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https://github.com/jjsullivan5196/wvkbd

On-screen keyboard for wlroots
https://github.com/jjsullivan5196/wvkbd

Last synced: 6 days ago
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On-screen keyboard for wlroots

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README 

        
# wvkbd - On-screen keyboard for wlroots that sucks less



 



This project aims to deliver a minimal but practically usable implementation of a wlroots on-screen

keyboard in legible C. This will **only** be a keyboard, not a feedback buzzer,

led blinker, or anything that requires more than what's needed to input text

quickly. The end product should be a static codebase that can be patched to add

new features.



## Features



 - Typing, modifier locking, layout switching

 - Positive visual feedback on key presses

 - Custom layouts and underlying keymaps

 - On-the-fly layout and keymap switching

 - Custom color schemes

 - Proper font drawing

 - Intuitive layouts

 - International layouts (cyrillic, arabic, persian, greek, georgian)

 - Support for 'Copy' keys which are not on the keymap

 - Emoji support

 - Compose key for character variants (e.g. diacritics)

 - Show/hide keyboard on signals (SIGUSR1 = hide, SIGUSR2 = show, SIGRTMIN = toggle)

 - Automatic portrait/landscape detection and subsequent layout switching






There are some areas that still need work:



 - Make sure the virtual input method in wayland is working as best as it can

 - Support for input method protocol in wayland, ability to respond to text

   fields



## Install



You'll need the following developer packages



 - cairo

 - pango

 - wayland-client

 - xkbcommon



Make any customizations you would like in `config.def.h` and run `make`



The default set of layouts is called `mobintl` *(mobile international)*, which groups various layouts aimed at mobile devices

and also attempts to accommodate various international users. The resulting binary is called `wvkbd-mobintl`.



You can, however, define your own layouts by copying and modifying `layout.mobintl.h` and `keymap.mobintl.h`

(replace `mobintl` for something like `yourlayout`). Then make your layout set using `make LAYOUT=yourlayout`, and

the resulting binary will be `wvkbd-yourlayout`



## Usage



Run `wvkbd-mobintl` (or the binary for your custom layout set).



You can switch between the layouts/layers of the keyboard by pressing the

⌨ key (little keyboard) the bottom-left (press shift to iterate back instead of

forward). If you only want a subset of the available layers, you can define

which you want and in what order you want to cycle through them using the

`-l` parameter (or `--landscape-layers` for landscape mode). This takes takes a ordered comma separated list of layout names

that are defined in your layout set.



The keyboard can be hidden by sending it a `SIGUSR1` signal, shown again by sending it `SIGUSR2` or toggled by sending it `SIGRTMIN`.

This saves some start up time and may be appropriate in some low-resource environments.



Wvkbd has an output mode `-o` that will echo its output to standard output. This facility can be used if users want

audio/haptic feedback, a feature explicitly out of scope for wvkbd. To achieve this, simply pipe wvkbd's output through the external tool

[clickclack](https://git.sr.ht/~proycon/clickclack):



`$ wvkbd-mobintl -l simple,special,emoji -o | clickclack -V -f keypress.wav`



Another output mode, `-O` will let the keyboard output keys which are swiped over. It can be used by an external program, such as [swipeGuess](https://git.sr.ht/~earboxer/swipeGuess) to get swipe-typing support.



`$ wvkbd-mobintl -O | swipeGuess.sh words.txt | completelyTypeWord.sh`



### Compose button



The default mobile international layout features a Compose button (`Cmp`)

which, when combined with another key, opens up a layout that offers variants

for that key. This is similar to functionality that other keyboards implemented

using a *long press* (wvkbd has no such notion, holding a key will repeat

it like on a physical keyboard).



For example, press Cmp + a to access variants with diacritics like á,à,â,ä, etc.. 



Most layouts also feature the following that are less obvious:



* Press Cmp + ``.`` to access more punctuation

* Press Cmp + ``-`` or ``,`` to access 'mathematical' symbols (+,-,=,etc)

* Press Cmp + ``'`` or ``0`` or ``9`` to access more brackets and quotes

* Press Cmp + ``q`` to access emojis



Last, but not least, pressing Cmp + space or Cmp + ⌨  or Cmp + Abc opens up an index that allows you to immediately jump to any

layout by name, even layouts not explicitly added to your layers on startup.



## Contribute



Any contributions are welcome, there are two ways to contribute, the first one is **preferred**:



1. [Sourcehut](https://git.sr.ht/~proycon/wvkbd) - Submit your patches using `git mail` to [~mil/[email protected]](mailto:~mil/[email protected]), follow [these contribution guidelines](https://sxmo.org/contribute/). Questions can also be asked on Sxmo's [mailing lists](https://sxmo.org/support/).

2. [Github](https://github.com/jjsullivan5196/wvkbd/) - Submit a pull request or open an issue *(legacy method)*



This project was started by [John Sullivan](https://jsullivan.cc/) and is

currently being maintained by the [Sxmo](https://sxmo.org) project, whose

maintainers will ensure both git remotes are kept in sync at all times.



For code contributions, please run `make format` (requires `clang-format`)

before sending a patch (opening a PR) and include as much relevant detail as

possible.



## Related projects



* [clickclack](https://git.sr.ht/~proycon/clickclack) - Audio/haptic feedback (standalone)

* [swipeGuess](https://git.sr.ht/~earboxer/swipeGuess) - Word-completion for swipe-typing

* [Sxmo](https://sxmo.org) - A hackable mobile interface environment for Linux phones that adopted wvkbd as its keyboard

* [svkbd](https://tools.suckless.org/x/svkbd/) - A similar project as wvkbd but for X11 rather than Wayland

* [squeekboard](https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Phosh/squeekboard) - The virtual keyboard developed for the Librem5 (used

	by Phosh)