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# libxkbcommon
xkbcommon is a keymap compiler and support library which processes a
reduced subset of keymaps as defined by the XKB specification. Primarily,
a keymap is created from a set of Rules/Model/Layout/Variant/Options names,
processed through an XKB ruleset, and compiled into a struct xkb_keymap,
which is the base type for all xkbcommon operations.
From an xkb_keymap, an xkb_state object is created which holds the current
state of all modifiers, groups, LEDs, etc, relating to that keymap. All
key events must be fed into the xkb_state object using xkb_state_update_key().
Once this is done, the xkb_state object will be properly updated, and the
keysyms to use can be obtained with xkb_state_key_get_syms().
## Quick Guide
See [Quick Guide](doc/quick-guide.md).
## API
While libxkbcommon's API is somewhat derived from the classic XKB API as found
in X11/extensions/XKB.h and friends, it has been substantially reworked to
expose fewer internal details to clients.
See the [API Documentation](http://xkbcommon.org/doc/current/modules.html).
## Dataset
libxkbcommon does not distribute a keymap dataset itself, other than for
testing purposes. The most common dataset is xkeyboard-config, which is used
by all current distributions for their X11 XKB data. More information on
xkeyboard-config is available here:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/XKeyboardConfig
## Relation to X11
Relative to the XKB 1.1 specification implemented in current X servers,
xkbcommon has removed support for some parts of the specification which
introduced unnecessary complications. Many of these removals were in fact
not implemented, or half-implemented at best, as well as being totally
unused in the standard dataset.
Notable removals:
- geometry support
+ there were very few geometry definitions available, and while
xkbcommon was responsible for parsing this insanely complex format,
it never actually did anything with it
+ hopefully someone will develop a companion library which supports
keyboard geometries in a more useful format
- KcCGST (keycodes/compat/geometry/symbols/types) API
+ use RMLVO instead; KcCGST is now an implementation detail
+ including pre-defined keymap files
- XKM support
+ may come in an optional X11 support/compatibility library
- around half of the interpret actions
+ pointer device, message and redirect actions in particular
- non-virtual modifiers
+ core and virtual modifiers have been collapsed into the same
namespace, with a 'significant' flag that largely parallels the
core/virtual split
- radio groups
+ completely unused in current keymaps, never fully implemented
- overlays
+ almost completely unused in current keymaps
- key behaviors
+ used to implement radio groups and overlays, and to deal with things
like keys that physically lock; unused in current keymaps
- indicator behaviours such as LED-controls-key
+ the only supported LED behaviour is key-controls-LED; again this
was never really used in current keymaps
Notable additions:
- 32-bit keycodes
- extended number of modifiers
- extended number of groups
- multiple keysyms per level
+ this requires incompatible dataset changes, such that X11 would
not be able to parse these
## Development
An extremely rudimentary homepage can be found at
http://xkbcommon.org
xkbcommon is maintained in git at
https://github.com/xkbcommon/libxkbcommon
Patches are always welcome, and may be sent to either
<xorg-devel@lists.x.org> or <wayland-devel@lists.freedesktop.org>
Bugs are also welcome, and may be reported either at
Bugzilla https://bugs.freedesktop.org/describecomponents.cgi?product=libxkbcommon
or
Github https://github.com/xkbcommon/libxkbcommon/issues
The maintainers are
- Daniel Stone <daniel@fooishbar.org>
- Ran Benita <ran234@gmail.com>
## Credits
Many thanks are due to Dan Nicholson for his heroic work in getting xkbcommon
off the ground initially.
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