With Windows in many cases it is definitely a language. You select which
keyboard languages you want, and you switch them either with the mouse or with
Alt-Shift. The system already knows which keyboard layout you have - 101 in my
case - and offers several choices.
In Israel, the normal choice is Hebrew and English, although other combinations
of two or three languages are possible and in use.
In some cases locale would be more precise, for example English, but most
languages have a single keyboard for a specific layout.
Jony
# -----Original Message-----
# From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org
# [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org]On Behalf Of Edward Cherlin
# Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 10:12 PM
# To: unicode@unicode.org
# Subject: Keyboard terminology (was RE: Unicode editing)
#
#
# At 4:23 PM +0200 5/10/01, Marco Cimarosti wrote:
# >Mati Allouche wrote:
# [snip]
#
# > > [...]
# > > First of all, I would prompt Mati to find a different term
# >> than "Keyboard Language", e.g. "Keyboard Layout" or
# >> "Keyboard Locale". [...]
# >>
# >> <Mati> I have no doubt that my terminology can be improved. "Keyboard
# >> layout" is my preference among Marco's suggestions.
#
# Seconded.
#
# >Maybe
# >> others want to cast their votes? </Mati>
#
# Indeed.
#
# >I hope you won't curse me now... In the meanwhile, Jony Rosenne nearly
# >convinced me that "keyboard language" is a proper and well-understood term
# >in the realm of bilingual keyboards...
#
# Even if it is well-understood in that realm, it is improper.
#
# >Maybe you could keep both terms: "keyboard layout" (or "locale", or
# >"driver") for the fact that you have, say, a Hebrew keyboard installed, and
# >"keyboard language" (or "mode", or "alphabet") for the fact that your Hebrew
# >keyboard is currently switched in "English mode" or in "Hebrew mode".
# >
# >Oh! I feel I'm adding confusion over confusion!
#
# It isn't you. The confusion is already out there.
#
# Regardless of current usage, "keyboard language" is a dreadful term,
# and I suggest you stick with "keyboard layout" and identify the
# layout by something other than a language it is associated with.
# "QWERTY" identifies a large class of layouts that differ in numerous
# details while sharing the arrangement of keys for letters, numbers,
# and some other symbols. To be more specific, one can refer to a
# standard or a particular product, such as US Alternate Standard
# Keyboard (Dvorak) or 101-key PC US keyboard.
#
# The principal reason it is dreadful to speak of "language" is that
# many languages, including English, have multiple layouts with
# different user communities. In English we have QWERTY and ASK-Dvorak
# (',.pyfgcrl), and within QWERTY, variations for UK, Canada, and other
# countries, and for various computers and terminals. I know of four
# major classes of Cyrillic Russian keyboard layouts. We have had
# extensive discussions on this list about the requirements for
# Polytonic Greek and Farsi keyboards and the currently available
# options. There are layouts called "transliteration keyboards"
# attached to certain scripts and languages for the use of foreigners,
# especially Murkns. Those I have seen place letters according to their
# pronunciations relative to US QWERTY, although nothing prevents this
# concept from being applied to Cyrillic and other scripts. I have seen
# transliteration layouts mapped to QWERTY from Greek and various South
# Asian scripts and languages. I'm sure there are other examples.
#
# A second reason why "keyboard language" is a dreadful term is that
# CJK IMEs provide multiple layouts to be used together for the same
# script and language. If I am typing Chinese in Cangjie, I can switch
# between half-width and full-width, or between Cangjie and Latin
# QWERTY, without changing language. If I am typing Japanese , I can
# switch between romaji (full or half width), hiragana, katakana, and
# kanji conversion from either romaji or hiragana. Switching layouts is
# not needed as frequently for Korean hangeul, but Korean IMEs also
# provide half- and full-width variants, and hanja conversion. I have
# no idea of the detailed requirements for a Vietnamese chu nom IME,
# but I would expect to see QWERTY and AZERTY options and character
# conversion.
#
# That brings me to the third reason not to use "keyboard language".
# Some layouts are used for multiple languages. There are differences
# in detail between French AZERTY and Vietnamese AZERTY, but that is
# primarily in application of accents, not in arrangement of keys. Many
# languages have no language-specific layouts, and are typed in generic
# Latin or Cyrillic layouts.
#
# A fourth problem is languages written in more than one script, such
# as Hindi/Urdu, Serbo-Croatian, Pali, Mongolian, Malay/Indonesian,
# Azeri, Tajik, Uzbek, and so on. Historically, we can add Turkish
# (Arabic/Latin), Swahili (Arabic/Latin), Egyptian
# (hieratic/demotic/Coptic), and Mayan (Mayan/Latin).
#
# In sum, we should consider that any language can be written in any
# script on a wide range of keyboard layouts, and treat language and
# layout as orthogonal concepts.
#
# There are many other examples of these concepts. I have a
# screen-saver of a prayer wheel bearing a Sanskrit mantra written in
# the Tibetan alphabet. Sanskrit written in Chinese characters is in
# everyday use in many countries. Not just Sanskrit words in Chinese
# texts, but entire dharanis in Sanskrit written entirely in Chinese
# characters, and read out every day by large numbers of Buddhists.
# --
#
# Edward Cherlin, Spamfighter <http://www.cauce.org>
# "It isn't what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you know for
# certain that just ain't so."--Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Edwin Howard
# Armstrong, Will Rogers, Satchel Paige (after Thomas Jefferson)
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