Sinhala Wijesekara Layout Keyboard

Sinhala - Wijesekara layout keyboard for Ubuntu based distributions.

Within this repository you can find a modified key mapper (symbols) file of xkb lk layout.

Prerequisites

This is just a implementation of the symbols file. Therefore in order to use this you should have Sinhala installed in your distribution beforehand.

How to Replace the Mapper

1. IMPORTANT : First take a backup of your original lk layout file. (/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/lk)

   cp /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/lk /your/backup/location/lk.backup
   

2. Replace the lk file with the layout file (lk) you find in this repository.

3. You would have to run following command to update the changes.

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure xkb-data
   

How to Type - Character map

Without any Modifiers

The image bellow explains the behavior of your keyboard when you're not using any modifier key.

With "Shift" key

In order to switch to the following layout you should press and hold the "Shift" key before pressing the characters.

With right "Alt" key

To reach the third level of characters you should press and hold the "Alt" key located to the right of your space bar.

With both "Shift" and right "Alt" keys

This combination of modifiers provides you the access to the fourth layer of the characters.

Special Characters

In order to get these kind of characters to work, a special character called Zero Width Joiner - ZWJ is used. After activating Sinhala layout you can type ZWJ by pressing right Alt + /

ZWJ = right Alt + /

As you can see, in the above layouts, you can't find two of commonly used characters (or පිල්ලම් to be persice). namely Yansaya (example: මුඛ්‍ය) and Rakaransaya (example: ක්‍රමය). Here is how you could get those two characters into your content.

Yansaya

English layout : a -> ZWJ -> h
Sinhala layout : ් -> ZWJ -> ය

Example

මුඛ්‍ය = මු -> ඛ -> ් -> ZWJ -> ය

Rakaransaya

English layout : a -> ZWJ -> r
Sinhala layout : ් -> ZWJ -> ර

Example

ක්‍රමය = ක -> ් -> ZWJ -> ර -> ම -> ය

Repaya

Although this is not commonly used, you can use this by following this procedure.

English layout : r -> a -> ZWJ
Sinhala layout : ර -> ් -> ZWJ

Example

කර්‍මය = ක -> ර -> ් -> ZWJ -> ම -> ය

Tightened Characters (බැඳි අකුරු)

If you prefer using these sort of characters ZWJ can help you with that as well.

Syntax

first character -> ZWJ -> second character

Examples

න්‍ද = න -> ් -> ZWJ -> ද
ක්‍ෂ = ක -> ් -> ZWJ -> ෂ

Known Issues

එ -> ් does not transform into ඒ

This is a known issue and in order to over come this, the character 'ඒ' is added in to the Shift + t position. However as a side effect, I had to push the character 'ඔ' from Shift + t position to right Alt + t position. You can find the character 'ඕ' at Shift + right Alt + t position.