Re: [Usability] Keyboard layout preview in, gnome-control-center

["Sergey V. Udaltsov" <sergey_udaltsov pochta ru>]

> A text description would help -- e.g. the "US International" layout is
> the same as the US one except that " ' and ` become accent keys.
Well, it is not exactly up to gnome - all this data comes from X server. 
Sure, we can submit patches to xorg and xfree - but we cannot count on 
them in foreseeble future. Also, lengthy textual description sometimes 
is more confusing than just a glance onto the image.

> You could use openGL and provide a perspective view :-)
Cool! I will work on it one gtkgl makes its way into the gnome libs:)

> Also compare jwz's xkeycaps program.
AFAIK xkeycaps does not use xkb geometry, does it? The "beauty" of our 
image is mostly limited by that info.

> Use of colour and shading, using the user's chosen theme colours
> and fonts and sizes, maybe with a "test" mode where people can
> work out which key on their keyboard corresponds to which key in
> the X server's twisted brain, so needing a visual highlight and
> perhaps a text input box.  Integrating VOK might be interesting.
True, "test mode" is another solution to a problem. But it is actually 
not far from the solution of my friend - just open the text editor and 
press evey key twice (to say the truth, I see no difference other than 
ability to test safely special keys by grabbing the entire keyboard 
input). IMHO this solution is less usable.

> (Sun's OpenWindows used to have one in which each key was actually a
> toolkit button, and you could keep it visible to provide input
> to other windows, although there were confusing focus problems.
> It was especially interesting with just the function keys visible,
> as you could "program" them independently of the application)
By any chance, don't you remember the name of the app? Just to have a 
look, you know.

So, summing things up, the only viable solution so far is to use 
GtkExtender, putting it under the notebook. Are there other viable 
solutions?

Sergey
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