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- How to further enhance XKB configuration
-
- Kamil Toman, Ivan U. Pascal
-
- 25 November 2002
-
- Abstract
-
- This guide is aimed to relieve one's labour to create a new (inter-
- nationalized) keyboard layout. Unlike other documents this guide
- accents the keymap developer's point of view.
-
-1. Overview
-
-The developer of a new layout should read the xkb protocol specification (The
-X Keyboard Extension: Protocol Specification
-<URL:http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf>) at least to clarify for
-himself some xkb-specific terms used in this document and elsewhere in xkb
-configuration. Also it shows wise to understand how the X server and a client
-digest their keyboard inputs (with and without xkb).
-
-A useful source is also Ivan Pascal's text about xkb configuration
-<URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pascal/en/xkb> often referenced throughout this docu-
-ment.
-
-Note that this document covers only enhancements which are to be made to
-XFree86 version 4.3.x and above.
-
-2. The Basics
-
-At the startup (or at later at user's command) X server starts its xkb key-
-board module extension and reads data from a compiled configuration file.
-
-This compiled configuration file is prepared by the program xkbcomp which
-behaves altogether as an ordinary compiler (see man xkbcomp). Its input are
-human readable xkb configuration files which are verified and then composed
-into a useful xkb configuration. Users don't need to mess with xkbcomp them-
-selves, for them it is invisible. Usually, it is started upon X server
-startup.
-
-As you probably already know, the xkb configuration consists of five main
-modules:
-
- Keycodes
- Tables that defines translation from keyboard scan codes into
- reasonable symbolic names, maximum, minimum legal keycodes, sym-
- bolic aliases and description of physically present LED-indica-
- tors. The primary sence of this component is to allow definitions
- of maps of symbols (see below) to be independent of physical key-
- board scancodes. There are two main naming conventions for sym-
- bolic names (always four bytes long):
-
- o names which express some traditional meaning like <SPCE>
- (stands for space bar) or
-
- o names which express some relative positioning on a key-
- board, for example <AE01> (an exclamation mark on US key-
- boards), on the right there are keys <AE02>, <AE03> etc.
-
- Types
- Types describe how the produced key is changed by active modi-
- fiers (like Shift, Control, Alt, ...). There are several prede-
- fined types which cover most of used combinations.
-
- Compat
- Compatibility component defines internal behaviour of modifiers.
- Using compat component you can assign various actions (elabo-
- rately described in xkb specification) to key events. This is
- also the place where LED-indicators behaviour is defined.
-
- Symbols
- For i18n purposes, this is the most important table. It defines
- what values (=symbols) are assigned to what keycodes (represented
- by their symbolic name, see above). There may be defined more
- than one value for each key and then it depends on a key type and
- on modifiers state (respective compat component) which value will
- be the resulting one.
-
- Geometry
- Geometry files aren't used by xkb itself but they may be used by
- some external programs to depict a keyboard image.
-
-All these components have the files located in xkb configuration tree in sub-
-directories with the same names (usually in /usr/lib/X11/xkb).
-
-3. Enhancing XKB Configuration
-
-Most of xkb enhancements concerns a need to define new output symbols for the
-some input key events. In other words, a need to define a new symbol map (for
-a new language, standard or just to feel more comfortable when typing text).
-
-What do you need to do? Generally, you have to define following things:
-
- o the map of symbols itself
-
- o the rules to allow users to select the new mapping
-
- o the description of the new layout
-
-First of all, it is good to go through existing layouts and to examine them
-if there is something you could easily adjust to fit your needs. Even if
-there is nothing similar you may get some ideas about basic concepts and used
-tricks.
-
-3.1 Levels And Groups
-
-Since XFree86 4.3.0 you can use multi-layout concept of xkb configuration.
-Though it is still in boundaries of xkb protocol and general ideas, the
-keymap designer must obey new rules when creating new maps. In exchange we
-get a more powerful and cleaner configuration system.
-
-Remember that it is the application which must decide which symbol matches
-which keycode according to effective modifier state. The X server itself
-sends only an input event message to. Of course, usually the general inter-
-pretation is processed by Xlib, Xaw, Motif, Qt, Gtk and similar libraries.
-The X server only supplies its mapping table (usually upon an application
-startup).
-
-You can think of the X server's symbol table as of a irregular table where
-each keycode has its row and where each combination of modifiers determines
-exactly one column. The resulting cell then gives the proper symbolic value.
-Not all keycodes need to bind different values for different combination of
-modifiers. <ENTER> key, for instance, usually doesn't depend on any modi-
-fiers so it its row has only one column defined.
-
-Note that in XKB there is no prior assumption that certain modifiers are
-bound to certain columns. By editing proper files (see keytypes (section 4.2,
-page 1)) this mapping can be changed as well.
-
-Unlike the original X protocol the XKB approach is far more flexible. It is
-comfortable to add one additional XKB term - group. You can think of a group
-as of a vector of columns per each keycode (naturally the dimension of this
-vector may differ for different keycodes). What is it good for? The group is
-not very useful unless you intend to use more than one logically different
-set of symbols (like more than one alphabet) defined in a single mapping ta-
-ble. But then, the group has a natural meaning - each symbol set has its own
-group and changing it means selecting a different one. XKB approach allows
-up to four different groups. The columns inside each group are called (shift)
-levels. The X server knows the current group and reports it together with
-modifier set and with a keycode in key events.
