xorg-x11-xkbdata, xkbdata, xkeyboard-config and you

Mike A. Harris mharris at mharris.ca
Wed Mar 1 23:12:56 UTC 2006


Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> Hi Mike
> 
> I just wanted to report a direct result of the change here is the gnome
> keyboard switcher started working again in Rawhide (after months of
> misbehaviour)
> 
> Thanks for making the switch. I know it was a hard decision to make just
> before a release. Even if the xkbdata core contributors made it pretty
> clear they only cared about xkeyboard-config nowadays.

Yeah, the long term goal has always been to switch to xkeyboard-config
ever since it split off from XFree86 when X.Org revitalized itself.

However, while Xorg was still monolithic it made sense to use what
X.Org shipped rather than trying to hack on the xkeyboard-config
bits.  Also some people had concerns about backward compatibility
and other stuff.

With X11R7, upstream wanted to keep using the unmaintained data for
some reason, which had to do with um...  ok, I don't know.  Silly
worries or something.  ;o)

There were a few other things I'm struggling to try and forget now,
so I wont bore you. ;)

Even if things break for people now, we are in the best position
going forward with xkeyboard-config IMHO.  Mainly because bugs
in xkbdata are more or less permanent "so sorry, deal with it"
in nature. ;o)

Hopefully xkeyboard-config transition is smooth for FC5 now.


-- 
Mike A. Harris  *  Open Source Advocate  *  http://mharris.ca
                       Proud Canadian.




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