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Does anyone know who maintains keyboard layouts in Linux?
damarrin Oct 23, 2019
I want to propose an amendment to a keyboard layout and I'm not sure who to get in touch with about this. Any ideas?

I know I can modify my own layout, but I'd like the change to become standard, so I don't have to do that on every machine I use.
Ehvis Oct 23, 2019
I suppose these things are governed by world wide standards. So could be ISO that does that. However, you made me curious about what the change is.
damarrin Oct 23, 2019
I meant who makes and keeps and makes available the files with the layouts that then get put in every Linux distro.

I'm sure MS and Apple don't get those from any ISO or another entity and they make them themselves. Especially MS, what with how they just told everyone to put the Windows key on every keyboard back whenever that was. Also, there's an (IMO) error in the Polish layout in macOS where the dot key on the numeric keypad generates a dot and not a comma. Both Windows and Linux generate a comma, which is the correct behaviour as that's the decimal separator here and makes the keypad useless on macOS in Poland. So clearly Apple made the layouts themselves.

The change is a minor one, doesn't impact the current layout and instead just adds a key combination that currently does nothing and is relevant only in Poland.

Last edited by damarrin on 23 October 2019 at 9:02 am UTC
Ehvis Oct 23, 2019
I'm not so sure if those things fall under the keyboard layout. Things like the comma/period on the numeric keypad are part of the regional settings. Things like the windows/alt/ctrl key are pretty much the system handling inputs outside of the keyboard layout. These can even vary between DEs. So depending on what your change is, it might actually mean that there is no single place.
damarrin Oct 23, 2019
No, things like whether the decimal separator is a dot or a comma fall under regional settings. Things like what character a key generates fall under keyboard layout.
damarrin Oct 23, 2019
Thanks! I'd already found the one on freedesktop, but didn't the one for console.
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