UniLang

Here is my first "true, yet very very small" contribution to the Linux world...

There are three files
xkb-map, which has two keyboard layouts, basic; Which is a general purpose and easy to use map. aeio; Which is a more unnatural mapping, and an experiment for a more dvorak like map for the Cherokee language.

XCompose, which will need to be manually copied to your user directory. Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to automate this in the install script.

install.sh, will install the keyboard layout. Using ncurses dialogues will prompt for which key the user wants to use left/right control/alt/windows keys, a name for the file, and ask if you wish to make a back up of any xkb file that already exists by that name.

The keyboard layout, also, has an American keyboard layout embedded within it, so there is no need to have an American keyboard map and the Cherokee maps loaded. The key which the install script asks the user to select is how to switch between keyboard layouts.

Well, I need guinea pigs to try this out...So if anyone tests it, or tries to use it, let me know how it went and if it functioned correctly. Also, any thoughts you may have to improve it would be welcome.

Thanks.

aeio mapping layout.


I've tested this map off and on while creating it, and so far it seems it might be a tad bit faster, though I do not like where I have Ꭵ placed at. Which is why I have several double dead keys set to generate those letters, Ꮫ, Ꮾ, Ᏼ, Ꮈ, Ꮸ, Ꮢ, Ꮕ.

To use the key map, just type in a terminal "setxkbmap FILENAME -variant aeio", where FILENAME is the name of the xkb file that it was named to upon installation.

ToDo:

Generate the necessary files, or file modification code so that the keyboard layout can be selected from within kde, xfce, gnome, or any other desktop environment that has gui settings for keyboard layouts.

Fix the errors which makes it difficult for su to install the XCompose file in a users directory, and REMEMBER to check permissions afterwards...

Create one more layout labeled CNO which will be based on the CNO Cherokee Font.

Change Log:

I've never had any problems with typing Cherokee in Fedora. I'm not a speaker of the language but I've played with it several times and can't wait to study it a couple years time.

Here is a sample of what comes with the default installation: (random typing)

ᎪᎳᎡᏛᏔᏯᎤᎢᎣᏁᏕᎶᏆᏫᏣᏏᏘᏲᎭᏱᏬᏪᏑᏤ1ᎱᏇᏧᎰᎹᏝᏡᎺᎠᏌᏍᏎᎩᏚᎩᏗᎩᏍᎠᎩᎵᏍᎠᏗᎩᎫᏐᏥᏈᎫᏐᎧᏐᏎᎮᏎᏐᏥᏈᎾ

Or is this an attempt to create a new keyboard because the old one is faulty? I'd be happy to give you the files you would need if you distro doesn't contain it.

Yeshua.C wrote:I've never had any problems with typing Cherokee in Fedora. I'm not a speaker of the language but I've played with it several times and can't wait to study it a couple years time.

Here is a sample of what comes with the default installation: (random typing)

ᎪᎳᎡᏛᏔᏯᎤᎢᎣᏁᏕᎶᏆᏫᏣᏏᏘᏲᎭᏱᏬᏪᏑᏤ1ᎱᏇᏧᎰᎹᏝᏡᎺᎠᏌᏍᏎᎩᏚᎩᏗᎩᏍᎠᎩᎵᏍᎠᏗᎩᎫᏐᏥᏈᎫᏐᎧᏐᏎᎮᏎᏐᏥᏈᎾ

Or is this an attempt to create a new keyboard because the old one is faulty? I'd be happy to give you the files you would need if you distro doesn't contain it.

I think he means when you type syllabary, the proper letter should display.
When you type da using the Cherokee layout, do you get Ꮣ ? I have to use Yudit to type in Cherokee.

All the letters seem to be present.

ᏗᏓᎤᎫᏯᏔᎤᏓ

Is this correct? My skills with recognising the Cherokee syllabary are still very elementary. Hopefully I was able to tell the differences between them all properly.

Here is an image of the layout:

Yeshua.C wrote:All the letters seem to be present.

ᏗᏓᎤᎫᏯᏔᎤᏓ

Is this correct? My skills with recognising the Cherokee syllabary are still very elementary. Hopefully I was able to tell the differences between them all properly.

The existing/built-in Cherokee keyboard is defective for effective typing. You have to learn a brand new keyboard layout that has lots of shifts in it to type.

The XCompose method allows you to type phonetically, so that, for example, my XCompose file {inlined here}



Allows me to select the Cherokee keyboard then type phonetically for 83 out of 85 of the glyphs without shifts or other fancy keyboard finger tricks. The two exceptions are Ꮝ, which is a shifted S, and Ꮐ, which is typed as nA

So that I can type: o si yo and get Ꭳ Ꮟ Ᏺ.

In addition, I map *back* the punctuation, numerals, etc so that I don't have to keep switching keyboards to type full sentences.

Ah I understand, it's not that one doesn't exist but that it's not any good. Well, at least for some people, I tend to like learning new keyboards. Not sure why that is.

Learning the new keyboard wasn't an issue with me until I realized that almost all of the numerics and a large portion of the punctuation had been replaced. Not fun switching between keyboards just to get an explanation point, or to put in a numerical value.

ᏩᏯᏩᏯ wrote:Learning the new keyboard wasn't an issue with me until I realized that almost all of the numerics and a large portion of the punctuation had been replaced. Not fun switching between keyboards just to get an explanation point, or to put in a numerical value.

Plus, it's easier when you have the physical keyboard. My friend had a Hebrew laptop, and I was able to hunt and peck, and after about 40 minutes I could type most words rather quickly.

It would be a joy to have a physical keyboard for each language.

Though probably only to get used to it and then switch back. Switching physical layouts constantly would be far more annoying that me pressing ALT+CTRL. haha

Yeshua.C wrote:It would be a joy to have a physical keyboard for each language.

Though probably only to get used to it and then switch back. Switching physical layouts constantly would be far more annoying that me pressing ALT+CTRL. haha

For me, I mapped it to ALT-SHIFT

Formiko wrote:

Yeshua.C wrote:It would be a joy to have a physical keyboard for each language.

Though probably only to get used to it and then switch back. Switching physical layouts constantly would be far more annoying that me pressing ALT+CTRL. haha

For me, I mapped it to ALT-SHIFT

ALT-CAPSLOCK here.

ᏩᏯᏩᏯ wrote:
ALT-CAPSLOCK here.

Which distro do you use?

Formiko wrote:

ᏩᏯᏩᏯ wrote:
ALT-CAPSLOCK here.

Which distro do you use?

Ubuntu, I changed it from alt-shirt or whatever it was to alt-capslock for switching. Gnome is the primary desktop. Back when I ran FreeBSD, it was KDE as my primary desktop, but KDE went one way, and I went the other shortly after version 3.x somewhere. Bloated. Gnome is also somewhat bloated, but, so far, not so much as to overally distress me.