Bug#561185: xkb-data: support custom layouts

[Shai Berger <shai@platonix.com>]

On Sunday 04 April 2010, you wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Shai Berger <shai@platonix.com> (15/12/2009):
> > […] and I don't want to modify the files under /usr -- which I must
> > modify again, manually, with every upgrade.
> 
> you probably could use dpkg-divert to have your modified file
> preserved during upgrades?
> 

I could, but it would be fragile; it wouldn't survive the next xkb-files-
rearrangement. Also, I wouldn't be receiving any updates to the base layout 
which I am extending in a variant (I could get around that, and the need to 
dpkg-divert, by simply using a private base layout; however, this would make 
things even more fragile, pulling any rug left from under the feet of 
#574590).

> > I note bug #497341 and its upstream offshoot,
> > https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20743
> >
> > If I read that bug correctly, upstream's attitude towards custom
> > layouts is somewhere between "no" and "it's downstream's
> > business".
> 
> I think if one is skilled enough to modify this file to support a
> custom layout, one should be expected to deal with such a modified
> file through usual dpkg tools.

Is there another way to system-widely support a custom layout, which I missed? 

> I'm not sure we want or need to support
> those things in a specific manner.
> 

By "those things", do you mean my specific way of achieving custom layouts, or 
custom layouts in general?

What I want is what we used to have -- that xkb layouts be considered as 
configuration, rather than data. I realize you (and upstream) are 
unsympathetic, but I do not understand why.

Thanks,
	Shai.