GNU bug report logs - #40493
installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard layouts

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Cc: pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de
Subject: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard layouts
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2020 19:12:34 +0200

Hello,

The installer gained support for keyboard layout switching from every
step recently[1].

It is also possible with commit 2729cb406d9f3e9eb22cc660f887138134edb3a8
to specify comma-separated keyboard layouts, this way:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(keyboard-layout "ar,us" #:options '("grp:alt_shift_toggle"))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Now it would be nice to support multiple keyboard layout selection from
the installer, so that a configuration like to one above is generated.

Thanks,

Mathieu

[1]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2020-03/msg00381.html 

Message #8 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
Cc: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard layouts
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 19:50:02 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 07:12:34PM +0200, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> Now it would be nice to support multiple keyboard layout selection from
> the installer, so that a configuration like to one above is generated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mathieu

Ludo responded to the other bug:

On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 11:49:09AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Ideally we’d also offer a way to choose multiple layouts in the
> installer, so that one can end up with:
>
>   (keyboard-layout "ar,us" #:options '("grp:alt_shift_toggle"))
>

I believe the user should not have to manually select the other layout
(if the user wants they can select via F1 key).  Instead there should
be a sane default (typically U.S. layout).  But since I am used to
Latin script, I may not have good judgment.

IMHO two things should be done:

* Within the installer, a toggleable second keyboard layout should be
  available by default.

  Mathieu enabled changing the layout via the F1 help menu.  This is
  good and more flexible and discoverable, but a key combination is
  more convenient and people appear to be used to Alt+Shift toggling.

* In the config.scm created by the installer, the default
  keyboard-layout should include the second layout.

Both the config.scm default and the installer layout should be the
same, I think.

I attach a proposed solution for the first thing, though it does not
  yet update the toggle option correctly.  If you think the
approach is OK, then I will add more default alternative layouts to
the maybe-add-second-layout procedure.

> Although that’s mostly useful for the console as GDM and GNOME should be
> able to do the right thing.
> 
> Anyway, we can discuss it in a separate issue.
> 
> Ludo’.

The GNOME session after login will ask the user what keyboard layout
they want, but the (I believe changeable) default for GDM comes
from config.scm.

Regards,
Florian

[0001-installer-Allow-Alt-Shift-toggle-from-non-Latin-keyb.patch (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #11 received at 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>, 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2020 22:38:16 +0200

Good evening comrades!

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> IMHO two things should be done:
>
> * Within the installer, a toggleable second keyboard layout should be
>   available by default.
>
>   Mathieu enabled changing the layout via the F1 help menu.  This is
>   good and more flexible and discoverable, but a key combination is
>   more convenient and people appear to be used to Alt+Shift toggling.

Agreed!

> * In the config.scm created by the installer, the default
>   keyboard-layout should include the second layout.

Yes.

> I attach a proposed solution for the first thing, though it does not
>   yet update the toggle option correctly.  If you think the
> approach is OK, then I will add more default alternative layouts to
> the maybe-add-second-layout procedure.

I think the approach is OK, even as-is.  We can then improve it by
(hopefully) replacing the hard-coded list of non-Latin layouts (ar, jp,
etc.) with code that determines whether the main layout is Latin or not.

> From 0d3a1ecc214fe55d77f45f4b2e690a93978da9ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Florian Pelz <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
> Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 19:06:31 +0200
> Subject: [PATCH] installer: Allow Alt+Shift toggle from non-Latin keyboard
>  layouts.
>
> See <https://bugs.gnu.org/40273>.
>
> * gnu/installer/newt/keymap.scm (run-keymap-page): Maybe add second layout.
> * gnu/installer/keymap.scm (kmscon-update-keymap): Pass on XKB options.
> * gnu/installer/records.scm (<installer>): Adjust code comments.
> * gnu/installer.scm (apply-keymap): Pass on XKB options.
> (installer-steps): Adjust code comments.
> * gnu/packages/patches/kmscon-runtime-keymap-switch.patch: Apply XKB options.

Overall LGTM!  Minor suggestion below:

>  (define* (run-keymap-page layouts #:key (context #f))
>    "Run a page asking the user to select a keyboard layout and variant. LAYOUTS
> -is a list of supported X11-KEYMAP-LAYOUT. Return a list of two elements, the
> -names of the selected keyboard layout and variant."
> +is a list of supported X11-KEYMAP-LAYOUT.  For non-Latin keyboard layouts, a
> +second layout and toggle options will be added automatically.  Return a list
> +of three elements, the names of the selected keyboard layout, variant and
> +optionsxs."
          ^
You forgot to hold the “Control” key.  :-)

> +  (define (maybe-add-second-layout first-layout)
> +    "Return for a chosen keyboard layout either the same layout or possibly
> +the layout plus a suitable second layout, and also variant and options."