-
-To sum it up:
-
- o for each keycode XKB keyboard map contains up to four one-dimensional
- tables - groups (logically different symbol sets)
-
- o for each group of a keycode XKB keyboard map contains some columns -
- shift levels (values reached by combinations of Shift, Ctrl, Alt, ...
- modifiers)
-
- o different keycodes can have different number of groups
-
- o different groups of one keycode can have different number of shift lev-
- els
-
- o the current group number is tracked by X server
-
-It is clear that if you sanely define levels, groups and sanely bind modi-
-fiers and associated actions you can have simultaneously loaded up to four
-different symbol sets where each of them would reside in its own group.
-
-The multi-layout concept provides a facility to manipulate xkb groups and
-symbol definitions in a way that allows almost arbitrary composition of pre-
-defined symbol tables. To keep it fully functional you have to:
-
- o define all symbols only in the first group
-
- o (re)define any modifiers with extra care to avoid strange (anisometric)
- behaviour
-
-4. Defining New Layouts
-
-See Some Words About XKB internals <URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pas-
-cal/en/xkb/internals.html> for explanation of used xkb terms and problems
-addressed by XKB extension.
-
-See Common notes about XKB configuration files language
-<URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pascal/en/xkb/gram-common.html> for more precise
-explanation of syntax of xkb configuration files.
-
-4.1 Predefined XKB Symbol Sets
-
-If you are about to define some European symbol map extension, you might want
-to use on of four predefined latin alphabet layouts.
-
-Okay, let's assume you want extend an existing keymap and you want to over-
-ride a few keys. Let's take a simple U.K. keyboard as an example (defined in
-pc/gb):
-
- partial default alphanumeric_keys
- xkb_symbols "basic" {
- include "pc/latin"
-
- name[Group1]="Great Britain";
-
- key <AE02> { [ 2, quotedbl, twosuperior, oneeighth ] };
- key <AE03> { [ 3, sterling, threesuperior, sterling ] };
- key <AC11> { [apostrophe, at, dead_circumflex, dead_caron] };
- key <TLDE> { [ grave, notsign, bar, bar ] };
- key <BKSL> { [numbersign, asciitilde, dead_grave, dead_breve ] };
- key <RALT> { type[Group1]="TWO_LEVEL",
- [ ISO_Level3_Shift, Multi_key ] };
-
- modifier_map Mod5 { <RALT> };
- };
-
-It defines a new layout in basic variant as an extension of common latin
-alphabet layout. The layout (symbol set) name is set to "Great Britain".
-Then there are redefinitions of a few keycodes and a modifiers binding. As
-you can see the number of shift levels is the same for <AE02>, <AE03>,
-<AC11>, <TLDE> and <BKSL> keys but it differs from number of shift levels of
-<RALT>.
-
-Note that the <RALT> key itself is a binding key for Mod5 and that it serves
-like a shift modifier for LevelThree, together with Shift as a multi-key. It
-is a good habit to respect this rule in a new similar layout.
-
-Okay, you could now define more variants of your new layout besides basic
-simply by including (augmenting/overriding/...) the basic definition and
-altering what may be needed.
-
-4.2 Key Types
-
-The differences in the number of columns (shift levels) are caused by a dif-
-ferent types of keys (see the types definition in section basics). Most key-
-codes have implicitly set the keytype in the included "pc/latin" file to
-"FOUR_LEVEL_ALPHABETIC". The only exception is <RALT> keycode which is
-explicitly set "TWO_LEVEL" keytype.
-
-All those names refer to pre-defined shift level schemes. Usually you can
-choose a suitable shift level scheme from default types scheme list in proper
-xkb component's subdirectory.
-
-The most used schemes are:
-
- ONE_LEVEL
- The key does not depend on any modifiers. The symbol from first
- level is always chosen.
-
- TWO_LEVEL
- The key uses a modifier Shift and may have two possible values.
- The second level may be chosen by Shift modifier. If Lock modi-
- fier (usually Caps-lock) applies the symbol is further processed
- using system-specific capitalization rules. If both Shift+Lock
- modifier apply the symbol from the second level is taken and cap-
- italization rules are applied (and usually have no effect).
-
- ALPHABETIC
- The key uses modifiers Shift and Lock. It may have two possible
- values. The second level may be chosen by Shift modifier. When
- Lock modifier applies, the symbol from the first level is taken
- and further processed using system-specific capitalization rules.
- If both Shift+Lock modifier apply the symbol from the first level
- is taken and no capitalization rules applied. This is often
- called shift-cancels-caps behaviour.
-
- THREE_LEVEL
- Is the same as TWO_LEVEL but it considers an extra modifier -
- LevelThree which can be used to gain the symbol value from the
- third level. If both Shift+LevelThree modifiers apply the value
- from the third level is also taken. As in TWO_LEVEL, the Lock
- modifier doesn't influence the resulting level. Only Shift and
- LevelThree are taken into that consideration. If the Lock modi-
- fier is active capitalization rules are applied on the resulting
- symbol.
-
- FOUR_LEVEL
- Is the same as THREE_LEVEL but unlike LEVEL_THREE if both
- Shift+LevelThree modifiers apply the symbol is taken from the
- fourth level.
