can simple keyboard provide hardware layouts?

[goyalyashpal]

• on connecting a physical keyboard to an android phone (running android 11),
• In screen of Keyboard & input method : Physical Keyboard > Clicking on the device ...
• ... to open Physical keybioards screen > Clicking the device again and a "Choose keyboard layout" popup appears
• ... which contains a button of "Set up keyboard layouts"

Going under there, various layouts for the physical keyboard are shown, and under them is written the name of the providing application. so, like;

• Android Keyboard (provides majority of the layouts)
• Gboard
• Lithuanian Layouts by ju...

This last one : Lithuanian Layouts - Ext. Keyboards i installed on my own via fdroid search with hardware keyboard layout, and tried the layout provided by it, and it works.

So, i am wondering if u'd be interested in providing the layouts for the languages for which it doesn't exist in the default "Android keyboard"

[goyalyashpal]

Annotated screenshot of the choose keyboard layout popup:

[rkkr]

The answer will probably be "not to be a part of this application".

Physical keyboard layouts are stored differently and are different from Virtual layouts. So reusing any layouts currently inside the Simple Keyboard for a physical keyboard should not be technically possible.

A separate set of layouts could be bundled, but that inflates the size and is actually not related to the app. So if it ever happens, it would probably be a separate application, which already exists.

[goyalyashpal]

it would probably be a separate application, which already exists.

which one? i was only able to find these two on f-droid : one for lithuanian, and other one for bulgarian.

is there some "universal" one too like which aims to provide layouts for many languages?

[rkkr]

https://f-droid.org/packages/name.juodumas.ext_kbd_lithuanian/ that you linked before. I don't know a universal one, but I also never needed one. A physical keyboard layout provider would be a separate application if I ever made one.

[goyalyashpal]

ohkay

[goyalyashpal]

hey, also, can it be done that the keypresses of the h/w keyboard be passed to some ime (input method editor) i.e. soft keyboard and processed further there??

i am asking for another application itself - as i am thinking of making one for myself as i need it. but asking u based on ur experience & knowledge

like say,

• i want to type in transliterate mode, and there exist some halfway decent transliterate ime-s already.
• so, if i could somehow take the h/w keypresses and pipe them to that ime, then i would be able to directly transliterate type
• .... by using existing stuff rather than having to reinvent the wheel.

[rkkr]

Soft keyboard will probably not have access to physical keyboard events. AOSP keyboard even had code to prevent it from showing up if a physical keyboard is present.