A GNU/Linux keyboard layout for CMA (Sanna) is now available, following the specifications outlined in a previous post.

This release has been a long time coming, and I have to give credits to the klfc project for finally making it possible. Dealing with raw XKB configuration has been nothing but confusing, and klfc abstracts it all away by allowing people to design new keyboard layout in a very straightforward JSON format.

Release v1.0

I am releasing this keyboard layout implementation into the Public Domain, with no rights reserved from my part, using the Creative Commons Zero license. Please note that this copyright waiver applies only to the keyboard layout itself (the files cma.json, xkb/symbols/cma, and xkb/types/cma) — the download package below also contains klfc code (in particular components of the installation script), which is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3, a strong copyleft license.

Downloads

The v1.0 release is available as tar.xz and 7z compressed archives. Both are widely supported by GNU/Linux systems, users may choose whichever is more convenient for them.

• cma-keyboard.tar.xz (24.1 kB)
• cma-keyboard.7z (23.2 kB)

Screenshots

• CMA keyboard appears in Xfce’s keyboard layouts list
• Lines from a CMA poem published in kormakitis.net are typed into Xfce’s Mousepad application

Installation

1. Extract the contents of the archive in a temporary location
2. From the command line, navigate to the xkb/ folder
3. Type sudo ./install-system.sh to run the installation script as super-user (if you don’t use sudo, alternatively use su -c './install-system.sh')
4. From your graphical environment’s control panel, go to keyboard settings and add the new keyboard layout to the list of active layouts

TO-DO

• Set up a public code repository for cma-keyboard
• Improve the documentation and the COPYING file
• Create an uninstall script
• Create a dedicated project homepage
• Set up a bug tracker
• Get cma-keyboard included upstream so it is available by default on all GNU/Linux desktops
• Leverage klfc’s powers and also release an Android keyboard layout

Contact me

For questions, bug reports, suggestions, and offers of help, please contact me. Especially please contact me if you understand how XKB accepts new keyboard layouts in their standard distribution.

Let me know what you think about this via email or in the public chatroom.

Tags: xorg, xkb, x window, xkeyboardconfig, keyboard layout, cypriot maronite arabic, cma, sanna