-
- FOUR_LEVEL_ALPHABETIC
- Is similar to FOUR_LEVEL but also defines shift-cancels-caps
- behaviour as in ALPHABETIC. If Lock+LevelThree apply the symbol
- from the third level is taken and the capitalization rules are
- applied. If Lock+Shift+LevelThree apply the symbol from the
- third level is taken and no capitalization rules are applied.
-
- KEYPAD
- As the name suggest this scheme is primarily used for numeric
- keypads. The scheme considers two modifiers - Shift and NumLock.
- If none of modifiers applies the symbol from the first level is
- taken. If either Shift or NumLock modifiers apply the symbol from
- the second level is taken. If both Shift+NumLock modifiers apply
- the symbol from the first level is taken. Again, shift-cancels-
- caps variant.
-
- FOUR_LEVEL_KEYPAD
- Is similar to KEYPAD scheme but considers also LevelThree modi-
- fier. If LevelThree modifier applies the symbol from the third
- level is taken. If Shift+LevelThree or NumLock+LevelThree apply
- the symbol from the fourth level is taken. If all Shift+Num-
- Lock+LevelThree modifiers apply the symbol from the third level
- is taken. This also, shift-cancels-caps variant.
-
- FOUR_LEVEL_MIXED_KEYPAD
- A four-level keypad scheme where the first two levels are similar
- to the KEYPAD scheme (NumLock+Shift)
- LevelThree acts as an override providing access to two Shift-ed
- levels. When LevelThree is active we totally ignore NumLock state
- Intended for the digit area of the keypad
-
- FOUR_LEVEL_X
- A four-level scheme where the base level accepts no modifier,
- LevelThree provides two more Shift-ed levels like in the previous
- scheme, and Ctrl+Alt controls the fourth level
- Intended for the operator part of a keypad, though since NumLock
- plays no part, it is not keypad-specific
-
-Besides that, there are several schemes for special purposes:
-
- PC_CONTROL_LEVEL2
- It is similar to TWO_LEVEL scheme but it considers the Control
- modifier rather than Shift. That means, the symbol from the sec-
- ond level is chosen by Control rather than by Shift.
-
- PC_ALT_LEVEL2
- It is similar to TWO_LEVEL scheme but it considers the Alt modi-
- fier rather than Shift. That means, the symbol from the second
- level is chosen by Alt rather than by Shift.
-
- CTRL+ALT
- The key uses modifiers Alt and Control. It may have two possible
- values. If only one modifier (Alt or Control) applies the symbol
- from the first level is chosen. Only if both Alt+Control modi-
- fiers apply the symbol from the second level is chosen.
-
- SHIFT+ALT
- The key uses modifiers Shift and Alt. It may have two possible
- values. If only one modifier (Alt or Shift) applies the symbol
- from the first level is chosen. Only if both Alt+Shift modifiers
- apply the symbol from the second level is chosen.
-
-If needed, special caps schemes may be used. They redefine the standard
-behaviour of all *ALPHABETIC types. The layouts (maps of symbols) with keys
-defined in respective types then automatically change their behaviour accord-
-ingly. Possible redefinitions are:
-
- o internal
-
- o internal_nocancel
-
- o shift
-
- o shift_nocancel
-
-None of these schemes should be used directly. They are defined merely for
-'caps:' xkb options (used to globally change the layouts behaviour).
-
-Don't alter any of existing key types. If you need a different behaviour cre-
-ate a new one.
-
-4.2.1 More On Definitions Of Types
-
-When the XKB software deals with a separate type description it gets a com-
-plete list of modifiers that should be taken into account from the 'modi-
-fiers=<list of modifiers>' list and expects that a set of 'map[<combination
-of modifiers>]=<list of modifiers>' instructions that contain the mapping for
-each combination of modifiers mentioned in that list. Modifiers that are not
-explicitly listed are NOT taken into account when the resulting shift level
-is computed. If some combination is omitted the program (subroutine) should
-choose the first level for this combination (a quite reasonable behavior).
-
-Lets consider an example with two modifiers ModOne and ModTwo:
-
- type "..." {
- modifiers = ModOne+ModTwo;
- map[None] = Level1;
- map[ModOne] = Level2;
- };
-
-In this case the map statements for ModTwo only and ModOne+ModTwo are omit-
-ted. It means that if the ModTwo is active the subroutine can't found
-explicit mapping for such combination an will use the default level i.e.
-Level1.
-
-But in the case the type described as:
-
- type "..." {
- modifiers = ModOne;
- map[None] = Level1;
- map[ModOne] = Level2;
- };
-
-the ModTwo will not be taken into account and the resulting level depends on
-the ModOne state only. That means, ModTwo alone produces the Level1 but the
-combination ModOne+ModTwo produces the Level2 as well as ModOne alone.
-
-What does it mean if the second modifier is the Lock? It means that in the
-first case (the Lock itself is included in the list of modifiers but combina-
-tions with this modifier aren't mentioned in the map statements) the internal
-capitalization rules will be applied to the symbol from the first level. But
-in the second case the capitalization will be applied to the symbol chosen
-accordingly to he first modifier - and this can be the symbol from the first
-as well as from the second level.
