README.symbols revision 154daed1
1 2The files in the symbols directory describe possible layouts for a given 3keyboard. 4 5The default layout in each file should describe the most common layout 6for its kind, usually the symbols printed on the keys. Layout variants 7can describe common differences that are not necessarily printed on the keys. 8(e.g. a phonetic version of Cyrillic). 9 10The names of the files are referenced throughout the XKB rules, and may be 11exposed in the X server configuration and in user configuration tools. 12The filenames use the following convention: 13 14Country layouts: 15 16 Keyboard layouts for a country must use the 2-letter code from the 17 ISO-3166 standard. 18 19Language layouts: 20 21 Keyboard layouts for a language must use the 3-letter code from the 22 ISO-639 standard. 23 24Script layouts: 25 26 Keyboard layouts for a script must use the 4-letter code from the 27 ISO-15924 standard. 28 29Other: 30 31 Keyboard layouts that do not fit in the above model and directories 32 must use a filename between 5 and 8 characters. 33 34The ISO codes can be found at the following addressed: 35 36Country layouts: http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_decoding_table.html 37Language layouts: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/langcodes.html 38Script layouts: http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/iso15924-codes.html 39 40The description in the directory file base.xml.in should match the group names 41in the symbols file. 42 43If the layout is country-based, this has to be the full 44name of the country. It is highly not recommended to use the forms 45"Republic of XXX" or "XXX Republic" - the form "XXX" should be used instead. 46The only exception is "United Kingdom". 47 48If the layout is language-based, this has to be the name of the language. 49 50Within single symbols file, all the variants should have the same group name 51(implemented using the "include" directive wherever possible). 52