It's the keyboard layout.


My issue with Grench's layout is not that it uses Shift+Fn combinations. That makes perfect sense, and everyone does that. Even the Pandora does it: consider Shift F1-F12.


My issue is that it does not have dedicated primary keys for comma and period. I think those symbols deserve to be on dedicated primary keys, just like on the Pandora.


Also a minor issue might be that if you print four labels on one small key, legibility may be a problem.
 
What part of using Fn, and especially shift+Fn, makes any sense at all...? Who does that?

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WizardStan: "Follow US keyboard standards."         "; is Fn+G"   Pick _one_!

Not being able to think of a reason why it will break, is not a good reason to go ahead and do it. It took me about 20 seconds of research to find this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts#User_interface_navigation_.28widgets_and_controls.29

If shift+(fn)+F is a modifier, you cant type shift+f-keys at all. Or is that when you have to remember the difference between the two shifts? Give me a break.

It seems people equate "its hard to do because of a lack of keys" with "i can just fail at this, and do whatever i want, even if its not what people want".

Not only does non-standard things change standard conventions, it also breaks other standard functionality as a result. That doesnt get any better when the same is done at a software level. Which happens, and will continue to happen in the future. We _need_ to stay keyboard compatible.

, ;   being regular and shift and   . :   being regular and shift is standard euro, there is nothing wrong with that, and it makes just as much sense.

The key is 7x3mm, 3 prints horizontally is the sane maximum, putting things atop each-other only works if you use the layout-editor to make extra space on the keys.
 
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There's three questions there, I'll tackle them one at a time.

What part of using Fn (snip) makes any sense at all...?
The part that says we don't have enough physical keys. We absolutely need some kind of modifier key. This is fact. The Pandora had it, every single other small keyboard I've ever seen has had some kind of "Fn" or "Meta" or "Sym" key in order to get at a second set of keys. I don't know what answer you're looking for because I don't understand how you can think that doing this doesn't make sense, especially when you yourself are doing it.
What part of using shift+Fn makes any sense at all...?
As I already explained, the part that says we don't have enough keys and therefore must put some on a modifier, combined with the standard says certain keys are already shifted other keys: if a key is going to be "sym"+"whatever" it makes sense for it's shifted counterpart to be "shift"+"sym"+"whatever".
Who does that?
As _wb_ just pointed out, the Pandora does that: if you need Shift-F1 you need three keypresses.But beyond that no one does that BECAUSE THIS SITUATION HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. There's no standard in tiny keyboards that we can follow. That is the reason we're having these arguments, because we need to create our own standard. We are creating our own standard. We are developing an entirely new standard. No standard exists that we can use. Nothing like this has been done before. We cannot, under any situation, say "it must be so because the standard says it" because it doesn't exist. I am running out of ways to reword this.

If your only argument against doing something is because no one else has done it then I suggest you leave because the Pyra is full of a lot of things no one else has done before.

My issue is that it does not have dedicated primary keys for comma and period. I think those symbols deserve to be on dedicated primary keys, just like on the Pandora.
Oh yeah, that's totally fair. I want to do my own design based on his idea, I'll probably take that into consideration. I'd still like to know the layout of the keyboard matrix before I go putting things in places that are physically impossible though.
 
Related to the audio buttons question: will the Pyra have a 3-ring audio jack?

If I can control the media player using the buttons on my headphone, I will. If I can't, I'll be disappointed. 
Could one of you audiophiles answer this for atman please. 

The current, quite small, pandora userbase, have pandoras that they can use to play pandora games. Please name the ones you think arent going to be ported, that are important enough to change the layout in a detrimental way over.

As for learning curve, what do you think the current pandora users have used the most. Pandora or real keyboard?

Have you shown the keyboard to a normal non-techncical user, what did they say, did it work?

-

Why is it balanced between text input, and coding? What efforts have you made to facilitate this.

Why have you chosen to omit the keys all normal keyboards have, in favour of left shift, left ctrl and caps lock? (only the english alphabet fits)

Can you take me through the process of how left shift, ctrl, and caps lock do anything meaningful?

What have you done to support the english and German as best as possible, in relation to every change made different to their respective local layouts?

What about french?

- I don't want to hear about how the French (or the Slavics) are misrepresented

Why do you think its ok to call a key AltGr when it doesnt do what AltGr does? (ED may be the correct person to answer this)

Why are two of the most used keys , and . in the least central positions?

