Bug 21475

Summary:	dead key for Greek characters
Product:	xkeyboard-config	Reporter:	Frédéric Boiteux <fboiteux>
Component:	General	Assignee:	xkb
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	enhancement
Priority:	low	CC:	cloos, lionel
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:	2011BRB_Reviewed
i915 platform:		i915 features:
Attachments:	Definition of dead_greek symbol Compositions with the dead_greek symbol use of dead_greek symbol in Bépo's keyboard layout [new] definition of dead greek symbol

Description Frédéric Boiteux 2009-04-29 04:59:55 UTC

Last year, I've contacted Xorg people to update the community driven french Dvorak layout, bépo (more info available at http://www.bepo.fr, in french), using bug reports #17821 and 17822. During this update, maintainers from the libX11 project, managing dead key definitions, added new dead keys used by our layout, 'dead_currency' and 'dead_belowcomma', but didn't add the third we need, the 'dead_greek' key, and I tried 2 possible workarounds (one using ISO_Level5_Latch and one with groups), but the side effects was too important and I finally proposed a layout without this key.

    Since then, our layout project has matured, the layout is stabilized and available on multiple platforms : Windows, OS X, and Xorg (as Linux and BSD), and quite a lot of our users/contributors are always asking for a dead_greek support from Xorg, as on other platforms.

    Indeed, it's a valuable dead key that let you naturally typing Greek letters among a text (useful for mathematical purposes for example), and is very different from a solution with a Greek layout as a second group :

- you don't have to configure a second group, not an easy task for
  inexperienced people.

- with dead_greek letter, you don't need to type a combination to go to the second group, type your letter, and then not forget to go back to your main layout.

- and moreover, we find the greek letters *in the same place* as
  the latin ones in the layout, an important point as our layout is very
  different from a standard qwerty or azerty one (which the Greek
  layout is issued), and has been built carefully with ergonomic
  considerations.

Can you actually add this dead_greek definition in libX11, to let us having our full 'bépo' layout in Xorg ?

Comment 1 Lionel Dricot 2009-06-16 08:02:30 UTC

I'm seconding this request as, after trying it, I think that a lot of scientifics will enjoy it.

Comment 2 Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia 2011-10-03 21:09:33 UTC

This sounds like a great idea, and I'd certainly welcome a patch.  Send your 
changes to xorg-devel for review.

Comment 3 James Cloos 2011-10-04 08:28:01 UTC

I posted on xorg-devel about dead_greek when the rest of that keyboard
was added, looking consensus on whether it was a good addition.  It felt
controversial and I didn’t want to push it w/o discussion.

I received no replies from devs, and so let it drop.

Perhaps this time some discussion will ensue.

Comment 4 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-10-11 02:06:53 UTC

(In reply to comment #3)
> I posted on xorg-devel about dead_greek when the rest of that keyboard
> was added, looking consensus on whether it was a good addition.  It felt
> controversial and I didn’t want to push it w/o discussion.
> 
> I received no replies from devs, and so let it drop.
> 
> Perhaps this time some discussion will ensue.

   Hello Jeremy, James,

  I'm happy this proposition is examined again :-) Even if the patch should be quite trivial, I have to update it with respect with xorg sources : I'll try to do it in the week or next !

     With regards,
              Fred.

Comment 5 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-10-17 13:45:20 UTC

Created attachment 52443 [details] [review]
Definition of dead_greek symbol

first part of dead_greek definitions

Comment 6 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-10-17 13:46:33 UTC

Created attachment 52444 [details] [review]
Compositions with the dead_greek symbol

second part

Comment 7 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-10-17 13:47:51 UTC

Created attachment 52445 [details] [review]
use of dead_greek symbol in Bépo's keyboard layout

last part of proposed patches.

Comment 8 Andreas Wettstein 2011-11-14 12:25:17 UTC

Comment on attachment 52443 [details] [review]
Definition of dead_greek symbol

Review of attachment 52443 [details] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The value 0xfe70 is already taken by AccessX_Enable.

Comment 9 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-11-16 05:20:49 UTC

(In reply to comment #8)
> Comment on attachment 52443 [details] [review] [review]
> Definition of dead_greek symbol
> 
> Review of attachment 52443 [details] [review] [review]:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The value 0xfe70 is already taken by AccessX_Enable.

Yes, you're right, I was fooled by the not-incremental order of defines (0xfe6f is followed by  0xfe80...0xfe8b, 0xfed0..0xfed5, then 0xfe70 !

I suggest to use 0xfe8c instead (see new patch attached).

Comment 10 Frédéric Boiteux 2011-11-16 05:23:21 UTC

Created attachment 53599 [details] [review]
[new] definition of dead greek symbol

new version of patch, following Andreas remark.

  Fred.

Comment 11 Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia 2011-11-20 18:29:26 UTC

You should send your patch to xorg-devel for review and get it pushed.

Comment 12 Jiehong 2012-06-12 14:49:10 UTC

How is the push of these patches going? We still have no news.

Comment 13 James Cloos 2012-06-12 15:57:46 UTC

The patch in attachment #53599 [details] [review] was applied to x11proto in November (commit 67dd3bfe1ea2).  The current tar release, xproto-7.0.23, was the first such release with it.

The other patches are for xkeyboard-config; I’m therefore reassigning.

Comment 14 Frédéric Boiteux 2012-07-27 09:10:13 UTC

xkeyboard-config 's part of this bug report has been commited in xkeyboard-config's git repository, and should be in 2.6 version : I think this bug could be closed now.

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