[Ubuntu-PH] Philippines National Keyboard Layout

Mon Oct 11 09:58:21 UTC 2010

Hi,

I was thinking about that especially in the educational side of things
(like book typists of Filipino translated books), but I haven't
encountered this way of writing in a long time, it was like the "ng̃" (g
with a tilde) it has gone out of usage.  But I agree, to make the
keyboard truly Filipino, we need those implemented.

By any chance do you have a list of all the accent keys that we use in
Filipino (and maybe most Philippine Languages)?

Regarding the sequence of typing, the method you mentioned is the
dead-key method.  Xorg calls this "XCompose", it's actually being phased
out but the effort is too slow.  The new method is "Unicode Combination
Keys", accenting the way we write it (ie the character first then the
accent symbol next).

There's an existing example, the Unicode "tilde combining key", example:
g then AltGr+] will produce g̃.  Personally, I prefer the Unicode method
and sooner or later we'll end up in that direction anyway.  Another
reason is, it is hard to create a dead-key method keyboard (I still get
confused) so I might not be able to help in this area.  The Unicode
method is easier, as all I have to do is input the corresponding Unicode
code of a particular combining key.

And yep, that's why I need feedbacks such as yours ^_^ Because I am only
coming from my own experience and observation.  I would like to put on
board the other sectors of our society but I believe right now, we need
to put out something to be included in at least all Linux OS (and manual
install on Windows).  Then the rest can join for the next major version.

Thanks again :D  I'll add acute, grave, and circumflex.  I'll try to
search for more.