What does Br+ and Br- do?  Do you expect people to guess that its brightness if they havent ever seen a pyra before?

Why continue BXYA when its now nearing extinction? Are you aware that the people who made it dropped it later?

Why are the most typed sequences not closer together. Are you aware that this is one of the most important factors in making a keyboard efficient? (Dot isnt close to enter, comma isnt close to space. Enter isnt close to dot)

Is there a logic as to where the symbol is printed on the key, and what modifier it is. Is there a further connection to where those modifiers are to be found?

Do you intend to put the symbols above eachother on a 3mmx7mm key?

Why dont you have any combos going from bottom of column-row onto 5 6 and 7?

Why do you call AltGr+space to bring up the menu "ideal", when there is a button in your layout called menu? Did i understand that correctly?

Why does + and -  mean insert and delete? Isnt > and x better?  Is it not a problem that + and - is also on the keyboard?

Why do you have so many layouts? What is the point of each of them, (good and bad)?

Why do they keep changing?

Why is F11 behind F10?

Which button does third level modifier on the key that says , < ;   and . > :confused:

What happens when you press the button that says USB/4G?

What happens when you sell a keymat that says 4G with a device that doesnt have 4G? (all devices may not have this)

What are your thoughts on :

Select being first on game-controllers, shouldnt it be first on the column row?

Visual clutter? Would you buy a keyboard that had symbols all over the letters?

Printing the number keys in the f-key modifier colour (except for F11 and F12) to save on visual screen estate?
Will be updated with answers, and more questions.

“Have you shown the keyboard to a normal non-techncical user, what did they say, did it work?”

I have only shown this layout to a family member and to the forum. I was given a smile from my relative. 

 

“Why is it balanced between text input, and coding? What efforts have you made to facilitate this.”

I arranged the symbols in my layout in an order I thought appropriate for both. The efforts are shown through my results. 

 

“Why have you chosen to omit the keys all normal keyboards have, in favour of left shift, left ctrl and caps lock? (only the english alphabet fits)”

I don’t believe I favored Left Shift, Left Control, and CAPS Lock nor do I think any keys from normal keyboards have been omitted.

 

“Can you take me through the process of how left shift, ctrl, and caps lock do anything meaningful?”

A google.com search will define this question with greater detail than I could.

 

“What have you done to support the english and German as best as possible, in relation to every change made different to their respective local layouts?”

I included the alphabet that English and German people have, in my layout.

 

“What about french?”

There is an Acute dead key and a method described with my layouts current description on how Grave and Circumflex accents can be applied. Cedilla can be generated with said method or by Compose. A list of Compose key sequences is here:  http://www.topology.org/soft/linuxcomposekey.html

 

“I don't want to hear about how the French (or the Slavics) are misrepresented”

The French and Slavs are good people too and they should have a keyboard layout that functions as well as it can for them. It’s the Irish we should ignore.

 

“Why do you think its ok to call a key AltGr when it doesn’t do what AltGr does? (ED may be the correct person to answer this)”

AltGr doesn’t do the same thing on every keyboard in the wild. The symbols and accents vary depending on the keyboard’s origin. Our AltGr will follow this pattern and the set of characters an AltGr + key that’ll be produced will be exclusive to the Pyra. Also, ED wants to use AltGr.   

 

“Why are two of the most used keys , and . in the least central positions?”

We are keeping the inverted pyramid shape of the letters and numbers. Those two keys must therefore be placed at the left corner. 

 

“What does Br+ and Br- do?  Do you expect people to guess that its brightness if they havent ever seen a pyra before?”

I have written what Br- and Br+ do in my layouts. Please examine them more closely. They will not be called “Br” though on the Pyra.

 

“Why continue BXYA when its now nearing extinction? Are you aware that the people who made it dropped it later?”

We are keeping ABXY because the Pandora had ABXY. It’s irrelevant what others are doing with there action buttons, even if the trends were to put smilies on those buttons. 

 

“Why are the most typed sequences not closer together. Are you aware that this is one of the most important factors in making a keyboard efficient? (Dot isnt close to enter, comma isnt close to space. Enter isnt close to dot)

Is there a logic as to where the symbol is printed on the key, and what modifier it is. Is there a further connection to where those modifiers are to be found?”

I’ve answered above about Period and Comma. The symbol keys I thought important are on the opposite side from keyboard AltGr because I wanted the layout to fully function without any shoulder modifiers(and just in case there couldn’t be an AltGr on L2). 