-
-Usually, all modifiers introduced in 'modifiers=<list of modifiers>' list are
-used for shift level calculation and then discarded. Sometimes this is not
-desirable. If you want to use a modifier for shift level calculation but you
-don't want to discard it, you may list in 'preserve[<combination of modi-
-fiers>]=<list of modifiers>'. That means, for a given combination all listed
-modifiers will be preserved. If the Lock modifier is preserved then the
-resulting symbol is passed to internal capitalization routine regardless
-whether it has been used for a shift level calculation or not.
-
-Any key type description can use both real and virtual modifiers. Since real
-modifiers always have standard names it is not necessary to explicitly
-declare them. Virtual modifiers can have arbitrary names and can be declared
-(prior using them) directly in key type definition:
-
- virtual_modifiers <comma-separated list of modifiers> ;
-
-as seen in for example basic, pc or mousekeys key type definitions.
-
-4.3 Rules
-
-Once you are finished with your symbol map you need to add it to rules file.
-The rules file describes how all the five basic keycodes, types, compat, sym-
-bols and geometry components should be composed to give a sensible resulting
-xkb configuration.
-
-The main advantage of rules over formerly used keymaps is a possibility to
-simply parameterize (once) fixed patterns of configurations and thus to ele-
-gantly allow substitutions of various local configurations into predefined
-templates.
-
-A pattern in a rules file (often located in /usr/lib/X11/xkb/rules) can be
-parameterized with four other arguments: Model, Layout, Variant and Options.
-For most cases parameters model and layout should be sufficient for choosing
-a functional keyboard mapping.
-
-The rules file itself is composed of pattern lines and lines with rules. The
-pattern line starts with an exclamation mark ('!') and describes how will the
-xkb interpret the following lines (rules). A sample rules file looks like
-this:
-
- ! model = keycodes
- macintosh_old = macintosh
- ...
- * = xfree86
-
- ! model = symbols
- hp = +inet(%m)
- microsoftpro = +inet(%m)
- geniuscomfy = +inet(%m)
-
- ! model layout[1] = symbols
- macintosh us = macintosh/us%(v[1])
- * * = pc/pc(%m)+pc/%l[1]%(v[1])
-
- ! model layout[2] = symbols
- macintosh us = +macintosh/us[2]%(v[2]):2
- * * = +pc/%l[2]%(v[2]):2
-
- ! option = types
- caps:internal = +caps(internal)
- caps:internal_nocancel = +caps(internal_nocancel)
-
-Each rule defines what certain combination of values on the left side of
-equal sign ('=') results in. For example a (keyboard) model macintosh_old
-instructs xkb to take definitions of keycodes from file keycodes/macintosh
-while the rest of models (represented by a wild card '*') instructs it to
-take them from file keycodes/xfree86. The wild card represents all possible
-values on the left side which were not found in any of the previous rules.
-The more specialized (more complete) rules have higher precedence than gen-
-eral ones, i.e. the more general rules supply reasonable default values.
-
-As you can see some lines contain substitution parameters - the parameters
-preceded by the percent sign ('%'). The first alphabetical character after
-the percent sign expands to the value which has been found on the left side.
-For example +%l%(v) expands into +cz(bksl) if the respective values on the
-left side were cz layout in its bksl variant. More, if the layout resp. vari-
-ant parameter is followed by a pair of brackets ('[', ']') it means that xkb
-should place the layout resp. variant into specified xkb group. If the brack-
-ets are omitted the first group is the default value.
-
-So the second block of rules enhances symbol definitions for some particular
-keyboard models with extra keys (for internet, multimedia, ...) . Other mod-
-els are left intact. Similarly, the last block overrides some key type defi-
-nitions, so the common global behaviour ''shift cancels caps'' or ''shift
-doesn't cancel caps'' can be selected. The rest of rules produces special
-symbols for each variant us layout of macintosh keyboard and standard pc sym-
-bols in appropriate variants as a default.
-
-4.4 Descriptive Files of Rules
-
-Now you just need to add a detailed description to <rules>.xml description
-file so the other users (and external programs which often parse this file)
-know what is your work about.
-
-4.4.1 Old Descriptive Files
-
-The formerly used descriptive files were named <rules>.lst Its structure is
-very simple and quite self descriptive but such simplicity had also some cav-
-ities, for example there was no way how to describe local variants of layouts
-and there were problems with the localization of descriptions. To preserve
-compatibility with some older programs, new XML descriptive files can be con-
-verted to old format '.lst'.
-
-For each parameter of rules file should be described its meaning. For the
-rules file described above the .lst file could look like:
-
- ! model
- pc104 Generic 104-key PC
- microsoft Microsoft Natural
- pc98 PC-98xx Series
- macintosh Original Macintosh
- ...
-
- ! layout
- us U.S. English
- cz Czech
- de German
- ...
-
- ! option
- caps:internal uses internal capitalization. Shift cancels Caps
- caps:internal_nocancel uses internal capitalization. Shift doesn't cancel Caps
-
-And that should be it. Enjoy creating your own xkb mapping.
+ How to further enhance XKB configuration
+
+ Kamil Toman, Ivan U. Pascal
+
+ 25 November 2002
+
+ Abstract
+
+ This guide is aimed to relieve one's labour to create a new (inter-
+ nationalized) keyboard layout. Unlike other documents this guide
+ accents the keymap developer's point of view.
