<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> 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: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://laibcoms.com/the-history-of-mr-nang-and-ms-ng">http://laibcoms.com/the-history-of-mr-nang-and-ms-ng</a> 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. </body> </html>