 

“Do you intend to put the symbols above eachother on a 3mmx7mm key?”

The key’s labels will probably be printed how they look on the number keys on the Pandora. They’re about that size anyways.

 

“Why dont you have any combos going from bottom of column-row onto 5 6 and 7?”

I don’t know of any combos that should be placed there.

 

“Why do you call AltGr+space to bring up the menu "ideal", when there is a button in your layout called menu? Did i understand that correctly?”

For a dedicated Escape, in my earlier alternative proposal, I thought AltGr + Spacebar would be the best place for Menu. Escape would replace the Menu key near Start and Select. Please view my latest post or my signature for my current layouts to see how it’s done now. 

 

“Why does + and -  mean insert and delete? Isnt > and x better?  Is it not a problem that + and - is also on the keyboard?”

On some keyboards Insert is above Delete. Some people wanted dedicated Insert and Delete keys and I want at least the Delete key to be primary. ED at an earlier time talked of making those two smaller buttons nearest ABXY + and - since they are diminutive in size. Several thought they should be for plus and minus symbols for browser scaling but I think they should be Insert and Delete with Plus and Minus staying with the rest of the keyboard, as they are on the Pandora.    

 

“Why do you have so many layouts? What is the point of each of them, (good and bad)?”

I have one original layout that ED picked for the opening post for you guys to offer opinions and suggestions to improve upon. I have another v2 showing some changes I and others wanted/asked for. Then there is a third which is basically v2 with remapped Escape and Menu keys. I offered two separate viewpoints called consolidated and unconsolidated of v1 and v2. You can interpret the differences between each of them in my latest update.   

 

“Why do they keep changing?”

People advised some changes and I had my own gradual input I wanted added to them.  

 

“Why is F11 behind F10?”

F10 is AltGr + number 0 and F11 is AltGr + vowel o.  

 

“Which button does third level modifier on the key that says , < ;   and . > :confused:

It’s identical to how it is on the Pandora. The unconsolidated drawings separate values into three visual planes: unmodified, shifted, and AltGr. Again, you’ll find your answer in my latest update in one of the unconsolidated illustrations.

 

“What happens when you press the button that says USB/4G?”

My latest update has changed this. Pressing just the WiFi button will turn WiFi on while holding Shift + WiFi will turn 4G on. 

 

“What happens when you sell a keymat that says 4G with a device that doesnt have 4G? (all devices may not have this)”

I proposed the Shifted values for Screen Brightness, Bluetooth, and WiFi which are Keyboard Backlight, USB, and 4G be unlabeled. The purchaser will be instructed how to turn 4G on. Conceivably, the WiFi button also could be named something ambiguous like “Radio” or use a generic symbol for Wireless.

 

“What are your thoughts on :”

"Select being first on game-controllers, shouldnt it be first on the column row?"

DOSBox’s behavior with Colon and Underscore will need to be fixed to get it to work right with this layout. No different from before. On the Pandora, Start was the topmost button in the center hierarchy. I don’t think this should change with the Pyra.

 

“Visual clutter? Would you buy a keyboard that had symbols all over the letters?”

There will be only one symbol with each letter. I don’t see this as cluttered and, yes, I would buy a keyboard with multiple symbols surrounding letters if I needed to.

 

“Printing the number keys in the f-key modifier colour (except for F11 and F12) to save on visual screen estate?”

Number keys and letters should be white like they were on the Pandora. My opinion is the AltGr key and the AltGr values, including the F1-12 keys, should all be the neon blueish color they were on the Pandora. I liked how they looked.

Please, please, please can we not use the right nub for mouse buttons this time? The constant frustration of the wrong thing being selected is my main bugbear with my Pandora. I know there are solutions, but they mess up game controls.

Honestly, when I showed my pandora to friends, they could not believe how cumbersome it was to use. It really put them off. Just swap PageUp/PageDwn/Home/End onto the nub, and put the mouse buttons on ABXY. Or, better still, use they new buttons. Anything!

Don't make me beg!
The nubs will have center clicks. The right nub will likely continue on as mouse buttons and left nub as mouse cursor navigation. In my layout, I have left nub set to right click and right nub set to left click.  :)

It occurs to me that we are lacking a lot of information in the technical design of the Pyra. The keyboard matrix, the behaviour of the game keys and what all is on a GPIO, whether any of them are on interrupt lines or attached to the PMIC like the Pandora's menu button, probably a few other things I'm not thinking of right now.