+
+1. Overview
+
+The developer of a new layout should read the xkb protocol specification (The
+X Keyboard Extension: Protocol Specification
+<URL:http://xfree86.org/current/XKBproto.pdf>) at least to clarify for
+himself some xkb-specific terms used in this document and elsewhere in xkb
+configuration. Also it shows wise to understand how the X server and a client
+digest their keyboard inputs (with and without xkb).
+
+A useful source is also Ivan Pascal's text about xkb configuration
+<URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pascal/en/xkb> often referenced throughout this docu-
+ment.
+
+Note that this document covers only enhancements which are to be made to
+XFree86 version 4.3.x and above.
+
+2. The Basics
+
+At the startup (or at later at user's command) X server starts its xkb key-
+board module extension and reads data from a compiled configuration file.
+
+This compiled configuration file is prepared by the program xkbcomp which
+behaves altogether as an ordinary compiler (see man xkbcomp). Its input are
+human readable xkb configuration files which are verified and then composed
+into a useful xkb configuration. Users don't need to mess with xkbcomp them-
+selves, for them it is invisible. Usually, it is started upon X server
+startup.
+
+As you probably already know, the xkb configuration consists of five main
+modules:
+
+ Keycodes
+ Tables that defines translation from keyboard scan codes into
+ reasonable symbolic names, maximum, minimum legal keycodes, sym-
+ bolic aliases and description of physically present LED-indica-
+ tors. The primary sence of this component is to allow definitions
+ of maps of symbols (see below) to be independent of physical key-
+ board scancodes. There are two main naming conventions for sym-
+ bolic names (always four bytes long):
+
+ o names which express some traditional meaning like <SPCE>
+ (stands for space bar) or
+
+ o names which express some relative positioning on a key-
+ board, for example <AE01> (an exclamation mark on US key-
+ boards), on the right there are keys <AE02>, <AE03> etc.
+
+ Types
+ Types describe how the produced key is changed by active modi-
+ fiers (like Shift, Control, Alt, ...). There are several prede-
+ fined types which cover most of used combinations.
+
+ Compat
+ Compatibility component defines internal behaviour of modifiers.
+ Using compat component you can assign various actions (elabo-
+ rately described in xkb specification) to key events. This is
+ also the place where LED-indicators behaviour is defined.
+
+ Symbols
+ For i18n purposes, this is the most important table. It defines
+ what values (=symbols) are assigned to what keycodes (represented
+ by their symbolic name, see above). There may be defined more
+ than one value for each key and then it depends on a key type and
+ on modifiers state (respective compat component) which value will
+ be the resulting one.
+
+ Geometry
+ Geometry files aren't used by xkb itself but they may be used by
+ some external programs to depict a keyboard image.
+
+All these components have the files located in xkb configuration tree in sub-
+directories with the same names (usually in /usr/lib/X11/xkb).
+
+3. Enhancing XKB Configuration
+
+Most of xkb enhancements concerns a need to define new output symbols for the
+some input key events. In other words, a need to define a new symbol map (for
+a new language, standard or just to feel more comfortable when typing text).
+
+What do you need to do? Generally, you have to define following things:
+
+ o the map of symbols itself
+
+ o the rules to allow users to select the new mapping
+
+ o the description of the new layout
+
+First of all, it is good to go through existing layouts and to examine them
+if there is something you could easily adjust to fit your needs. Even if
+there is nothing similar you may get some ideas about basic concepts and used
+tricks.
+
+3.1 Levels And Groups
+
+Since XFree86 4.3.0 you can use multi-layout concept of xkb configuration.
+Though it is still in boundaries of xkb protocol and general ideas, the
+keymap designer must obey new rules when creating new maps. In exchange we
+get a more powerful and cleaner configuration system.
+
+Remember that it is the application which must decide which symbol matches
+which keycode according to effective modifier state. The X server itself
+sends only an input event message to. Of course, usually the general inter-
+pretation is processed by Xlib, Xaw, Motif, Qt, Gtk and similar libraries.
+The X server only supplies its mapping table (usually upon an application
+startup).
+
+You can think of the X server's symbol table as of a irregular table where
+each keycode has its row and where each combination of modifiers determines
+exactly one column. The resulting cell then gives the proper symbolic value.
+Not all keycodes need to bind different values for different combination of
+modifiers. <ENTER> key, for instance, usually doesn't depend on any modi-
+fiers so it its row has only one column defined.
+
+Note that in XKB there is no prior assumption that certain modifiers are
+bound to certain columns. By editing proper files (see keytypes (section 4.2,
+page 1)) this mapping can be changed as well.
+
+Unlike the original X protocol the XKB approach is far more flexible. It is
+comfortable to add one additional XKB term - group. You can think of a group
+as of a vector of columns per each keycode (naturally the dimension of this
+vector may differ for different keycodes). What is it good for? The group is
+not very useful unless you intend to use more than one logically different
+set of symbols (like more than one alphabet) defined in a single mapping ta-
+ble. But then, the group has a natural meaning - each symbol set has its own
+group and changing it means selecting a different one. XKB approach allows
+up to four different groups. The columns inside each group are called (shift)
+levels. The X server knows the current group and reports it together with
+modifier set and with a keycode in key events.
