GiellaLT provides an infrastructure for rule-based language technology aimed at minority and indigenous languages, and streamlines building anything from keyboards to speech technology.
Below is a short description of what you need to install to be able to work with the keyboard build system.
Install kbdgen in your $PATH. Make sure you have
the latest version; current version as of this writing is:
$ kbdgen --version
kbdgen 3.0.0-beta.4
That’s it!
All keyboard code is in github.com/giellalt, and each language has its own repository. Find the language you want to work with, and check it out using either git or svn.
There is an overview of the basic concepts on this page.
It is pretty simple:
xxx.kbdgen/layouts/xxx.yaml ./autogen.sh && ./configure && make (first time, later on just make)where xxx is the language code of the language you want. xxx can also be
a longer name - it is possible to have multiple keyboards for the same project,
such as one for each country the language of the keyboard is spoken in. xxx is
always and only a valid BCP-47 locale code.
The make command produces several output files:
build/mac/* - installation package (and source bundle) for macOSbuild/win/* - files for MS Keyboard Layout
Creator (KLC),
and installer files. REQUIRES kbdgen to be run on Windows, with KLC installed!build/chrome/* - installation package (and source bundle) for ChromeOSYou can also build for only one platform using one of make [mac|win|chrome].
The make file can also be used to output the following (NB not working ATM):
make svg: docs/*.svg - graphical overview of the layoutmake x11 & make m17n:build/linux/* - linux files (needs to be merged with the rest of
the keyboard subsystem, should be done once when the keyboard design is settledBuilding locally is mostly useful for debugging & development, for distributable builds one should rely on CI/CD & Divvun Manager. Once your commits are pushed to GitHub, the Windows and macOS builds will run, be signed and after a short while be available for installation/update & testing in the nightly channel in Divvun Manager.
Things to consider/change:
*.kbdgen/project.yamlauthor, e-mail, copyright etc to your likings in *.kbdgen/project.yamlxxx.kbdgen/resources/macos/icon.xxx.png)
to something appropriate for your target language (any png file will do,
but consider the size and readability of the icon)*.kbdgen/layouts/*.yaml file(s):
ISO-639-3 code, consider adding the nearest
ISO-639-2 or ISO-639-1 code under displayNames: (even if it is a macro-language code),
this will help in getting the keyboard(s) better integrated into the host OS
as many of the OS’s don’t know a thing about ISO-639-3 languages. If not, the end
users will most likely only see the language code instead of a relevant
language name.The core component/tool for building keyboards is kbdgen, a tool written in Rust
that converts the yaml keyboard descriptors into actual keyboard files. The
Github repo contains the source code, and
reference technical documentation is also
available.
Further notes:
You need to add a real uuid for each language. Run the command:
uuidgen
and paste the generated uuid in the *.kbdgen/targets/windows.yaml file:
uuid: 12345678-9ABC-DEF0-1234-567890ABCDEF
This should already be taken hand of for all existing keyboards, but must be remembered for new keyboards.
For most languages one also has to add a locale
specification for Windows containing the Script system being used. That is, in
each layout file (*.kbdgen/layouts/*.yaml), you also need to add something
like the following:
windows:
config:
locale: rus-Cyrl-NO
languageName: Cyrillic Norway
If not added, the keyboard won’t integrate properly with Windows.
See the note above on the use of language codes for best compatibility with Windows and macOS.
The generated keyboard (using the linked MS Keyboard Layout Creator (see above)
can only be guaranteed to work with Windows 10 and newer. This is especially true
for languages with language codes only in ISO 639-3.
The keyboard package is compatible with most versions of macOS, going back all the way to macOS version 10.2 (Jaguar). Divvun Manager (our main distribution channel) is only compatible with the officially supported versions of macOS (usually the newest one + the two preceding major releases).
The generated code is directly compatible with existing code, but must be merged with it upstreanms. One should develop the keyboard using the other OS’s, and only when one is done with the keyboard layout should one submit the code for inclusion in the Linux keyboard driver code.
We have a separate ChromeOS keyboard app, in which the keyboard needs to be added. Please file a GitHub issue requesting your keyboard to be added. The app is compatible with all supported versions of ChromeOS.
The mobile keyboards have more dependencies, documentation is linked below. They also differ from desktop keyboards in that the keyboards are full-blown apps, and you need all the machinery to build and distribute apps through the relevant stores.
It is possible to build a mobile keyboard app yourself, but that is a huge and frustratingly complex undertaking, so please don’t if you care about your own sanity. We have figured it all out, and it is working flawlessly in our CI/CD system.
To get your keyboard into the mobile apps, just ask us to add it using a GitHub issue.
Please note that we first publish a keyboard using the Divvun Dev Keyboards app, for public testing and refinements. When everyone is satisfied we move the keyboard to the Divvun Keyboards app for regular use.
See the instructions here, just replace lang with keyboard.