Re: wish: right alt/meta to switch keyboard layout while pressed

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Interesting.  I guess that could be considered as a bug.
>> How do other X apps handle this problem?

> I use KDE.  There I have the Russian (winkeys) layout added with "Include
> latin layout" option turned on.  This gives this command line:

>       setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us,ru -variant ,winkeys

> After this, most applications handle, say `Сtrl-Ц' just like `Ctrl-W' (`Ц'
> and `W' are on the same key.)  However, Firefox doesn't, for some reason
> (which pisses me off a lot, BTW) and so doesn't Emacs...  No idea why.

When you say "most applications" does that only include KDE (Qt) apps,
or does it also include apps that use completely different toolkits?
I guess it also includes other apps, right?

If so, I think this behavior of Emacs should be considered as a bug.

>> > So yes, let me rephrase.  I wish `Mode_switch' would deactivate the current
>> > input method while pressed in Emacs.  Or so that I could turn such feature
>> > on with something as simple as `setq ... t'.
>> Is that what the Mode_switch key does in other X apps?  I.e. what does the
>> Mode_switch key do, "normally"?
> Yes, if you use `setxkbmap -option grp:switch'.

Then Emacs should do the same.  I suspect it's the same bug.

> Maybe if you could make it behave like most other apps do (and unlike
> Firefox), that is enough.  Than I would be able to just use global layout
> switching and not internal Emacs input methods.  However, making it work
> with internal methods would be even better for me, since I like separate
> input methods for each buffer etc., which is impossible with global layout
> switching.  (Well, there are some horrible hacks I was privately given
> links to, but I'm not diving into something as complicated as that.)

Yes, that makes sense as well.
So you'd want hitting Mode_switch to toggle the LEIM input method or would
you want pressing to turn it off and releasing to turn it back on?


        Stefan