+
+To sum it up:
+
+ o for each keycode XKB keyboard map contains up to four one-dimensional
+ tables - groups (logically different symbol sets)
+
+ o for each group of a keycode XKB keyboard map contains some columns -
+ shift levels (values reached by combinations of Shift, Ctrl, Alt, ...
+ modifiers)
+
+ o different keycodes can have different number of groups
+
+ o different groups of one keycode can have different number of shift lev-
+ els
+
+ o the current group number is tracked by X server
+
+It is clear that if you sanely define levels, groups and sanely bind modi-
+fiers and associated actions you can have simultaneously loaded up to four
+different symbol sets where each of them would reside in its own group.
+
+The multi-layout concept provides a facility to manipulate xkb groups and
+symbol definitions in a way that allows almost arbitrary composition of pre-
+defined symbol tables. To keep it fully functional you have to:
+
+ o define all symbols only in the first group
+
+ o (re)define any modifiers with extra care to avoid strange (anisometric)
+ behaviour
+
+4. Defining New Layouts
+
+See Some Words About XKB internals <URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pas-
+cal/en/xkb/internals.html> for explanation of used xkb terms and problems
+addressed by XKB extension.
+
+See Common notes about XKB configuration files language
+<URL:http://www.tsu.ru/~pascal/en/xkb/gram-common.html> for more precise
+explanation of syntax of xkb configuration files.
+
+4.1 Predefined XKB Symbol Sets
+
+If you are about to define some European symbol map extension, you might want
+to use on of four predefined latin alphabet layouts.
+
+Okay, let's assume you want extend an existing keymap and you want to over-
+ride a few keys. Let's take a simple U.K. keyboard as an example (defined in
+pc/gb):
+
+ partial default alphanumeric_keys
+ xkb_symbols "basic" {
+ include "pc/latin"
+
+ name[Group1]="Great Britain";
+
+ key <AE02> { [ 2, quotedbl, twosuperior, oneeighth ] };
+ key <AE03> { [ 3, sterling, threesuperior, sterling ] };
+ key <AC11> { [apostrophe, at, dead_circumflex, dead_caron] };
+ key <TLDE> { [ grave, notsign, bar, bar ] };
+ key <BKSL> { [numbersign, asciitilde, dead_grave, dead_breve ] };
+ key <RALT> { type[Group1]="TWO_LEVEL",
+ [ ISO_Level3_Shift, Multi_key ] };
+
+ modifier_map Mod5 { <RALT> };
+ };
+
+It defines a new layout in basic variant as an extension of common latin
+alphabet layout. The layout (symbol set) name is set to "Great Britain".
+Then there are redefinitions of a few keycodes and a modifiers binding. As
+you can see the number of shift levels is the same for <AE02>, <AE03>,
+<AC11>, <TLDE> and <BKSL> keys but it differs from number of shift levels of
+<RALT>.
+
+Note that the <RALT> key itself is a binding key for Mod5 and that it serves
+like a shift modifier for LevelThree, together with Shift as a multi-key. It
+is a good habit to respect this rule in a new similar layout.
+
+Okay, you could now define more variants of your new layout besides basic
+simply by including (augmenting/overriding/...) the basic definition and
+altering what may be needed.
+
+4.2 Key Types
+
+The differences in the number of columns (shift levels) are caused by a dif-
+ferent types of keys (see the types definition in section basics). Most key-
+codes have implicitly set the keytype in the included "pc/latin" file to
+"FOUR_LEVEL_ALPHABETIC". The only exception is <RALT> keycode which is
+explicitly set "TWO_LEVEL" keytype.
+
+All those names refer to pre-defined shift level schemes. Usually you can
+choose a suitable shift level scheme from default types scheme list in proper
+xkb component's subdirectory.
+
+The most used schemes are:
+
+ ONE_LEVEL
+ The key does not depend on any modifiers. The symbol from first
+ level is always chosen.
+
+ TWO_LEVEL
+ The key uses a modifier Shift and may have two possible values.
+ The second level may be chosen by Shift modifier. If Lock modi-
+ fier (usually Caps-lock) applies the symbol is further processed
+ using system-specific capitalization rules. If both Shift+Lock
+ modifier apply the symbol from the second level is taken and cap-
+ italization rules are applied (and usually have no effect).
+
+ ALPHABETIC
+ The key uses modifiers Shift and Lock. It may have two possible
+ values. The second level may be chosen by Shift modifier. When
+ Lock modifier applies, the symbol from the first level is taken
+ and further processed using system-specific capitalization rules.
+ If both Shift+Lock modifier apply the symbol from the first level
+ is taken and no capitalization rules applied. This is often
+ called shift-cancels-caps behaviour.
+
+ THREE_LEVEL
+ Is the same as TWO_LEVEL but it considers an extra modifier -
+ LevelThree which can be used to gain the symbol value from the
+ third level. If both Shift+LevelThree modifiers apply the value
+ from the third level is also taken. As in TWO_LEVEL, the Lock
+ modifier doesn't influence the resulting level. Only Shift and
+ LevelThree are taken into that consideration. If the Lock modi-
+ fier is active capitalization rules are applied on the resulting
+ symbol.
+
+ FOUR_LEVEL
+ Is the same as THREE_LEVEL but unlike LEVEL_THREE if both
+ Shift+LevelThree modifiers apply the symbol is taken from the
+ fourth level.