On Monday, 11 October, 2010 01:37 PM, Pablo Manalastas wrote:
> I believe that any Filipino keyboard has to have provisions for
> accenting words. The accent key is pressed first, and the the letter
> to which to apply the accent is pressed next.
>
> You need the following accent marks:
>
>
>       ´
>
> 	
>
>
>     Pahilís (Acute)
>
>
>       `
>
> 	
>
>
>     Paiwà (Grave)
>
>
>       ˆ
>
> 	
>
>
>     Pakupyâ (Circumflex)
>
> For example to type the word Paiwà, you need to type the characters in
> the order P-a-i-w-`-a, where [`] is the key for "grave accent", not
> the back slash key. Typing [`]-[a] produces the accented letterà.
> Similarly for the acute accent key and the circumflex accent key.
> Other examples of accented words are: mabilís, mayumÌ, maragsâ.
>
> Salamat.
>
> ~Pablo Manalastas~
>
>
>
> 2010/10/10 JC 施洗 John ᜑᜓᜏᜈ᜔ Sese 謝 Cuneta ᜃᜓᜈᜒᜆ
> <jcjohn.sesecuneta at laibcoms.com <mailto:jcjohn.sesecuneta at laibcoms.com>>
>
>     Hi everyone,
>
>     Attached is the X Keyboard file that you can use to try out v2 of
>     the Philippines National Keyboard Layout, hopefully will become
>     the official one down the road.  Before the long explanation,
>     here's a HowTo install:
>
>     ----------------------------------
>
>     * Just put the "ph" file in: /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols
>
>     Step 1.0: Open these two files
>         gksu gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst
>         gksu gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst (xfree86.lst)
>
>     Step 1.1 Search for: ! variant
>     Step 1.2 before it, add
>       ph              Philippines
>
>     Step 2.0: Open these two files
>         gksu gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml
>         gksu gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.xml (xfree86.xml)
>
>     Step 2.1 Search for: </layoutList>
>     Step 2.2 before it, add
>         <layout>
>           <configItem>
>             <name>ph</name>
>             <shortDescription>Phi</shortDescription>
>             <description>Philippines</description>
>             <languageList><iso639Id>eng</iso639Id></languageList>
>           </configItem>
>           <variantlist/>
>         </layout>
>
>     ----------------------------------
>
>     Now for the long explanation:
>     First of all, I decided to base this new National keyboard layout
>     on the (soon-to-be standard) ISO/IEC 9995-3:2009 keyboard layout. 
>     This is to make sure that if ever this becomes the official or /de
>     facto/ keyboard for Filipinos, the characters will not change much
>     if we bought a different keyboard or we're in another country
>     (well, that was the idea of ISO but only Canada and some other
>     country uses the ISO layout, we might become the third).
>
>     Secondly, I only "activated" the characters that I have personally
>     seen in used by Filipinos here in the Philippines (regular
>     citizens to businesses).  That means this is only a partial
>     ISO-based keyboard.  My guideline is, if there is no valid reason
>     to add a character, then do not add it.
>
>     Third, I added the ₱eso sign and enye Ññ both of which are not
>     part of ISO/IEC 9995-3:2009 keyboard layout.  The reason is
>     simple, this is a "National" keyboard for us, it is only
>     appropriate to add these two characters since we use these.
>
>     The guidelines I used:
>     a) Prioritized the layout of ISO/IEC 9995-3
>     b) Next, prioritized the keys that Filipinos actually use
>     c) Next, do not deviate away from the methods used by ISO in
>     typing similar characters (eg: ¥ and ₱, as explained below)
>
>     Next, I'm going to run down the characters I added
>     1) ₱eso sign - to type press: AltGr+Shift+P
>     -- Why?  The Japanese ¥en / Chinese ¥uan sign is typed as:
>     AltGr+Shift+Y.  I do not want to deviate away from that method.
>     -- Why not 3, 4 or 5?  3 have #³£; 4 already have $¼€; 5 have %½↑
>     -- And Guideline letter C above.
>
>     2) Ññ - to type press: AltGr+Shift+N for uppercase; AltGr+n for
>     lowercase
>     3) Number keys from 1 to 0 have the following: Level 3 (AltGr) -->
>     ¹²³¼½¾⅛⅜⅝⅞; Level 4 (AltGr+Shift) --> ¡¤£€↑↓←→±™
>
>     From hereon, it is always: Level 3 (AltGr) first then followed by
>     Level 4 (AltGr+Shift)
>     4) e: œ Œ - "oe", still being used in English today.  fœderal;
>     diarrhœa
>     5) r: ¶ ® - "¶" signifies end of paragraph; and Registered
>     Trademark sign
>     6) y: ɼ ¥ - I have to add ɼ (AltGr+y) so AltGr+Shift+Y (¥) will work.
>     7) p: þ ₱ - I have to add þ (AltGr+p) so AltGr+Shift+P (₱) will
>     work.  The þ character looks like the emoticon :p anyway.
>     8) a: æ Æ - "ae", still being used in English today.  Archœology;
>     Æon Flux
>     9) ;: ° (degrees sign), so we can now type easily: It's too hot
>     today!  Ubuntu weather reports 28°C T_T
>     10) \: ə Ə (schwa, usually used in text books and by linguists)
>     11) z: « - double-left arrow
>     12) x: » - double-right arrow
>     13) c: ¢ © - cents and Copyright
>     14) v: “ ‘ - a stylish double quote and single quote; Office
>     suites and WYSIWYG's actually use these ones
>     15) b: “ ‘ - a stylish double quote and single quote; Office
>     suites and WYSIWYG's actually use these ones
>     16) n: ñ Ñ
>     17) m: µ º - micro symbol, example: µblog.  º means an "ordinal
>     number", so if I put 1º it reads as "1st"; 2º it reads as 2nd.  We
>     don't really use this, maybe mathematicians and physicists do. 
>     Besides, there's a space for AltGr+Shift+M if I don't add it,
>     might as well use it.
>     18) ,: … × - "…" is a *single* character "..." (ellipsis). Useful
>     for microbloggers, saves you two characters.  Next is the
>     Multiplication sign "×", compare that to lowercase letter 'x': ×x×x
>     19) .: · ÷ - middle dot and division sign
>     20) ]: a combining tilde - example g with a tilde: g then AltGr+] 
>     = g̃  historically, Philippine languages puts a tilde above the
>     letter g.  Read:
>     http://laibcoms.com/the-history-of-mr-nang-and-ms-ng  Educators,
>     historists, linguists may need this ability.
>
>
>     So far, I'm cool with this version (v2).  I'm looking for
>     feedbacks specially if there are experts out there or if there is
>     a "committee" of sorts that handles this type of "National" things
>     (DOST?)  If not, then it is up to us to decide on which format the
>     first "Philippines National Keyboard Layout" will take form.
>
>     Feel free to pass this to the rest of the Philippine Linux
>     community and any other lists that might be interested in this
>     project.  If the feedback is good, then I'll start creating a
>     Windows7 version, then we can start spreading this new layout and
>     submit to X.org too.
>
>     Thank you very much.
>
>
>
>     --
>     ubuntu-ph mailing list
>     ubuntu-ph at lists.ubuntu.com <mailto:ubuntu-ph at lists.ubuntu.com>
>     https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ph
>
>
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