THREE_LEVEL";
key { [], [ dead_tilde, dead_diaeresis, dead_macron ] };
key { [], [ dead_iota, VoidSymbol, dead_breve ] };
key { [], [ dead_acute, dead_horn ] };
key { [], [ dead_grave, dead_ogonek ] };
};
I assume the list of keysyms captures the shifted state of the key i.e.
is on the semi-colon key and is on the same
key, shifted, the colon key.
is on the single-quote key and is on the
double-quote key.
That's a pretty good layout. I like it.
Why not name these keysyms and ?
Anyway, I activate the gr keymap like this:
setxkbmap "us,gr(polytonic)" -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
The command syntax is troublesome. There seem to be other ways of
doing it. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to work.
Yes, the keymap is there, I can see it on the task bar. To switch to
another group, I can use the alt_shift combination (another meta
symbol? Where are all these symbols defined?).
Yes, I can enter greek characters. The seems to work, but
I am not sure if it is outputting a tonos or a acute. It's probably a
tonos.
None of the other dead keys seem to work.
Any ideas?
Joe
http://modern-greek-verbs.tripod.com/sarris/
PS
The character mapping seems to take place in the per-locale Compose
file (ergo non potest delendum esse). That would make sense, because
you'd need a separate character mapping for each character set. One
group corresponds to many Compose files. The one I seem to be using
is:
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose
Here are some character mappings:
: "αΌ€" U1f00
: "αΌ€" U1f00
: "αΌ" U1f01
: "αΌ" U1f01
: "αΌ‚" U1f02
: "αΌ‚" U1f02
: "αΌ‚" U1f02
: "αΌ‚" U1f02
: "αΌƒ" U1f03
: "αΌƒ" U1f03
: "αΌƒ" U1f03
: "αΌƒ" U1f03
: "αΌ„" U1f04
: "αΌ„" U1f04
: "αΌ„" U1f04
: "αΌ„" U1f04
: "αΌ…" U1f05
: "αΌ…" U1f05
is a diversionary tactic. I guess it would let me use the
polytonic characters while in monotonic mode. I wouldn't have to
change groups. (I tried it, but it didn't work. However, I could use
all the French characters while in USA mode)
I can see that the is intended to function as psili and
the as the dasia.
Are the names of the keysyms important?
If not, why not call them and ?
Question: The greek-locale Compose file contains character mappings
for all the composed characters.
Where are the mappings for the simple, non-composed greek characters?
It would be nice to see the entire character map in the same place.
On 4/14/06, Joe Schaffner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Thanks Jan,
Your message gave me some encouragement. I'll try starting the
gr(polytonic) map again tomorrow, and experiment with the dead keys,
but I don't have much time to lose. It took me 2 or 3 hours to do the
perl script, and I have lost days experimenting with system software.
The problem I have with system software is that it usually makes a
fool out of me, and I don't find the xkb intuitive at all. By
intuitive, I mean it reads my mind and does what I want.
I found the mono Greek map quite intuitive, but I believe I saw a
program somewhere which had a Gui keyboard with all the keys marked. I
was wondering, is there anyway to see the poly greek keyboard on my
system?
> Ceterum censeo /usr/lib/X11/locale/el_GR.UTF-8/Compose esse delendam.
I was happy to find it, because it listed all the poly greek
characters, but I was a bit surprised to find it in a 'locale'
directory, well, in an X11/locale directory. I'd eventually like to
sort out the locale and the keymap stuff, because at first glance, I
don't know what one has to do with the other.
Joe
http://modern-greek-verbs.tripod.com/
PS
I found a key conflict with my program. Sometimes I need to enclose
greek text inside parentheses, like this:
(εἶμεν)
[damn, these windows fonts suck]
In this case I don't want dasia epsilon and I don't want a space
between the LP and the epsilon, so I encoded the text like this
(e)~ιμεν)
The is an undefined tag which the
