Support for custom dead keys

[devnoname120]

For example the qwerty-fr keyboard layout defines custom deadkeys that enable to e.g. write math:

https://github.com/qwerty-fr/qwerty-fr/blob/2cceebc6f7ca8550ada323b8f585cd572178f17b/windows/qwertyfr.utf16le-bom.klc#L453-L518

[hiohlan]

I don't think this is possible at the moment.
Kiimo was designed to export to multiple systems (somewhat loosely) and mainly focuses on Thai typing.

Thai script itself doesn't really have the concept of dead keys in mind. (Early Thai typewriters did use a dead-key system, but that idea basically disappeared almost 40 years ago once typewriters allowed typing vowels and tone marks after consonants.)

Also, due to limitations in XKB, dead keys would have to be implemented through a separate compose file, which is independent from the layout file. This makes things more complicated.

The priority of this feature is probably quite low for now.

(Even though XKB might be able to do it, I have no idea how KCM would implement custom dead keys 😅)

[hiohlan]

I also previously made a standalone IME app for Android (for complex typing like Japanese IMEs do), but then I ran into another problem: smasnug DeX (which people keep praising) doesn’t EVEN ALLOW 3rd-PARTY keyboard apps AT ALL.
So all that work basically went to waste.

If you know a way to make it work (either as an app or with dead keys), I’d really appreciate it. 👍

[devnoname120]

@hiohlan I dug into Android’s documentation and source code and while there is a set of predefined deadkeys unfortunately custom deadkeys for physical keyboards are not possible.

See the addCombining() and addDeadKey() calls in here to see the possibilities: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/android-16.0.0_r1/core/java/android/view/KeyCharacterMap.java#201

There used to be an issue on their tracker to add support for custom dead keys but it disappeared: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/234852543

[devnoname120]

For XKB there are also predefined deadkeys but if you want anything custom you need to use XCompose files as you pointed out.

See this for more technical details on the topic: qwerty-fr/qwerty-fr#17

XCompose files cannot be scoped to a specific keyboard layout unfortunately, only to a locale. See: xkbcommon/libxkbcommon#950

[devnoname120]

@hiohlan For Samsung you can apparently disable the official IME using something like adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.samsung.android.honeyboard and then you can use custom IME apps, many of which allow to easily define a custom on-screen layouts, including deadkeys (long press on the key) and the like.

This requires to enable developer mode and install an adb client on a computer or on your phone so fuck Samsung either way.

[hiohlan]

@devnoname120

Smasnug must use adb

That would be too complicated for most users. Not everyone has a computer available, and there’s also the issue with Developer Mode — many Thai apps require it to be disabled, otherwise they won’t work.

And I’d have to develop the app again from scratch lol.

xkb and XCompose

It seems more complicated than I thought. I’ll keep an eye on how this gets solved.

But thanks for the suggestion.