PVT: Changes for xkb/symbos/pc/br

Ivan,

first of all, thanks for your patience helping and teaching me about the
new scheme of xkb.

I am sending this mail in PVT to you because I am not sure if it is
off-topic in the i18n list. If you think it is interesting to the list,
please answer in the list.

Or you can just send this message to /dev/null and send me to hell to
stop bothering you ;)


On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 15:28:50 +0600 (TSK)
Ivan Pascal <[email protected]> wrote:

>     Hi,
> 
> > OK, I have noted that the maps are different, and I suppose they are
> > in accordance with what you wrote in "The XKB internals" (I should
> > confess I couldn't understand this text very well...).
> 
> I guess.  Even in Russian (the language the text was origianly
> written) it is quite complicated.  And my poor English translation
> doesn't make it clearer. If you pointed me exactly sentences or
> paragraphs that are unclear for you I could rework them somehow.

The problem is not YOUR English, but MY English ;)

The problem really is my lack of knowledge about X internals... I will
reread some times more to try to understant it.

> > I would like to try the new maps in pc directory; all I need is to
> > change the XF86Config from:
> >         Option      "XkbLayout" "br"
> > 
> > to:
> >         Option      "XkbLayout" "pc/br"
> > 
> 
> No.  Those XkbModel, XkbLayout, XkbOption are another abstraction
> level and they are being mapped to files names using XkbRules.  The
> rules file in 4.3.0 is also rewritten and maps layout names to
> 'pc/[layout name]'. (Since you have XFree 4.3.0 you can check it
> running setxkbmap program with '-print' option.) On the contrary to
> make the server get the keymap file from symbols directory is a bit
> tricky.  If you want to use such old file you need to add the layout
> name into the list of 'old layouts' in xkb/rules/xfree86 file.

OK, I noted that rules/xfree86 changed a lot since the last time I read
it :)
I copied all xkb directory of 4.4 beta to /etc/X11 to be sure it is
"clean", without my personal modifications.

My XF86Config and the output of the "setxkbmap -print" are as follows:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "XkbRules" "xfree86"
        Option      "XkbModel" "abnt2"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "br"
EndSection

[iga@figaro iga]$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "xfree86(abnt2)+aliases(qwerty)"       
};
        xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "us(pc101)+br"  };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc"            };
};

Humm, it is using the old scheme for the symbols... and the geometry is
wrong. So I tried to change the XF86Config to:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "XkbRules" "xfree86"
        Option      "XkbModel" "xfree86(abnt2)"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "br"
EndSection

[iga@figaro iga]$ setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "xfree86+aliases(qwerty)"       };
        xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "pc/pc(pc105)+pc/br"    };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc104)"     };
};

Now the symbols is in the new scheme, but the keycodes seems to be
wrong... and the geometry changed, but it is still wrong.

So my doubt is: you want XKB to use the old scheme as default to
maintain compatibility, or the new scheme?

For instance, which one do you want for 4.4?
! model         layout  =       symbols
  abnt2         br      =       us(pc101)+br

or

  abnt2         br      =       pc/pc(pc105)+pc/br

?

I suppose that the answer is the $pcmodels variable, using the line
below to configure the symbols... Could you explain me what is
"$pcmodels" variable?

! model         layout  =       symbols
 $pcmodels      *       =       pc/pc(%m)+pc/%l%(v)

I read in README.enhancing that %l is the layout and %v the variant, and
I suppose that %m is the sub-model (as "abnt2" inside the "xfree86"
model). Am I right?

> > BTW, the Japanese map is missing in the "pc" directory...
> 
> I left some maps unconverted for different reasons.  Frankly speaking
> I don't remember why the Japanese map is one of them (probably because
> it has a separate rule in the rules file).  On the other hand nobody
> complained. :) I will add such keymap some day.

Well... Let Japanese people solve their problem :)

Thanks again, and sorry for the long mail.

PS. Is it cold in Russia now? :P

-- 
Ricardo Yassuo Igarashi
E-mail: [email protected]
Linux HP: http://web.that.com.br/iga