Re: Mode_switch in Emacs (was: wish: right alt/meta to switch keyboard layout while pressed)

[Juri Linkov]

> Regarding the XKB feature, I hope someone here will know what should be done
> so the bug can be fixed.
>
>> It should be deactivated while the Mode_switch is hold.  I.e. it should
>> work like Shift, if you like.  Otherwise there's little point in it, since
>> I could just press `C-\' twice as well with not so much more trouble.  When
>> it works like a modifier, I can keep on typing as normal, while switching
>> to a different layout significantly disrupts the process.

As I can see, everything works fine in CVS Emacs already.  The Mode_switch
key temporarily disables the russian layout while it is held in Emacs.
Perhaps something is wrong in Paul's configuration where Mode_switch
doesn't work correctly.

> This requires several changes at the C level (at the very least so as to
> get and process (mostly, ignore) key-release events).  But you may be able
> to simulate the behavior as follows:
>
> - set your xmodmap such that Mode_switch is assigned to an unused modifier
>   (e.g. Hyper).
> - add bindings in your .emacs of the form
>   (global-set-key [?\H-\[] "[")
>   (global-set-key [?\H-\'] "'")

I tried to assign Mode_switch to Hyper, and it works too, without the need
to add Emacs bindings to translate [?\H-\'] to "'".

>  * BUGS
>  
> +** When using a russian+latin layout with
> +
> +   setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us,ru -variant ,winkeys
> +
> +pressing the W key while control is held generates a С-Ц rather than C-W.

This is not a bug, but quite a useless feature.  It enables only
a small subset of standard Emacs keybindings in the russian layout.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/