+
+ FOUR_LEVEL_ALPHABETIC
+ Is similar to FOUR_LEVEL but also defines shift-cancels-caps
+ behaviour as in ALPHABETIC. If Lock+LevelThree apply the symbol
+ from the third level is taken and the capitalization rules are
+ applied. If Lock+Shift+LevelThree apply the symbol from the
+ third level is taken and no capitalization rules are applied.
+
+ KEYPAD
+ As the name suggest this scheme is primarily used for numeric
+ keypads. The scheme considers two modifiers - Shift and NumLock.
+ If none of modifiers applies the symbol from the first level is
+ taken. If either Shift or NumLock modifiers apply the symbol from
+ the second level is taken. If both Shift+NumLock modifiers apply
+ the symbol from the first level is taken. Again, shift-cancels-
+ caps variant.
+
+ FOUR_LEVEL_KEYPAD
+ Is similar to KEYPAD scheme but considers also LevelThree modi-
+ fier. If LevelThree modifier applies the symbol from the third
+ level is taken. If Shift+LevelThree or NumLock+LevelThree apply
+ the symbol from the fourth level is taken. If all Shift+Num-
+ Lock+LevelThree modifiers apply the symbol from the third level
+ is taken. This also, shift-cancels-caps variant.
+
+ FOUR_LEVEL_MIXED_KEYPAD
+ A four-level keypad scheme where the first two levels are similar
+ to the KEYPAD scheme (NumLock+Shift)
+ LevelThree acts as an override providing access to two Shift-ed
+ levels. When LevelThree is active we totally ignore NumLock state
+ Intended for the digit area of the keypad
+
+ FOUR_LEVEL_X
+ A four-level scheme where the base level accepts no modifier,
+ LevelThree provides two more Shift-ed levels like in the previous
+ scheme, and Ctrl+Alt controls the fourth level
+ Intended for the operator part of a keypad, though since NumLock
+ plays no part, it is not keypad-specific
+
+Besides that, there are several schemes for special purposes:
+
+ PC_CONTROL_LEVEL2
+ It is similar to TWO_LEVEL scheme but it considers the Control
+ modifier rather than Shift. That means, the symbol from the sec-
+ ond level is chosen by Control rather than by Shift.
+
+ PC_ALT_LEVEL2
+ It is similar to TWO_LEVEL scheme but it considers the Alt modi-
+ fier rather than Shift. That means, the symbol from the second
+ level is chosen by Alt rather than by Shift.
+
+ CTRL+ALT
+ The key uses modifiers Alt and Control. It may have two possible
+ values. If only one modifier (Alt or Control) applies the symbol
+ from the first level is chosen. Only if both Alt+Control modi-
+ fiers apply the symbol from the second level is chosen.
+
+ SHIFT+ALT
+ The key uses modifiers Shift and Alt. It may have two possible
+ values. If only one modifier (Alt or Shift) applies the symbol
+ from the first level is chosen. Only if both Alt+Shift modifiers
+ apply the symbol from the second level is chosen.
+
+If needed, special caps schemes may be used. They redefine the standard
+behaviour of all *ALPHABETIC types. The layouts (maps of symbols) with keys
+defined in respective types then automatically change their behaviour accord-
+ingly. Possible redefinitions are:
+
+ o internal
+
+ o internal_nocancel
+
+ o shift
+
+ o shift_nocancel
+
+None of these schemes should be used directly. They are defined merely for
+'caps:' xkb options (used to globally change the layouts behaviour).
+
+Don't alter any of existing key types. If you need a different behaviour cre-
+ate a new one.
+
+4.2.1 More On Definitions Of Types
+
+When the XKB software deals with a separate type description it gets a com-
+plete list of modifiers that should be taken into account from the 'modi-
+fiers=<list of modifiers>' list and expects that a set of 'map[<combination
+of modifiers>]=<list of modifiers>' instructions that contain the mapping for
+each combination of modifiers mentioned in that list. Modifiers that are not
+explicitly listed are NOT taken into account when the resulting shift level
+is computed. If some combination is omitted the program (subroutine) should
+choose the first level for this combination (a quite reasonable behavior).
+
+Lets consider an example with two modifiers ModOne and ModTwo:
+
+ type "..." {
+ modifiers = ModOne+ModTwo;
+ map[None] = Level1;
+ map[ModOne] = Level2;
+ };
+
+In this case the map statements for ModTwo only and ModOne+ModTwo are omit-
+ted. It means that if the ModTwo is active the subroutine can't found
+explicit mapping for such combination an will use the default level i.e.
+Level1.
+
+But in the case the type described as:
+
+ type "..." {
+ modifiers = ModOne;
+ map[None] = Level1;
+ map[ModOne] = Level2;
+ };
+
+the ModTwo will not be taken into account and the resulting level depends on
+the ModOne state only. That means, ModTwo alone produces the Level1 but the
+combination ModOne+ModTwo produces the Level2 as well as ModOne alone.
+
+What does it mean if the second modifier is the Lock? It means that in the
+first case (the Lock itself is included in the list of modifiers but combina-
+tions with this modifier aren't mentioned in the map statements) the internal
+capitalization rules will be applied to the symbol from the first level. But
+in the second case the capitalization will be applied to the symbol chosen
+accordingly to he first modifier - and this can be the symbol from the first
+as well as from the second level.
