need an idea for kxkb (multiple variants UI)

[Andriy Rysin]

ok, so I checked two options: putting number and extending width of kxkb 
tray. Neither work great.
In case if layout has 3 letters there's no place for anything else 
horizontally and I agree that vertically it's not gonna be visible. 
Extending tray width did not work stable for me.
So the only solution I would consider "proper" is to add "Display name:" 
field which will provide default "best guess" up-to-3-letters display 
name but will allow user to change it to something he/she likes more 
(again up to 3 letters as more won't fit into tray). The user still be 
able to see full name of layout and variant in menu.
The only problem with that is introduction of another string to be 
i18n'ned while we're already in message freeze.

I will try to complete the code tomorrow and will post a snapshot along 
with request for approval for new string in kde-i18n-doc.
If anybody doesn't like this or have better one please let me know.
Andriy



Chusslove Illich wrote:
>> [: Jens Herden :]
>> How many people would actually use this feature? I doubt there are many.
>>     
>
> Where I come from, both customized Latin and Cyrillic script are in 
> frequent enough usage, that many users will want both of these in the 
> rotation. Given that in newer incarnations of XKB config files these 
> layouts come as variants of cs layout, all those people would have to live 
> with non-changing indicator in the tray. Yeah, I know, Balkans...
>
> Gnome's switcher handles it this way: XKB's XML configuration file has 
> defined short display names for each variant (two, three letter), and they 
> solely are being used in the tray. It is thus the decision of developer 
> (for English) or translator of the config file to disambiguate (or not) 
> short variant names.
>
> In fact, from the point of view of Gnome's switcher, there is no such thing 
> as layouts and variants. In its configuration, physical layouts are 
> disguised as categories, and physical variants as layouts. Minus the lack 
> of flag (which I find to be a good visual indicator), I find this solution 
> quite nice.
>
>   
>> If you really need to display the variant you could add another "icon"
>> where you display the current variant of the keyboard. [...]
>>     
>
> I wouldn't do this. It would extend the occupied space in the tray, and 
> variant name would either be cut off at some position, or worse, change 
> the length of tray as it is switched.
>
>   
>> Another alternative, less pretty I think, would be to add just numbers 
>> to the icon. [...]
>>     
>
> This could be fine, especially as a transitional solution if the approach 
> of Gnome's switcher is taken later on.
>
> Alternatively, since I'd like a good blink-of-eye visual cue, variant could 
> be labeled by a flag-high, few pixels wide coloured strip on the right 
> (like blue for first variant, red for second, etc.), flag being a bit 
> shortened from that side. Though, I have no idea how hard would this be to 
> do :)
>
> And with both of these, there is a problem of how to map number/color to 
> variant name. I'd suggest ranking by alphabetical order, in order for 
> designator not to depend on ordering in rotation.
>
>   
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