To leave room for improvement, how about making it a top-level procedure
along these lines:

  (define (switchable-latin-layout layout variant)
    "If LAYOUT is a non-Latin layout, return a new combined layout,
  a variant, and options that allow the user to switch between the
  non-Latin and the Latin layout.  Otherwise, return LAYOUT, VARIANT,
  and #f."
    (if (member layout '("ar" …))
        …))

?

Eventually we can replace ‘member’ or ‘match’ with something more fancy,
assuming the xkeyboard-config databases contain the relevant info
(‘base.xml’ doesn’t say what’s Latin and what’s not apparently.)

> +    (match first-layout
> +      (("ar" "azerty") (list "ar,fr" "azerty," "grp:alt_shift_toggle"))
                                               ^
Remove comma?

Thank you!

Ludo’.

Message #14 received at 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>, 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 23:56:53 +0200

On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 10:38:16PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Overall LGTM!  Minor suggestion below:

I will make a new patch tonight and follow your suggestions.  Thank you!

The layout toggling worked fine btw, except Arabic layout is called
"ara" and not "ar" in base.xml …

Regards,
Florian

Message #17 received at 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>, 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 11:58:12 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 10:38:16PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> I think the approach is OK, even as-is.  We can then improve it by
> (hopefully) replacing the hard-coded list of non-Latin layouts (ar, jp,
> etc.) with code that determines whether the main layout is Latin or not.
>

I am still doing final testing, but I believe I can push the attached
patch.


> > +    (match first-layout
> > +      (("ar" "azerty") (list "ar,fr" "azerty," "grp:alt_shift_toggle"))
>                                                ^
> Remove comma?

The comma is needed, for example the Japanese Kana ("jp" "kana")
layout breaks otherwise.  I believe the reason is that the "kana"
variant gets applied to "us" layout.

Regards,
Florian

[0001-installer-Allow-Alt-Shift-toggle-from-non-Latin-keyb.patch (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #20 received at 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>, 40493 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:22:34 +0200

Hi,

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> The comma is needed, for example the Japanese Kana ("jp" "kana")
> layout breaks otherwise.  I believe the reason is that the "kana"
> variant gets applied to "us" layout.

I see.

> From 68fc18d2816e3997f38d0a3c69566d85b26c8719 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Florian Pelz <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
> Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 11:46:16 +0200
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Subject: [PATCH] installer: Allow Alt+Shift toggle from non-Latin keyboard
>  layouts.
>
> Fixes <https://bugs.gnu.org/40493>.
>
> * gnu/installer/newt/keymap.scm (%non-latin-layouts): New variable.
> (toggleable-latin-layout): New procedure to compute combined layouts.
> (run-keymap-page): Use it.
> (keyboard-layout->configuration): Apply it in config.scm.
> * gnu/installer/newt/help.scm (run-help-page): Mention Alt+Shift.
> * gnu/installer/keymap.scm (kmscon-update-keymap): Pass on XKB options.
> * gnu/installer/record.scm (<installer>): Adjust code comments.
> * gnu/installer.scm (apply-keymap): Pass on XKB options.
> (installer-steps): Adjust code comments.
> * gnu/packages/patches/kmscon-runtime-keymap-switch.patch: Apply XKB options.

[...]

> +(define %non-latin-layouts
> +  ;; List of keyboard layouts marked as $nonlatin in xkeyboard-config.

Out of curiosity, where did you find that info?  Perhaps add the name of
the relevant file or XML tag here.

> +      (apply toggleable-latin-layout
> +             (list layout (or variant "")))))

Simply:

  (toggleable-latin-layout layout (or variant ""))

This allows the compiler to detect a wrong number of arguments.

Go for it, thank you!

Ludo’.

Message #25 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 06:14:11 +0200

On Wed, Apr 08, 2020 at 03:22:34PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Go for it, thank you!

I added some more heuristics on whether a layout is Latin or not and
after much testing pushed as 91c231a2223440081426929828a23c7baa0214fd.
There are still few false positives like non-Kana Japanese layouts
that are Latin but toggle to U.S.  They can be fixed later.

More importantly with 7bc71025ccd0fabd739803889825e10341fbabdf I also
fixed a layout’s empty variant "" not being a choice in the installer.
The "" variant is the only variant of the Azerbaijani layout providing
the Latin script Azerbaijan uses since a few decades, so it is
important.  I hope the code is alright; maybe I should not have just
pushed, but I believe it is alright.

