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

[Alexander Dupuy]

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

This is a massive improvement over the previous version, and much better 
than my own suggestion.

> 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/39

In particular, the PDF at 
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/khmer/KhmerKeyboard_NiDA_V1.0.pdf?download 
is very useful as a reference to compare against your latest proposal 
for the XO.  (I believe that the general principle (b) you describe 
above is actually explained graphically, in Khmer, on that page).

I appreciate that your new layout is as close to the NiDA layout as is 
physically possible on the XO (the only moved key is the 
backslash/vertical bar (\|) key) and it is certainly desirable to make 
the differences from this standard as small as possible.

As much of an improvement as this is over the previous versions, I would 
make a few comments:

1. General principle (a) is violated by a few keys (and this is true on 
the NiDA layout as well): specifically on the hyphen/underscore (-_) 
plus/equals (+=) and backslash/vertical bar (\|) both Latin-mode symbols 
are shown in the lower-left corner.

Especially since the equals and backslash are already shown in the upper 
right (as these characters are accessible from Khmer mode via AltGr), 
and the hyphen and underscore are so similar (without context, their 
representations are equivalent, differing only in placement and scale), 
I think it would be clearer to just have hyphen, plus, and vertical bar 
in the lower left corners of these keys.  I don't think that the fact 
that plus and vertical bar are the shifted Latin symbols is an issue, as 
this is already true of the tilde (~) key - I'm not sure if that key 
generates both back-quote and tilde, but I would expect that it does.  
In any case the shifted (capital) letters are used on the alphabetic 
keys, and to a Khmer child, there is probably little reason to expect 
'G' and 'g' (for example) to be on the same key.

Note that I am not suggesting any change to the software key mapping - 
merely the removal of extra symbols from the keys so that all of them 
have only one symbol in the lower left corner.

If you don't want to remove these extra symbols from the lower left 
corner, at least consider moving the backslash and vertical bar apart a 
little bit, and adjusted so that the two characters have the same 
baseline and top (currently the backslash is slightly lower) - this is 
purely an aesthetic suggestion.

2. Along the same general lines, if the shifted Latin symbol is shown in 
the lower-left corner of the key for tilde, plus, and vertical bar, it 
would also make sense to do so for the comma/left-angle-bracket (,<) and 
period/right-angle-bracket (.>) keys.  Currently the angle brackets are 
not shown, although the period and comma are duplicated on the 
upper-left.  Placing the angle brackets in the lower left corners allows 
all the Latin mode symbols generated by the key to appear on it.  Again, 
I don't think shifted/non-shifted display is an issue - if both symbols 
are on the key, children (and adults unfamiliar with QWERTY) will 
quickly learn which ones require the shift key in Latin mode - and for 
those who are used to the standard QWERTY keyboard, everything will be 
where they expect it when they use it, even if the physical placement on 
the key is a bit different.

3.  I am an absolute novice at Khmer script, but on the NiDA PDF, the 
apostrophe (') key shows the Khmer "prime" (o') and "double prime" (o") 
marks are right justified above the placeholder whereas on your XO 
layout they are left-justified.  I've no idea if this is significant or 
not, but it might be worth checking.

4. Recalling an earlier comment about Khmer text for various 
shift/modifier keys, you have placed a lot of Khmer on the space key - 
is there any reason (other than space issues) not to have Khmer on the 
keys which lack any symbol and have only Latin text?  In particular, 
adding ឆស់ ្ល (I think I cut&pasted that right) to AltGr.  And having some 
kind of symbol or Khmer text for the Erase key would also be useful.

@alex

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