Can't come up with a final design suggestion without knowing these things.
We can come up with some suggestions before the final design then change things later if we need to;)

I also generally like less clutter, and would prefer not filling up the board with the AltGr symbols if possible.

It is my understanding that on international keyboard settings, keys like ', ^, and ` are "dead keys", so there is no need to have a compose key, you just hit those and then the next key you want to modify.  Just change your layout from US to French or whatever.
I don't like clutter either but I don't like empty key slots more. Looks unfinished. In my layouts, ^ and ` are not dead keys until you add a shift key(either shoulder or keyboard). Acute is already a dead key though so it's just AltGr + n.

I agree 100% with your concerns. But if ED doesn't want two keyboard shifts, why did he single out Saber's layout as the "nigh perfect" one? Many other (non-Grench-styled) keyboard layouts have every other qualification that ED said:
I'm not going to try to come up with hypothetical explanations of ED choice, but I do think that it is very well possible that he didn't read through all of the existing keyboard threads and all of the arguments presented in them, so his initial choice in the first post of this thread may have been not perfectly informed and thought-through.


That and nearly any other layout did not have explicit labels for Ä Ö Ü ß, which I suppose he kind of likes, with his home country in mind.
ED I'm sure did his research before he wrote his opening post. It wasn't difficult to find all the proposals in your Final Keyboard Layout Proposals thread. He even found my work which I purposely removed from your thread and put away in my signature(because I didn't want ED to think I was pressuring him into choosing mine). 

With all this in mind, can anyone come up with a valid reason why four-symbol keys (regular, shift, fn, and shift+fn) absolutely cannot work and should be taken off the table now?
Not printed on the caps but part of the keyboard's operandi concealed as AltGr + Shift. 
 
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 My issue is that it does not have dedicated primary keys for comma and period. I think those symbols deserve to be on dedicated primary keys, just like on the Pandora.
Oh yeah, that's totally fair. I want to do my own design based on his idea, I'll probably take that into consideration. I'd still like to know the layout of the keyboard matrix before I go putting things in places that are physically impossible though.
Take the idea and run with it.  Heck, you can even start with my diagram if it helps.  I stole it from _wb_ originally anyway.

Things have moved rapidly since I was on last.  I made a primary reply to several comments in:

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/16872-and-now-for-something-completely-different-keyboard-option/?p=377764

If it's helpful or you get a great idea based on any of my stuff - use it.  I didn't invent shift+fn, that was always present but just less obvious and under-utilized on the Pandora.  It really opens up the possibilities though.
 
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Edit: I meant the pyra will have 4 rings on the jack, with switch to go from trrs to the other way around of doing it. 3 ring still works.

Wizardstan: Fn is never a good idea on a keyboard, it is always a hack. Just because it mixes up so many things. Inherrently its the "i gave up and shoved a bunch of nonstandard-stuff in"

Yes its small, yes, yes. But there are small regular keyboards too. An F-key button has been done before. You then stay within the scope of regular, because it doesnt change anything other than 1 extra key does n amount of F-keys per number row buttons.  Any combo just adds that key to the sequence.

The reason why shoving third level modifiers into the Fn pot, is bad is because it should have been AltGr doing that. When it is proven possible to avoid such deviations, and also pointed out how much it conflicts with. The argument of small keyboard must be made broken in terms of standards, is circular.

I was under the impression that shift+fn was a modifier in itself, different than regular fn, which would make typing regular shift+  (shift+fn) impossible.

I see instead the Fkeys are on the QWERTY-row, even if that is the unpopular opinion.
 
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The pyra will have a 5 ring audio, with switch to go from trrs to the other way around of doing it. 3 ring still works.
5 Ring?
 
GND
LEFT

RIGHT

MIC 

What is the 5th? 

The switch you speak of is an IC that detects which pin is ground to differentiate between Apple and regular standard.
 
The reason why shoving third level modifiers into the Fn pot, is bad is because it should have been AltGr doing that.
Oh for crying out loud! This again? I don't know how much more clear I can make it!IT IS JUST A NAME! Call it whatever you want. This futzing around because "it's not really an Fn key, it's not really an AltGr key" whatever, it's all bullshit that keeps dragging us backwards in the discussion. We cannot have a dedicated AltGr key doing the things that an AltGr on a full sized keyboard does. Cannot. Period. End of discussion. Physically impossible. Does not work that way.

