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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: more than 4 keyboard layouts?
From:       Chusslove Illich <caslav.ilic () gmx ! net>
Date:       2007-02-28 11:32:13
Message-ID: 200702281232.19033.caslav.ilic () gmx ! net
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> [: Andriy Rysin :]
> well I was thinking about some sort of engine of this kind, the question
> is time and effort: 
> currently I have prently todos for kxkb even for 4 layouts/groups, so I
> am just trying to plan ahead and not to overdesign the switcher.

It seems to me that the multi-rotation feature is "orthogonal" to basic 
layout switching, so that you can just proceed with keeping it in the back 
of the mind. Not to do something in the code that would prevent it as a 
possibility...

Though, a sanity check: am I correct that, on the technical level (ie. not 
thinking about the GUI to support it), it would indeed not be difficult? 
In the sense that, if to set basic layout switching you need some 
equivalent of setxkbmap -layout "..." -variant "..." etc., then supporting 
several rotations would mean only making these group-setup calls on 
rotation switch?

> [...] I think in this case assigning a shortcut to layout would help,
> e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F8 to RU e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F9

While it may be improvement from rotating, I'm not sure it's that good. 
Prior to turning, I was trying to use these for some half a year in 
Windows, and it was a pain and till the end I couldn't save myself from 
frequent mishits.

For me it is much more relaxing with 2 layouts in the rotation, so that I 
don't have to think at all, it's always the same combo to go back and 
forth. And a shorter one at that, Ctrl+Alt+Fn is (I'd say) disastrous for 
quick switching.

It is a pity that there are little usability guidelines regarding this. You 
certainly recall that thread on kde-core-devel, where there was a big fuss 
about switching shortcuts, and people more involved in usability claimed 
that three key mod+mod+letter is a "consistent" way to go, that 
modifier-only shortcuts are "evil", etc. (there I found about this 
Alt+Space as a compromise). While I certainly wouldn't second guess their 
opinion in general, I think it's not valid in the very special case of 
layout switching for non-Latin users. I guess that most usability studies 
are done by native-Latin researchers with native-Latin users, so that this 
issue rarely pops up.

> Also sticky switching may be tricky to do properly with groups so it
> may be changed or just go away - this depends on implementation
> complexity, as far as I know some people use sticky switching but most
> of them are not too excited about it.

I agree. It is somewhat helpful, but I could also live with only 2 layouts 
in the rotation (I mostly use US/Serbian Cyrillic, and Serbian Latin 
rarely). Especially if it is reasonable to hope for multi-rotation 
feature :)

-- 
Chusslove Illich (Часлав Илић)

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