Braille input module [Was: XKB Braille Layout]

[Samuel Thibault]

Hello,

Please do not post separately on two lists, just post to both lists at
the same time. Otherwise the two discussions will happen independently,
and things will probably just not work.

Nalin.x.Linux, le Mon 14 Apr 2014 14:20:17 +0530, a écrit :
> i have developed a software named Sharada Braille Writer that can
> input text using only six keys. http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbrw/.

Ok, so AIUI it is for now essentially a text editor which supports
entering braille?

>  Now i would like to develop a braille layout for XKB(X
> keyboard Extension).

Please see what I already answered you on 2nd March on the xorg mailing
list: the braille XKB layout already exists. What you want to develop
now, in order to get braille input in all applications, is an Input
Module (IM). That is a piece of software which resides between XKB and
the application. It will get braille pattern keypresses from XKB, and is
supposed to feed the application with text.

> I have read http://mielke.cc/brltty/doc/X11.txt. But i can't
> understand what it is meant to be ?

It is meant to be a very basic version of what you want to achieve.
Using the setxkbmap command will enable the XKB part. Doing only this
will however only produce braille patterns, not letters. The brltty-ttb
command produces a XCompose file which you can use to make XKB turn
those patterns into text. But even XKB Compose support has very limited
support, and you won't be able to express everything you want with just
that. That is why you really want to write an Input Module, which will
take the braille patterns from XKB, and produce text for the
application.

Now, about Input Modules, see Jens Petersen's answer: he suggested
discussing the idea on the ibus mailing-list, which I have Cc-ed. You
should see the technical details on how to write an Input Module there.
You can also find the reference documentation on the ibus website:
https://code.google.com/p/ibus/
You can probably use some existing modules as examples for how to create
your own module in Python. Apparently ibus-anthy is in python for
instance, but the ibus-devel mailing list probably has better ideas of
examples to look at?

Samuel