[Localization] New draft layout for Khmer keyboard: Feedback wanted

[Alexander Dupuy]

The new layout certainly jams a lot of glyphs onto the number keys. I 
would say that if you are going to put them all there, you should at 
least make the size of the numbers consistent - right now the 2, 4, and 
8 are the normal size, and all the others are smaller.

Walter Bender asked about fitting 5 glyphs on the ESC key (actually, it 
is the ~ key) - on that one it actually fits better than the 5 glyphs on 
the numbers, since all of those are rather simple.

I have a more general question, though - with a 3- or 4-glyph layout 
like the previous proposal, it's pretty clear how you get the glyphs: 
the left side is Latin script, with the upper glyph accessible with 
shift key, and the right side is the local script, again with the upper 
glyph accessible with shift key. Switching between the latin and local 
script modes can be done with the script selector key under enter, and 
possibly for just the next character with alt gr (I only have a US 
keyboard on my XOs, so can't really say).

With a 5-glyph layout, what is the input model? On the number keys, the 
latin symbol glyphs presumably accessible with shift (in latin script 
mode) are all over the place - on the upper left on the 4-glyph keys 
[2:@, 4:$, 8:*] on the upper right on some 5-glyph keys [1:!, 3:", 5:%, 
9:(, 0:)], and the middle left on two others [6:^, 7:&]. This is rather 
confusing.

Looking at the high-res image of the keyboard, I can see that some of 
the symbols are duplicated in middle-left and upper-right positions: !, 
%, (, and ) - and possibly " - it's not clear; and on lower-left and 
upper-left positions as well: (comma and period), and one key where two 
symbols are both duplicated (/ and ?). I'm guessing that the difference 
between these is latin- vs. khmer-script versions of punctuation 
(something like CJK punctuation, which takes full or half-width). Since 
they look very similar, is it really necessary to repeat them on the 
keys? If you're in latin script mode, you'll get the latin period, 
comma, or whatever, and if you're in khmer script mode, the khmer 
version - having two copies of the symbol doesn't necessarily make this 
clearer.

If the Khmer keyboard is going to put 5 glyphs on a significant number 
of keys, it should choose a layout and use it consistently for all the 
keys, with implicit (e.g. lowercase latin) or unused positions left 
blank. I realize that this somewhat contradicts the suggestion about 
only placing one copy of latin vs. khmer punctuation on a key, but 
perhaps a middle position for symbols that work in either mode would work.

I'm guessing that some (all?) of the 5th glyphs will be accessible via 
alt gr (the presence of the euro sign € on the 5 key is a clue) so that 
alt gr will not be available for non-locking script shift. If this is 
the case, will they be accessible via alt gr in both script modes, or 
just one? If they will be accessible in both, perhaps it would make 
sense to change the layout so that rather than three-on-left, two on 
right, you had something like this? (a=alt gr, l=latin, L=shift-latin, 
k=khmer, K=shift-khmer)

a L K
l k

with three variants for shared punctuation: M=!%()? and maybe " (i.e. 
where L is similar to K) - and H=.,/ (i.e. where l is similar to a).

a M (for 1, 5, 9, 0 and maybe 3)
l k

L K (for period and comma)
H k

M (for slash/question-mark key)
H k


@alex

-- 
mailto:alex.dupuy at mac.com