Re: [emacs-bidi] Control-key binding while typing (for example) Hebrew

[Amit Ramon]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> [2010-06-25 18:31 +0300]:
> > This is a feature, not a bug. The point is that, AFAIK, Emacs input
> > method is simply a translation from one character to another. So, for
> > example, when Emacs receives a 'x' character it is translated to
> > Hebrew Samekh. However, the location of the button that sends 'x'
> > depends on the keyboard layout, so the location of the key that will
> > send Hebrew Samekh also depend on the layout.
>
> I don't think so.  I think the Emacs translates a character regardless
> of which key produced it.

I agree - but this is exactly the problem! Lets try an example,
perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Assume you are typing in Hebrew. When
you want to produce the letter ALEF, you press the keyboard key that
is right under the 5-key, and on a standard (QWERTY) keyboard is used
to produce the letter t. If you look at hebrew.el you'll see that
indeed t is mapped to ALEF. The mapping is based on the character, not
on the location of the key that produces it - exactly as you said.

Now assume that your basic keyboard layout is DVORAK (this is, for
example, what I use). If you're using the same hebrew.el, t is still
mapped to ALEF - but the key that produces t is not under the 5-key
anymore. It is the key that on a QWERTY keyboard is marked k. So now
ALEF is produced by this key. The key that is under the 5-key now
(DVORAK) produces y. hebrew.el maps y to TET, so if you are using
DVORAK as your main English layout, and you are using the standard
hebrew.el, and you (naively) want to insert ALEF, this is what
happens: you press the key under the 5-key - this is where the ALEF is
supposed to be, right? the X window system sends 'y' to Emacs. Emacs
uses the input method in hebrew.el to translate the character, and you
end up with the 'y' translated to TET - you got TET where you were
expecting to get ALEF.

I hope I managed to make it clearer.

> Take a look at leim/quail/hebrew.el: all it
> tells Emacs is the characters to translate.  There's no information
> there regarding the layout of the keyboard.

This is true,  I referred to it above.

> Perhaps Handa-san could tell if this is true.

Lets see what he says.

Best,

Amit