Bug#278648: ITP: kkbswitch -- keyboard layout indicator for KDE3
On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 17:42:37 +0200, Christian Kurz <shorty@debian.org> wrote:
> On [28/10/04 14:51], Shlomi Loubaton wrote:
> > * Package name : kkbswitch
> > Version : 1.4.1
> > Upstream Author : Leonid Zeitlin <lz@europe.com>
> > * URL : http://kkbswitch.sourceforge.net/
> > * License : GPL
> > Description : keyboard layout indicator for KDE3
>
> > KKBSwitch is useful when you have configured the XKeyboard extension of
> > your X Server to have more than one keyboard group (layout).
> > KKBSwitch displays an icon in the system tray that indicates which
> > layout is currently active and enables you to switch layouts by
> > clicking the icon or by selecting from the menu.
>
> May I ask how this package differs from the existing KDE keyboard tool?
> As soon as you configure two different keyboard layouts for KDE the tool
> will create an icon in the system tray. When you then click on the icon,
> you can switch between the different selected keyboard layouts. So I
> would like to know which advantages kkbswitch offers.
>
> Christian
This application works directly with the defined groups in Xkb
(defined in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4). Many users prefer to work this
way, because they want the layouts to be configured the same way in
all Desktop Environment they use.
This application was written for KDE but it also works with Gnome,
XFCE and any other env that uses FreeDesktop.org's standards. I've
been maintaining a Debian package for this project (unofficially) for
more than a year or so and many people still use it. I've been using
it myself because i find KDE's keyboard tool unusable. I got tired of
referring people to my unofficial apt source and think it's should be
included in Debian.
Most users I know think it's better than KDE's keyboard tool.
When you use KControl to define layouts it will try to override Xkb
setting, changing the hot keys to ctrl+alt+K, using it's own map, and
messing up everything.
In most cases KDE's tool it buggy - if you go to "Xkb options" tab and
select Alt+shift to switch groups - it doesn't work. When you choose
to use KDE's crappy hot keys (ctrl+alt+K) it's all good but then when
you switch to a language in which "k" is mapped to some other
character , you get stuck with that layout because now this key has
other mapping and your original Xkb setting wont work.
All these problems are known and reported many time in the past, there
have been some attempts to fix them but KKBSwitch still seems to be
the best tool for the job.
Some more features included:
- Configurable icons for the keyboard layouts. Icons can show either a
corresponding country flag or the corresponding language ISO two-letter
code or both. You can also set your own custom image.
- The "toggle mode"; when this mode is activated, the XKeyboard
layout-switch key toggles between the two most recently-used
keyboard layouts.
- Make layout global, or choose to have per-application or per-window
layouts.
- Configurable keyboard shortcuts to quickly activate a particular
layout (e.g. Ctrl+Alt+1 activate the first layout, etc).
More information is available in the project's homepage.
Regards
Shlomil
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