+
+Usually, all modifiers introduced in 'modifiers=<list of modifiers>' list are
+used for shift level calculation and then discarded. Sometimes this is not
+desirable. If you want to use a modifier for shift level calculation but you
+don't want to discard it, you may list in 'preserve[<combination of modi-
+fiers>]=<list of modifiers>'. That means, for a given combination all listed
+modifiers will be preserved. If the Lock modifier is preserved then the
+resulting symbol is passed to internal capitalization routine regardless
+whether it has been used for a shift level calculation or not.
+
+Any key type description can use both real and virtual modifiers. Since real
+modifiers always have standard names it is not necessary to explicitly
+declare them. Virtual modifiers can have arbitrary names and can be declared
+(prior using them) directly in key type definition:
+
+ virtual_modifiers <comma-separated list of modifiers> ;
+
+as seen in for example basic, pc or mousekeys key type definitions.
+
+4.3 Rules
+
+Once you are finished with your symbol map you need to add it to rules file.
+The rules file describes how all the five basic keycodes, types, compat, sym-
+bols and geometry components should be composed to give a sensible resulting
+xkb configuration.
+
+The main advantage of rules over formerly used keymaps is a possibility to
+simply parameterize (once) fixed patterns of configurations and thus to ele-
+gantly allow substitutions of various local configurations into predefined
+templates.
+
+A pattern in a rules file (often located in /usr/lib/X11/xkb/rules) can be
+parameterized with four other arguments: Model, Layout, Variant and Options.
+For most cases parameters model and layout should be sufficient for choosing
+a functional keyboard mapping.
+
+The rules file itself is composed of pattern lines and lines with rules. The
+pattern line starts with an exclamation mark ('!') and describes how will the
+xkb interpret the following lines (rules). A sample rules file looks like
+this:
+
+ ! model = keycodes
+ macintosh_old = macintosh
+ ...
+ * = xfree86
+
+ ! model = symbols
+ hp = +inet(%m)
+ microsoftpro = +inet(%m)
+ geniuscomfy = +inet(%m)
+
+ ! model layout[1] = symbols
+ macintosh us = macintosh/us%(v[1])
+ * * = pc/pc(%m)+pc/%l[1]%(v[1])
+
+ ! model layout[2] = symbols
+ macintosh us = +macintosh/us[2]%(v[2]):2
+ * * = +pc/%l[2]%(v[2]):2
+
+ ! option = types
+ caps:internal = +caps(internal)
+ caps:internal_nocancel = +caps(internal_nocancel)
+
+Each rule defines what certain combination of values on the left side of
+equal sign ('=') results in. For example a (keyboard) model macintosh_old
+instructs xkb to take definitions of keycodes from file keycodes/macintosh
+while the rest of models (represented by a wild card '*') instructs it to
+take them from file keycodes/xfree86. The wild card represents all possible
+values on the left side which were not found in any of the previous rules.
+The more specialized (more complete) rules have higher precedence than gen-
+eral ones, i.e. the more general rules supply reasonable default values.
+
+As you can see some lines contain substitution parameters - the parameters
+preceded by the percent sign ('%'). The first alphabetical character after
+the percent sign expands to the value which has been found on the left side.
+For example +%l%(v) expands into +cz(bksl) if the respective values on the
+left side were cz layout in its bksl variant. More, if the layout resp. vari-
+ant parameter is followed by a pair of brackets ('[', ']') it means that xkb
+should place the layout resp. variant into specified xkb group. If the brack-
+ets are omitted the first group is the default value.
+
+So the second block of rules enhances symbol definitions for some particular
+keyboard models with extra keys (for internet, multimedia, ...) . Other mod-
+els are left intact. Similarly, the last block overrides some key type defi-
+nitions, so the common global behaviour ''shift cancels caps'' or ''shift
+doesn't cancel caps'' can be selected. The rest of rules produces special
+symbols for each variant us layout of macintosh keyboard and standard pc sym-
+bols in appropriate variants as a default.
+
+4.4 Descriptive Files of Rules
+
+Now you just need to add a detailed description to <rules>.xml description
+file so the other users (and external programs which often parse this file)
+know what is your work about.
+
+4.4.1 Old Descriptive Files
+
+The formerly used descriptive files were named <rules>.lst Its structure is
+very simple and quite self descriptive but such simplicity had also some cav-
+ities, for example there was no way how to describe local variants of layouts
+and there were problems with the localization of descriptions. To preserve
+compatibility with some older programs, new XML descriptive files can be con-
+verted to old format '.lst'.
+
+For each parameter of rules file should be described its meaning. For the
+rules file described above the .lst file could look like:
+
+ ! model
+ pc104 Generic 104-key PC
+ microsoft Microsoft Natural
+ pc98 PC-98xx Series
+ macintosh Original Macintosh
+ ...
+
+ ! layout
+ us U.S. English
+ cz Czech
+ de German
+ ...
+
+ ! option
+ caps:internal uses internal capitalization. Shift cancels Caps
+ caps:internal_nocancel uses internal capitalization. Shift doesn't cancel Caps
+
+And that should be it. Enjoy creating your own xkb mapping.
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2024-11-22 17:25:59 +0000