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

[Sayamindu Dasgupta]

I just uploaded a new version of the draft at
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Sayamindu/Khmer_Keyboard_Draft

The general principle is like:

a) only one character of the US (qwerty) layout is shown on the keys
b) the character on the top left of the keys is generated in the Khmer
mode through the Alt-Gr keys

This is based on the standard layout proposed by the National ICT
Development Authority of the Royal Government of Cambodia (NiDA) -
more at http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/node/399
Thanks,
Sayamindu


On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Alexander Dupuy <alex.dupuy at mac.com> wrote:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Localization mailing list
> Localization at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/localization
>



-- 
Sayamindu Dasgupta
[http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings]