The Emoji keyboard and multiple scripts

[Alphathon]

Tom Scott, a YouTuber who discusses a wide array of topics, particularly linguistics and general quirky things, has (sort-of) built an Emoji keyboard. He's connected 14 standard keyboards to a laptop and bodged together a solution allowing each one to be used to type a different set of characters, in this case part of the rather large and growing set of Emoji characters.

This got me thinking, while he didn't do this for a truly practical reason, but rather as a proof of concept/to see if he could, this might actually be useful for those who type in multiple languages which use different writing systems. Rather than setting up a standard keyboard from whatever country you're in to use multiple layouts, you connect a second which uses an appropriate layout natively, then set up a system similar to what he used to make it actually function using a different layout. As alluded to in the video this solution will only work on Windows and is pretty much restricted to those who are comfortable with coding, bit I thought it was interesting if nothing else.



(P.S. I hope this was the right sub-forum to post this in. If not, sorry about that.)

[zenmonkey]

Keyboard input shortcuts exist for both mac and pc. (Mine is set to cmd-shift-space)
And then just buy a keyboard overlay from KB covers.

Cheaper, functional and doesn't look like the Homer Simpson's control panel at the nuclear plant.  


PS. I'm all for McGyvering a solution but really when it is useful - I gave up 3 keyboard solutions a while ago.

This works for three languages. $15. No development. Washable too.

IMG_1204.jpg

[Alphathon]

Keyboard input shortcuts exist for both mac and pc. (Mine is set to cmd-shift-space)
And then just buy a keyboard overlay from KB covers.

I'm aware of the shortcuts, although I don't really see that they are necessary here (switching layouts isn't the problem this is trying to solve). On the face of it an overlay does seem like a better solution, assuming you can get one for your keyboard and the script you need is common enough. Are those available for desktop keyboards (other than the likes of Apple's) though? It seems like that'd be far less practical for them (if nothing else they have far greater range of travel per key). EDIT: I had a look at the makers of the one you posted, and those in particular seem to be restricted to particular models of Apple keyboards, and many of them to US or ISO/European layouts. While I'm sure other manufacturers cater to other layouts and regions, some are likely to be harder to get than others.

Cheaper, functional and doesn't look like the Homer Simpson's control panel at the nuclear plant.

I'm not sure it's be cheaper necessarily (keyboards can be bought pretty cheaply), but would certainly be more elegant. Rather than having them all on the desk at once though, I rather envisaged someone switching between wireless keyboards as need be.

Regardless though I thought it was interesting, and might if nothing else give people ideas about similar things. I personally use a gaming keyboard which has macro keys, two of which I have bound to produce graves and umlauts rather than using multi-key combinations. (Hitting G8 is much easier than [AltGr]+[shift]+[`].) It's a bodge, but makes my life much easier. Since my TLs are German and Gaelic that's all I really need ([AltGr] + [s] for ß isn't really an issue worth solving). However, if I needed something more exotic or simply more options I'd be tempted to do something like that. (For example, if someone frequently needed to use a particular set of mathematical/scientific symbols, or IPA, or even a particularly uncommon script, something like this might be useful. Now I mention it, some kind of limited IPA keyboard, maybe the size of a number pad or one of those gaming keypads, would be useful for me - I currently input IPA characters into my Anki cards using a text expander to convert, for example, :ipa>c to ɔ, but something like this would be far easier/simpler to use. Edit: If anyone's interested, having thought about it for a bit I came up with a way to work most of the IPA symbols I frequently use— ̪ , ˈ, ə, ɔ, ɪ, ɤ, ɫ, ᵲ, ʎ, ɯ, ɣ, ɛ, ŋ, ɲ, ʰ and ʲ—into my custom keyboard layout; only ᵰ and ʃ are left out. )

Bear in mind though that I'm the kind of person who likes tinkering, and often prefers custom/bespoke solutions since they work the way I want them to. Heck, I already use a custom keyboard layout (made using a tool Microsoft provides on the MSDN website) just so I can easily type things like •, ±, ÷, µ, ð, ° etc. I may be (and probably am) an edge case, but I'm sure I'm not unique.

[zenmonkey]

I'm aware of the shortcuts, although I don't really see that they are necessary here (switching layouts isn't the problem this is trying to solve).

Switching allows you to use one keyboard to produce lots of different character codes.

Are those available for desktop keyboards (other than the likes of Apple's) though? It seems like that'd be far less practical for them (if nothing else they have far greater range of travel per key).

I've been using overlays for a year - not really an issue in terms of range of motion. Two overlay cover 5 languages. I can't see how I'd travel with 2 additional keyboards. When I worked with two portables (a PC & a Mac) each one was set to two languages with stickers. Cheap and easy.

Rather than having them all on the desk at once though, I rather envisaged someone switching between wireless keyboards as need be.

It's a hassle, I tried it. And you still need to keyboard switch the operating system unless you want to have something capturing the keystroke and converting it.

Regardless though I thought it was interesting, and might if nothing else give people ideas about similar things. I personally use a gaming keyboard which has macro keys, two of which I have bound to produce graves and umlauts rather than using multi-key combinations.

Sure, it is interesting! I just pointed out the more practical solution. By the way, if you want to produce those characters just install the extended US keyboard. And Volia! Instant Portuguese ã German ü French ç etc... (alt n, alt u, alt c)

Bear in mind though that I'm the kind of person who likes tinkering, and often prefers custom/bespoke solutions since they work the way I want them to.

I like to tinker too - heck, see my signature. But I want my language learning tools portable, robust and I'd rather focus on coding new unicode script for some of my rare languages (ladino and ladakhi - both projects) than rebuilding the wheel (in my humble opinion)

[daegga]

Or you could just learn to touch-type in your target language.

[zenmonkey]

Anyway, on the subject of keyboards, particularly rare language keyboards - check out: http://keyman.com

Literally a 1000 virtual keyboards are available.

Konkani, anyone? ಚಗಥಜಕ
Sinhala? යිටුමිබ්ඩරඩු

[Zireael]

About those overlays, I have a 14 inch laptop, are there any overlays which would fit or are they all the standard desktop keyboard size?

[Alphathon]

I'm aware of the shortcuts, although I don't really see that they are necessary here (switching layouts isn't the problem this is trying to solve).

Switching allows you to use one keyboard to produce lots of different character codes.

I know what the point of switching is. If I didn't I wouldn't have said "Rather than setting up a standard keyboard from whatever country you're in to use multiple layouts" in my first post.

Are those available for desktop keyboards (other than the likes of Apple's) though? It seems like that'd be far less practical for them (if nothing else they have far greater range of travel per key).

I've been using overlays for a year - not really an issue in terms of range of motion. Two overlay cover 5 languages. I can't see how I'd travel with 2 additional keyboards. When I worked with two portables (a PC & a Mac) each one was set to two languages with stickers. Cheap and easy.

Who said anything about travelling? Of course this isn't a reasonable solution if you travel a lot. If you thought that's what I meant by "far greater range of travel per key", I didn't - I was referring to how far a key moves when pressed.

This is a solution for desktop users with niche needs which aren't covered by simply switching to a different layout. Maybe your TL has a layout which uses a different key layout than the one used on your native keyboard and you want to get used to using it. (For example, UK keyboards have more keys than US ones and they are laid out differently, so are not directly compatible layout-wise, let alone those used in other languages.) Maybe you need to type a lot of text using a mixture of two scripts where cycling layouts would be tedious. Maybe you simply want to add something like a numberpad and set it up as dead-keys to give easier access to numerous diacritics. Maybe you want a shortcut to some commonly used composed characters (for example, I understand text entry using Chinese characters can be a pain - adding a small keyboard of shortcuts might take some of the edge off). Maybe you're using a script which has more characters than a standard keyboard can reasonably accommodate alongside punctuation etc. Maybe more than one person uses the computer and they need/want to use different keyboards (for whatever reason). There are any number of reasons why one might want to do something like this.

Rather than having them all on the desk at once though, I rather envisaged someone switching between wireless keyboards as need be.

It's a hassle, I tried it. And you still need to keyboard switch the operating system unless you want to have something capturing the keystroke and converting it.

That is the entire point of this post! Tom Scott was able to set up 14 keyboards on one computer, each of which types a different set of characters without switching layout. Hence, he built has a functional (if somewhat unwieldy) Emoji keyboard. Maybe it is a hassle, but that doesn't mean that it is never the best or easiest solution.

Regardless though I thought it was interesting, and might if nothing else give people ideas about similar things. I personally use a gaming keyboard which has macro keys, two of which I have bound to produce graves and umlauts rather than using multi-key combinations.

Sure, it is interesting! I just pointed out the more practical solution. By the way, if you want to produce those characters just install the extended US keyboard. And Volia! Instant Portuguese ã German ü French ç etc... (alt n, alt u, alt c)

As a user of UK keyboard I'd much rather use UK Extended, which is what my custom layout is based on. Anyway, you seem to have missed the point of my post. This isn't (just) about finding a way to type characters not available on the standard layout of one's keyboard. That's (relatively) easy and what changing layouts is for. This is about using multiple keyboards which trigger different inputs without switching layouts, for whatever reason one might want to do so.

I want my language learning tools portable, robust and I'd rather focus on coding new unicode script for some of my rare languages (ladino and ladakhi - both projects) than rebuilding the wheel (in my humble opinion)

That's fine. This isn't for you then. I wasn't posting this as a one size fits all solution.

[Alphathon]

About those overlays, I have a 14 inch laptop, are there any overlays which would fit or are they all the standard desktop keyboard size?

Having not seen them before today I cannot comment on 14" laptop keyboards in general, but the brand zenmonkey showed (kbcovers.com) does covers for all sizes of Mac, from 11" MacBook Air to full-sized desktop keyboards. Unfortunately, Apple is the only brand of keyboard they cater to (as far as I can tell).

[zenmonkey]

About those overlays, I have a 14 inch laptop, are there any overlays which would fit or are they all the standard desktop keyboard size?

Overlays tend to be brand dependent. Post your details and I'll tell you what I know - likeliest solution is stickers or an external keyboard.