So if you have an "AltGr" key on your keyboard (which you do) and use it in conjunction with any key to produce a single standard keycode (which you did) then you are already violating that particular standard and it is not an AltGr key.

This is why I started calling it the altgrfnmetamodsymhwm key, because it does not, CAN NOT do what a standard Fn or AltGr key does entirely, at best it will be some combination of the two, a hardware modifier that behaves like a software modifier sometimes, or vice versa. I went back to just saying "fn" because it's easier and I'd assumed that we'd moved past that point and everyone understood what was meant. I'm sorry I was wrong. I'll go back to altgrfnmetamodsymhwm and keep appending suggestions if it'll make you feel more comfortable.

I was under the impression that shift+fn was a modifier in itself
You mean, like, treat "shift+fn" as some second, special magic Fn key? No, not at all. I'm envisioning "shift"+"fn"+"whatever" as literally "shift"+("fn"+"whatever")If "shift"+";" = ":" and "fn"+"G" = ";" then "shift"+("fn"+"G") = ":". Easy peasy. I've said this in at least 4 different posts. I don't know how much more clear I can make it.
 
You mean, like, treat "shift+fn" as some second, special magic Fn key? No, not at all. I'm envisioning "shift"+"fn"+"whatever" as literally "shift"+("fn"+"whatever") If "shift"+";" = ":" and "fn"+"G" = ";" then "shift"+("fn"+"G") = ":". Easy peasy. I've said this in at least 4 different posts. I don't know how much more clear I can make it.
 

Wow.  So THAT is what "shift+fn" is.  That would make designing the layout that much easier!

-Glyph Reader
 
You mean, like, treat "shift+fn" as some second, special magic Fn key? No, not at all. I'm envisioning "shift"+"fn"+"whatever" as literally "shift"+("fn"+"whatever") If "shift"+";" = ":" and "fn"+"G" = ";" then "shift"+("fn"+"G") = ":". Easy peasy. I've said this in at least 4 different posts. I don't know how much more clear I can make it.
 

Wow.  So THAT is what "shift+fn" is.  That would make designing the layout that much easier!

-Glyph Reader
Not sure if sarcasm...
Modifiers should always be commutative and associative, please. It would be insane if Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F1 (i.e. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+fnaltgrmetasym+1) would be something else than Shift+Alt+Ctrl+F1, which would be something else than Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F1 or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F1, etc.

So I think it should be obvious that if you map, say, fnaltgrmetasym+U to the symbol ü, then Shift+fnaltgrmetasym+U corresponds to Ü. And so on.

Does anyone have any remaining questions or remarks about my proposal? (http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/f9f3508ae2ea1ed6de939d0100173675)
 
WizardStan: Its not just the name that is different, its also the key, we are on the same page there. However on keyboards with third level modifiers on the number-keys, like german keyboards, AltGr triggers those. It does something for every other letter key too, per default.

The example messes me up, because im used to regular keyboards. I understand it from a maths point of view, just not on a keyboard.

So if i type u i get u, easy sailing

AltGr+u          =  ↓

Shift+AltGr+u = ↑


Edit, oh you meant compose ( on a german keyboard this is the key two hops to the right of P )

^+u = ü

shift+^+u = Û

^+shift+u = Ü
 
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However on keyboards with third level modifiers on the number-keys, like german keyboards, AltGr triggers those.
Yes and no. It triggers an "AltGr" keycode and a "number" keycode. It is then up to the software (typically through the operating system, from what I understand, but not necessarily) on how to interpret that, same as if you were to type "alt"+"number". There's no "alt"+"F4" key code that a program receives when you press that combo, it receives the two key codes for "alt" and "F4". The Pyra cannot do that.Our "AltGr" (or whatever it is going to be called) cannot (and probably should not) do that. That is the point. To say "AltGr cannot be like *that* because it is not standard" is pointless because we are already, by necessity, breaking standard. As soon as you must break standard there is no harm in investigating other ways that the now-broken standard can be used, such as the possibility of shifted "alternate" keys.

^+u = ü

shift+^+u = Û

^+shift+u = Ü
That would be terrible.Like _wb_ says, modifiers should be communitative. "shift"+"fn"+"U" should be the same as "fn"+"shift"+"U".
 
Edit, oh you meant compose ( on a german keyboard this is the key two hops to the right of P )


^+u = ü


shift+^+u = Û


^+shift+u = Ü
That's a Dead key. Not a Compose key.
Thank you!  That helped a lot!  I now think I may understand how this whole diacritic dead key thing works - giving it a try anyway.

