Re: Switching between Arabic and French
Hello all, It appears I've finally figured this out. The following command, from an olpc command window, seems to get me what I want (with Right Alt as the group toggle key): setxkbmap -display :0 fr,ara -option grp:toggle (Of course, in the real world, these would be reversed :-)) What fooled me was that I was using Write as a test application. With the above settings, I get precisely what I would expect in Chat - French on the left, toggle, then Arabic on the right. In Write, when I switched to Arabic, I just got pseudo-European gibberish on the right of the text (not the margin) filling in leftward, :) but this was with a Ship.2-659 build, which might be quite venerable by now - not sure. With this in mind, it looks like it might be time to switch from Ship.2 to Joyride and update frequently, which means I will need to be able to pull down new builds more reliably than I can right now for some reason - but that's a whole different subject, so I'll post separately on it. One other comment, just a nit really: it surprised me that the mapping of to [ISO_Next_Group, ISO_Prev_Group] was put into each of the main language files rather than once in the option file and then reflected in the rules as needed. This wasn't true for group mappings on my Ubuntu Linux box. Instead, based on what I see there, I'd expect an alias definition in whatever the olpc uses in keycodes (evdev?) and then its use in symbols/group. Was this inherited from upstream? If not, I'd be interested to learn the rationale for the choice. I'm only a couple of days into this stuff, and the more I read of it, the more I'm certain that there's a lot more underneath that I missed. When I see a pattern, I usually learn the most from its exceptions :-) Gxis, Lupestro ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Switching between Arabic and French
Thanks Walter, This is wonderful to hear. I guess then, for development purposes, how do I do that from emulation, since I don't have a real XO at the moment? Once I've got that, I can start playing with Arabic script in the various activities to help in the testing effort. Let me know who is already working this area and I'll be glad to help out. My goal would be to exercise various key activities to find "soft spots" for bi-di and offer my help to chase down possible fixes where appropriate. I'm not a native speaker or even fully fluent so I can't help with localization, but I've studied long enough now to recognize a serious usability issue if it arises in how an application works, and I am a programmer. :-) Gxis, Lupestro On Tue, 2008-03-18 at 01:00 +, Walter Bender wrote: > you can switch the keyboard on the fly, using the language key. you > can switch the language of the interface per session, using the > sugar-control-panel. most activities can accommodate Latin and Arabic > scripts concurrently. > > -walter > > On 3/18/08, Ralph A. Mack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I have a question. > > > > Schools in at least some countries in the Middle East and the Maghrib > > typically teach in Arabic first and then a European language, typically > > French or English. Therefore, I can envision students having to do two > > written assignments, one in Arabic and another in French, for different > > teachers in the same week. (I can imagine this issue would arise in > > other areas as well.) > > > > Short of switching the operating language of the device and restarting > > it, is there a way to switch between entering Arabic language text and > > French or English language text from activity to activity in the current > > emulation images? If not, is this considered a desirable feature? Would > > it be considered confusing? Has anybody suggested an alternative > > approach for bilingual students? Has there been any feedback from folks > > focusing on education in the Middle East or other affected areas about > > this? Do they consider it important? > > > > [Here's what puts the question squarely on the devel list] Assuming > > that some feature with the needed effect is in the cards, who is working > > on it? Is it complete? If not, how can I help? While it would affect > > many areas, I suspect it would be felt most sharply in Write (as might a > > number of bi-di issues, at least in the last image I tried). > > > > Lupestro > > > > > > ___ > > Devel mailing list > > Devel@lists.laptop.org > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > > > ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Switching between Arabic and French
Hello, I have a question. Schools in at least some countries in the Middle East and the Maghrib typically teach in Arabic first and then a European language, typically French or English. Therefore, I can envision students having to do two written assignments, one in Arabic and another in French, for different teachers in the same week. (I can imagine this issue would arise in other areas as well.) Short of switching the operating language of the device and restarting it, is there a way to switch between entering Arabic language text and French or English language text from activity to activity in the current emulation images? If not, is this considered a desirable feature? Would it be considered confusing? Has anybody suggested an alternative approach for bilingual students? Has there been any feedback from folks focusing on education in the Middle East or other affected areas about this? Do they consider it important? [Here's what puts the question squarely on the devel list] Assuming that some feature with the needed effect is in the cards, who is working on it? Is it complete? If not, how can I help? While it would affect many areas, I suspect it would be felt most sharply in Write (as might a number of bi-di issues, at least in the last image I tried). Lupestro ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
