From: Mark Davis (mark.davis@jtcsv.com)
Date: Mon Jul 26 2004 - 10:15:07 CDT
> a European national keyboard is by itself in general a keyboard group composed of three levels (one unshifted, one shifted, one obtained with AltGr).
In practice, the keyboards I have seen with an additional level generally need and use a pair of additional levels. The issue is that if a lowercase character x is on a level, then you want to be able to get the uppercase version of it X by using that same level plus a shift key. So in practice you end up with plain, plain+shifted, alternate, alternate+shifted.
‎Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: Alain LaBonté
To: Mike Ayers
Cc: unicode@unicode.org
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 07:24
Subject: RE: Much better Latin-1 keyboard for Windows
At 13:00 2004-07-23, Mike Ayers wrote:
From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On Behalf Of Alain LaBonté
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 5:39 AM
> [Alain] There is no « plane » at all in ISO/IEC 9995. This is ISO/IEC
> 10646 terminology, which also has a term called "group", but it is not
> the same thing (and yet, you do not find the notion of plane, group, row
> and cell complicated while it is indeed multiple enough to make it more
> difficult to remember). I think you did not try hard to understand the
> concept of keyboard groups, even if I have explained it to you many
> times (^;
I don't know about "complicated", but I just don't understand the terms. I have read your explanation of keyboard groups, but I still don't quite grasp the meaning. Part of the problem is that your explanation includes other terms that I don't understand, either. Can you please point me to further, preferrably more pedantic explanations?
[Alain] Here are the "pedantic" definitions of ISO/IEC 9995-1 (1994 version, which will be revised this year, most likely). There is no other notion than "level" and "group":
4.12 level: A logical state of a keyboard providing access to a collection of graphic characters or elements of graphic characters. Usually these graphic characters or elements of graphic characters logically belong together, such as the capital forms of letters. In certain cases the level selected may also affect function keys.
4.9 group: A logical state of a keyboard providing access to a collection of graphic characters or elements of graphic characters. Usually these graphic characters or elements of graphic characters logically belong together and may be arranged on several levels within a group. The input of certain graphic characters, such as accented letters, may require access to more than one group.
In less pedantic terms:
a.. a standard American keyboard layout is by itself a keyboard group composed of two levels (one unshifted, one shifted).
b.. a European national keyboard is by itself in general a keyboard group composed of three levels (one unshifted, one shifted, one obtained with AltGr).
Any national group is group 1 by definition according to ISO/IEC 9995. Group 2 is a Latin supplementary group to access those Latin-script-written languages not accessible with a national group 1 also using Latin script. Other groups are still not numbered and their actual access not standardarized.
Is it allright now? Definitions could be bettered, I know.
Alain
PS: I forgot: given that there are typically more than 1 shifted state on non-American keyboards, ISO/IEC 9995 talks about level select. ("Shift" key becomes "Level 2 select", "AltGr" becomes "Level 3 select" -- now one can use synonyms, but ISO standardization may be used as a pivot for all the different synonyms in existence). "Group select" is just an extension when you need to go to other languages (other groups") or to more than 3 levels:
4.13 level select: A function that, if activated, will change the keyboard state to produce characters from a different level.
4.10 group select: A function that, if activated, will change the keyboard state to produce characters from a different group.
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