Marking as done.

Regards,
Florian

Message #28 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 06:21:37 +0200

On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 06:14:11AM +0200, pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) wrote:
> Marking as done.

P.S. Don’t brag with Arabic support in Guix’ installer just yet
because Arabs still have to confusedly read from left to right.

https://bugs.gnu.org/35319

But that is something to solve later.

Message #31 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2020 09:25:58 +0200

Hello Florian,

> I added some more heuristics on whether a layout is Latin or not and
> after much testing pushed as 91c231a2223440081426929828a23c7baa0214fd.
> There are still few false positives like non-Kana Japanese layouts
> that are Latin but toggle to U.S.  They can be fixed later.

Nice! Thanks for taking care of this :)

In the future it would be nice to be able to extract %non-latin-layout
by parsing the base file in xkeyboard-config, rather than by maintaining
this list, but that's a minor point, and I guess new keyboard layouts
are not coming out every day :p

Mathieu

Message #34 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 09:36:21 +0200

On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 09:25:58AM +0200, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> Nice! Thanks for taking care of this :)
> 

:)

> In the future it would be nice to be able to extract %non-latin-layout
> by parsing the base file in xkeyboard-config, rather than by maintaining
> this list, but that's a minor point, and I guess new keyboard layouts
> are not coming out every day :p

Yes, but the source in
/gnu/store/wsykijz9a1p7gx3z8hlmn58v5f5bswp7-xkeyboard-config-2.29/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
looks like this:

// If you want non-latin layouts implicitly include the en_US layout
// uncomment lines below
//! $nonlatin = am ara ben bd bg bt by cs deva ge gh gr guj guru il \
//              in ir iku jp kan kh kr la lao lk mk mm mn mv mal olck \
//              ori pk ru scc sy syr tel th tj tam ua uz

I am not sure if parsing that (and filtering out "kr") is worth it.

Regards,
Florian

Message #37 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2020 09:54:54 +0200

Hi Florian,

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> On Wed, Apr 08, 2020 at 03:22:34PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Go for it, thank you!
>
> I added some more heuristics on whether a layout is Latin or not and
> after much testing pushed as 91c231a2223440081426929828a23c7baa0214fd.
> There are still few false positives like non-Kana Japanese layouts
> that are Latin but toggle to U.S.  They can be fixed later.

Awesome!

> More importantly with 7bc71025ccd0fabd739803889825e10341fbabdf I also
> fixed a layout’s empty variant "" not being a choice in the installer.
> The "" variant is the only variant of the Azerbaijani layout providing
> the Latin script Azerbaijan uses since a few decades, so it is
> important.  I hope the code is alright; maybe I should not have just
> pushed, but I believe it is alright.

Good, it’s great you’re paying close attention to this.  The patch seems
reasonable to me.

> P.S. Don’t brag with Arabic support in Guix’ installer just yet
> because Arabs still have to confusedly read from left to right.
>
> https://bugs.gnu.org/35319
>
> But that is something to solve later.

Yeah.

I’ll run the “gui-installed” tests to make sure everything’s is still
fine, then run “make release” and upload files for testing later today.

Thanks a lot, Florian!

Ludo’.

Message #40 received at 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: 40493-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#40493: installer: Provide a way to select multiple keyboard
 layouts
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2020 17:24:48 +0200

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 09:25:58AM +0200, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:

[...]

>> In the future it would be nice to be able to extract %non-latin-layout
>> by parsing the base file in xkeyboard-config, rather than by maintaining
>> this list, but that's a minor point, and I guess new keyboard layouts
>> are not coming out every day :p
>
> Yes, but the source in
> /gnu/store/wsykijz9a1p7gx3z8hlmn58v5f5bswp7-xkeyboard-config-2.29/share/X11/xkb/rules/base
> looks like this:
>
> // If you want non-latin layouts implicitly include the en_US layout
> // uncomment lines below
> //! $nonlatin = am ara ben bd bg bt by cs deva ge gh gr guj guru il \
> //              in ir iku jp kan kh kr la lao lk mk mm mn mv mal olck \
> //              ori pk ru scc sy syr tel th tj tam ua uz
>
> I am not sure if parsing that (and filtering out "kr") is worth it.

Uh, agreed, it doesn’t look like something parseable.  Also, presumably
that list won’t change much over time :-), so it’s OK to have it
hard-coded in Guix IMO.

Ludo’.

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