QWAF

Keyboard layout trying to be similar to Qwerty. Works in X11, Wayland, Linux console.

Aside from letters rearrangement, , is made a prefix, ; a modifier, ,m a layout switcher, and ,n a Compose key.

The , and ; modifiers sometimes lock. To recover from such an event, press ,, ;, and Shift in random combinations (this shouldn't take long).

AltGr level, accesible with Comma prefix:

Second AltGr level, accessible with Semicolon shift:

Cyrillic variant:

There are also variations resembling Dvorak, Colemak, and Workman. They almost aren't tested, though.

Two other variations are Deutsch (with easier Z) and French (with easier Q).

Building

Run:

make

It will download X11 files into fetch/, and generate layouts into gen/.

Running in X11 (i.e. XKB)

make
./examples/run_xkb_example.sh
./examples/run_example.sh 1

(Ignore the error and lots of warnings it would give).

If ; does not become a modifier, perform a VT switch (e.g. via Ctrl-Alt-F[1-9]).

Or assemble an .xkb file (like examples/qwaf_hjkl.xkb), and run:

xkbcomp -I"/path/to/qwaf"/gen/xkb /path/to/xkb/file $DISPLAY

To install (for the current user), put the above in a file, like ~/xkb.sh and add the sh ~/xkb.sh to autostart (by putting this into ~/.xinitrc, or tweaking desktop settings).

Running in Linux console

make
sudo loadkeys gen/linux_console/qwaf_us.map

Note: to see Compose combinations, run dumpkeys | grep --binary-files=text ^compose

Running under Weston

• Symlink the generated files into ~/.xkb with make homeinstall.
• Put into ~/.config/weston.ini:

[keyboard]
keymap_rules=evdev_qwaf
keymap_layout=qwaf_layouts
keymap_variant=qwaf

The keymap_variant corresponds to 'symbols' in the layouts source file. That is, grep symbols layouts gives list of possible values.

• Run weston-launch at VT console; quit by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

Other Wayland compositors probably require similar tweaks to their config files.

It is possible to use CapsLock or Right Alt as a locking ; modifier. For this, put an option value from rules file into keymap_options, such as:

[keyboard]
...
keymap_options=level5_caps_lock

Otherwise, CapsLock-as-a-Control is recommended:

keymap_options=ctrl:nocaps