NAME
xxkb - switches and indicates a current keyboard layout.
SYNOPSIS
xxkb
DESCRIPTION
The xxkb program shows the current keyboard layout (an XKB group) and
allows to switch it with a mouse click. It has some additional
features. The xxkb remembers the layout for each application window
and changes the keyboard state accordingly when the window gets a
focus. The xxkb can place an additional button on a window title bar
and that button is a switcher and an indicator for that separate
window. If the keyboard map has more than two layouts the xxkb can
simplify a switching using a two_state mode. In this mode the xxkb
allows to choose two layouts, one as a base layout and another one as
an alternative layout and then switch the keyboard state between them
only. Also the xxkb supports applications lists which allow to tune its
behavior for some separate applications.
The xxkb works with any window manager.
USAGE
Working as an indicator the xxkb shows a current XKB layout using one
of four pixmaps and changes the pixmap when you change a layout with
the keyboard (using the key or the key combination specified in the
config file as an XKB group switcher) or using any other application
which able to change the XKB group. Also the xxkb shows the similar
pixmaps on each application window title bar which are indicators for
separate windows. Since the global indicator and the per window
indicators duplicates each other you can hide the global indicator or
all per window indicators using configure options.
Also you can use the xxkb as a layout switcher using a mouse button
click on the main xxkb window or one of the per window indicators. In
last case you switch the layout for the chosen application.
MouseButton1
The first button acts as a layout switcher. If the two_state mode
is active the button click switches the current layout between two
selected layouts (XKB groups). Otherwise it selects all possible
layouts in cycle.
MouseButton3
When the two_state mode is switched on the third button allows to
choose an alternative layout. It selects all possible layouts in
cycle and the layout you stop on becomes the alternative layout.
Without the two_state mode this button action is the same as the
first button action.
MouseButton2
The second (middle) button action depends on the place where you
click. The click on the main indicator terminates the xxkb. But
the click on one of the per window indicators simply removes the
indicator from the title bar and excludes that application from a
set of managed applications. Also the second button allows you to
add an application into one of three lists of the applications
which should be ignored (see the Applications lists options below).
Clicking on the per window indicator when the Control key is
pressed you add this application to the wm_class_class list. If the
Shift key is pressed the button click adds the application to the
wm_name list. If both keys are pressed the click adds the
application to the wm_class_name list. In all cases the updated
lists will be saved in a per user config file ~/.xxkbrc.
CONFIGURE OPTIONS
The xxkb reads all configure options from two files app-defaults/XXkb
and ~/.xxkbrc.
Common options
XXkb.xpm.path
The directory where the xxkb searches pixmap files.
Main window options
XXkb.mainwindow.enable
switch on the xxkb main window (yes by default). If a per window
button mode switched on some users prefer to hide the main window
of the xxkb.
XXkb.mainwindow.appicon
run xxkb as an animated icon. It is useful for window managers
which allow ’to dock’ applications.
XXkb.mainwindow.in_tray
allow to dock xxkb into a system tray. A value is either true or
false.
XXkb.mainwindow.geometry
the geometry ( WIDTHxHEIGHT{+-}XOFF{+-}YOFF ) of the main window.
Please read the GEOMETRY SPECIFICATIONS section of X(7) for
details.
XXkb.mainwindow.border.color
color to be used when drawing window border.
XXkb.mainwindow.border.width
border width in pixels.
XXkb.mainwindow.xpm.N
pixmap file names for each indicated group N. If your symbols map
has less than four groups the unused group icons can be omitted. If
the file name begins from ’/’ it means full path for the file.
Otherwise it means the relative path beginning from the
XXkb.xpm.path value.
XXkb.mainwindow.label.enable
enable labels to be printed instead of images. Group descriptions
will be used if not overwritten by XXkb.mainwindow.label.text.N
(where N is 1..4, group number) options.
XXkb.mainwindow.label.text.N
label for the specified group N.
XXkb.mainwindow.label.background
XXkb.mainwindow.label.foreground
colors used to draw background and label text respectively.
XXkb.mainwindow.label.font
font to be used when drawing labels.
Operation mode options
Since the xxkb can keep the keyboard state for each application and
restore the state when the focus is changed there are group of options
which controls how the xxkb finds the application windows.
XXkb.controls.add_when_start
If this mode is switched on (default) the xxkb at start time tries
to find all application already run.
