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README.symbols revision 1.1.1.2 
      1 
      2 The files in the symbols directory describe possible keyboard layouts
      3 for a given  country or language or script.
      4 
      5 The default layout in each file should describe the most common layout
      6 for its kind, usually the one that matches the symbols printed on the
      7 keys.  Layout variants can describe common deviations that are not
      8 necessarily printed on the keys (e.g. a phonetic version of Cyrillic).
      9 
     10 The names of the files are referenced throughout the XKB rules, and may
     11 be exposed in the X server configuration and in user configuration tools.
     12 The filenames use the following convention:
     13 
     14 Country layouts:
     15   Keyboard layouts for a country must use the 2-letter code from the
     16   ISO-3166 standard.
     17 
     18 Language layouts:
     19   Keyboard layouts for a language must use the 3-letter code from the
     20   ISO-639 standard.
     21 
     22 Script layouts:
     23   Keyboard layouts for a script must use the 4-letter code from the
     24   ISO-15924 standard.
     25 
     26 Other:
     27   Keyboard layouts that do not fit in the above categories must use a
     28   filename between 5 and 8 characters.
     29 
     30 The relevant ISO codes can be found at the following addresses:
     31 
     32 Country layouts:  http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/country_codes/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm
     33 Language layouts: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php
     34 Script layouts:   http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/iso15924-codes.html
     35 
     36 The descriptions of the layouts in the file base.xml.in should match the
     37 group names in the symbols file.
     38 
     39 If the layout is country-based, the group name has to be the full name of
     40 the country.  It is highly discouraged to use forms like "Republic of XXX"
     41 or "XXX Republic" -- the form "XXX" should be used instead.  The only
     42 exception is "United Kingdom".
     43 
     44 If the layout is language-based, the group name has to be the name of the
     45 language.
     46 
     47 Within a single symbols file, all the variants should have the same group name
     48 (implemented using the "include" directive wherever possible).
     49