I wasn’t sure at all where to post this, so here goes.
Is there any way to in a non app-specific (i.e. relatively systemwide, or at least inside the qt/gtk/whatever programs), have true multi language across several keyboards as in Keyboard A is English-US, Keyboard B is Persian-IR? Essentially, I want to be able to type in a document, then use the additional keyboard to insert text in a different keyboard format in the same document.
Of course there’s keyboard stickers, but there’s only so many that can be put on one keyboard.
I know that this is pretty edge case, and odd limits like the layout choices still having that 4 layout limit (though now KDE has a workaround that works for some things, but not others?) still exist, but it is something I’d like to use.
Welcome to the forums. It is always helpful to say which version of openSUSE you are using and which desktop; as you say, you can change the way one physical keyboard responds using System settings(Configure desktop)>Input devices>Keyboard>Layouts.
This all depends on you having told YaST what the layout of your physical keyboard is so that KDE can make the correct substitutions when you change the layout. For example, I have the UK, French and German keyboards selected in KDE so that my UK keyboard behaves normally when I have UK selected and turns into an AZERTY keyboard if I select French and a QUERTZ keyboard if I select German.
I am not aware of any way of connecting keyboards with different keytops without telling YaST that you have changed the physical layout of the keyboard. So, AFAIK, the easiest way to deal with changing layouts if you cannot remember the keytops is to choose a layout that is close enough. For example, the Czech keyboard is so similar to the German keyboard that you can use it for Czech and German. I realise that may be not feasible.
I have just installed the Persian IR keyboard and I can see the problem. If you want to add the numbers and symbols from the top row of the US keyboard, these are available under Alt and Alt-Shift but otherwise there are no other English characters in the layout.
I can only suggest you learn to touch type in one layout and install the keytops of the other.
On 2014-12-06 23:06, john hudson wrote:
> Here you can select up to four different keyboard layouts; a flag
> appears in the system tray and by clicking on this you can cycle through
> the selected layouts.
I understand he wants to connect two physical hardware keyboards
simultaneously, and have each with a different layout, and be able to
work in any without clicking anywhere. Just start typing in any, and get
the correct symbols, automatically.
I have never seen this, but it is certainly interesting.
Actually, keyboards should be plug-and-play, meaning they should tell
the system their language.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
This is on 13.2 with the standard KDE, and at present a laptop which may complicate matters. Yes, two hardware keyboards, ideally with the option to software change the format on both of them.
I have learned to touch-type several language formats, and have keyboard stickers for (one of the) Persian-IR formats, but the case is often multi-format documents with multiple languages used throughout.
As far as keyboard identification I hope it could work as far as pre-built ones already in the desired language though not so much stickers (HID on at least some manufacturers is miles better than the bad days of ps/2), though it somewhat troubles me that I’m coming up against many of the same limits (4 layouts) in X.org as when it was Xfree86.
I suspect this is one of those situations where FOSS could hold the answer in the sense that there might be programmers who might find the challenge of implementing this interesting and worthwhile. One possibility would be to post on https://forum.kde.org/ and see if anyone picked up the idea. If so, put it on the KDE bugzilla wishlist. After all, the KDE folks have done quite a lot of work on multiple monitors; maybe someone might be interested in multiple keyboards.
On 2014-12-13 23:36, john hudson wrote:
>
> I suspect this is one of those situations where FOSS could hold the
> answer in the sense that there might be programmers who might find the
> challenge of implementing this interesting and worthwhile. One
> possibility would be to post on https://forum.kde.org/ and see if anyone
> picked up the idea. If so, put it on the KDE bugzilla wishlist. After
> all, the KDE folks have done quite a lot of work on multiple monitors;
> maybe someone might be interested in multiple keyboards.
Yes, that’s a good idea. Programmers may want to type in English, yet
their own language requires a different keyboard. These people may be
interested in the capability of supporting several keyboards in
different layouts. Keyboards can be very cheap, it is not absurd to have
a few.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)