XXkb.controls.add_when_create
In this mode the xxkb gets a new application window at time when
the application creates it. It is the base mode but I can’t
guaranty it works with all window managers.
XXkb.controls.add_when_change
In this mode the xxkb doesn’t catch the windows at their creation
but adds windows to the managed windows list if the keyboard state
changes when the window is focused. It’s an additional mode (not
recommended) and may be useful only if the add_when_create mode for
some reason doesn’t work.
XXkb.controls.focusout
It makes the xxkb reset the keyboard group when the focus leaves
the window. The mode makes sense with the add_when_change mode
only.
XXkb.controls.button_delete
This mode (switched on by default) allows user to remove the per
window button using a mouse middle button click. Although the xxkb
tries to ignore the windows where the keyboard layout switching
doesn’t make sense, such windows can still appear. Or there are
windows where an user for some reason doesn’t want to have the
button.
XXkb.controls.button_delete_and_forget
This mode in addition to previous one makes xxkb to forget the
window which button is deleted. It means the xxkb will not
remember the keyboard state changes in this window and restore this
state when the window will be focused.
XXkb.controls.two_state
Switching between two chosen keyboard layouts only. If the XKB
symbols map has more than two groups and not all of them are needed
for each application the xxkb allows to skip unneeded layouts at
the layout switching. You can select one group as a base group and
another one as an alternative group and then switch between these
two groups only. The base group is common for all applications
(usually it contains ASCII) but the alternative group can be chosen
for each application window separately. In this mode a mouse right
button allows to select the alternative group and a mouse left
button as well as the key which configured as the layout switcher
change the current state between two selected layouts only.
This mode uses two additional config options:
XXkb.group.base
the base group (integer 1..4).
XXkb.group.alt
the default alternative group (integer 1..4).
The application window button options
All these options make sense if the XXkb.button.enable switched on.
XXkb.button.enable
If turned on, the xxkb adds an additional button to a title bar of
each managed window which is the indicator and the layout switcher
for that particular window. These buttons are not usual window
manager buttons but windows (with a pixmap) owned by the xxkb
itself. It means that in some cases a user needs to tune the button
size and the position for the button look like a window manager
decoration element.
XXkb.button.geometry
the button geometry ( WIDTHxHEIGHT{+-}XOFF{+-}YOFF ).
XXkb.button.xpm.N
the pixmap file names (the same as for the XXkb.mainwindow.xpm.*
options).
XXkb.button.label.enable
XXkb.button.label.text.N
XXkb.button.label.background
XXkb.button.label.foreground
XXkb.button.label.font
XXkb.button.border.color
XXkb.button.border.width
see description of their main window counterparts.
Bell options
XXkb.bell.enable
enables the keyboard bell when the layout changes.
XXkb.bell.percent
an argument value for the XBell call.
Applications lists options
The xxkb allows to specify lists of applications that requires some
special actions. The applications can be specified using their WM_CLASS
or WM_NAME properties.
A common form of such option is
XXkb.app_list.property.action: an applications list
The action here can be one of ignore, start_alt or alt_groupn. The
ignore action means that the xxkb must ignore the windows of those
applications and doesn’t add them to the managed windows set. The
start_alt action means that the xxkb must set the keyboard state to the
alternative layout when the application starts. And the alt_group1,
alt_group2, alt_group3 or alt_group4 actions allow to specify the
alternative layout for some applications if this layout should be
different from the common alternative layout specified in the
XXkb.group.alt option.
The property can be one of wm_class_class, wm_class_name or wm_name.
The xxkb can identify an application using its window properties
WM_CLASS or WM_NAME. The WM_CLASS property actually consists of two
parts - a res_class and a res_name. Thus the property field specifies
what property or part of property should be considered for the
application identification.
By default all these lists are empty. A not empty list is a sequence
of words separated by space/tab. The xxkb accepts an asterisk as a part
of word. Long lists can be continued to the next line using a
backslash as the last char in the line.
For example:
XXkb.app_list.wm_name.ignore: Fvwm* *clock .br
Xman
XXkb.ignore.reverse
This option changes a meaning of the Xxkb.*.ignore list. If the
option switched on the ignore list becomes the list of windows
which should be managed but all other should be ignored.
AUTHOR
Ivan Pascal