Changes:

Changed SysRq to ScrLk.  If people really really need a SysRq button, we could hide it on Pause/Break as Fn+Shift = SysRq.  I'm disinclined to try to write that in on the key though.

I think I have the 'Diacritics Dead Keys' set up properly now.  It is actually 4 'keys' all mapped on one physical key.  The idea being that this is a sticky-modifier key.  Press it for the diacritic you want to trigger, then the key that it should be applied to.  Much like a French keyboard will have two symbols that look like ^ and ˆ.  The first is shift+6.  The second is the diacritic dead key.  Although this theoretically makes the Ä, Ö, Ü redundant, I'm inclined to leave them in to ease German input - then placing the diacritic for those as the 4th Fn+shift 'key'.  Someone, preferably someone French or with a solid understanding of how this SHOULD work, please let me know if this is a workable solution?

References used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_key

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY

I ended up removing the 'Stylus mod' shoulder button definitions, though I would still like to do something for that.  My thoughts are that Fn+stylus click on the screen should equate to 'Right mouse button click' at that position.  Any thoughts on this?

Current version:

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/38774c77f07131272665babe387c5539

Edit:  I did some minor font-size cleanup and switched out the links.  No labels were harmed.
 
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Question, what is it if i type Altgr+´ and then e to get é?

One button+letter is dead-key  and  two buttons+letter is compose?

So confus.
Can't answer for others but on my proposed layout, AltGr + h gives you the Grave symbol ` but AltGr + Shift then h gets you the dead Grave Accent. The first, the Grave symbol, is a standalone glyph used in programming, the second is the dead key, which you follow afterwards with one of the vowels.

For example, AltGr + h produces ` and nothing else. So, if you pressed AltGr then h followed by an e your output would be `e. Two distinct characters.

On the other foot, if you hold AltGr + Shift then press h then e you'd get a single conjoined è accented character.

Compose mode is an entirely different and unique way to get accented characters and symbols. If you hit the Compose key, you enter Compose Mode and using our example above, to get an è character, right after you've pressed the Compose key(wherever this key is placed) you'd then type AltGr + h for the Grave symbol ` then immediately afterwards type the e vowel which will output only an è. Thus the procedure, using Compose, is press Compose then AltGr + h + e to get an è accented vowel. That's Compose then AltGr then h then an e to to receive an è letter.

Here again is the list of Compose key sequences: http://www.topology.org/soft/linuxcomposekey.html
 
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I dont know if its called dead-keys or compose, but thats how my keyboard works anyhow. (Norwegian keyboard)

Edit: ok, i think i had the two mixed.

Edit2: To help,  AltGr+key to do accents only work for the keys that dont type the symbol directly.

"key" here is the one to the right of backspace on the number-row

key            =                                                                                   \

shift+key   =                                                                                   `

AltGr+key  =        (composeordeadkey?)        +  e                  =    é

AltGr+key  =         (composeordeadkey?)      +   key              =     ´      

I thought   ctrl+alt  was the alternative way of triggering this in US international.
 
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After researching both a bit, what I have currently set up as a 4-symbol Diacritic Dead Key set could alternatively be flipped to be a dedicated compose key.  I'm not sure which way the audience for this usage would prefer.

I understand that the diacritic dead key set would potentially be favored by European Latin derived languages, but it has it's limitations.  The compose key alternative has FAR more variations that it can generate, BUT generating those off of a compose key on any compressed layout would potentially be difficult.

Where does the preference lean?  The 4 most common diacritics as 'dead keys' OR a dedicated compose key?  OR, I could try to squeeze both in - but if we need both, that compose key will likely wind up being Fn+Backspace.  It would look like this:

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/ed20fa23e38cc167c0cbd35cfc04d394

I'm not even certain that would work - dubious.  It will likely need a 'top level' dedicated key for compose to function properly.
 
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According to http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/16868-the-big-pyra-keyboard-poll//URL] it leans towards P+2 L+2 so that we dont have to deal with it.

Easiest is best.

One is the ^-key and thats there for the people who have use for it.  The question is how to do the other one. Ctrl+alt is the only way ive found when AltGr is taken.

Edit: "The Ctrl and left Alt keys, when pressed together, or the right Alt key alone are treated as a special shift called alternate graphics (AltGr) mode."

http://www.brianhetrick.com/kb/

Edit: I cant find a standard for changing language input, it seems to be different in each desktop environment, any thoughts?
 
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