Conkey

Conkey is a keyboard layout aimed at conlangers. As such, it focuses extensively on unusual diacritics and letters, aiming to cover more of these than any other keyboard. Conkey also contains a large amount of typographical symbols.

For documentation, see Documentation.md.

For intallation instructions, see https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey#installation.

Samples

The following language samples were typed using only Conkey:

Nuu-Chah-Nulth (source): ʔUyaaƛaḥ hawiiʔaƛii maapt̓ał c̓išaaʔatḥ ʔuukʷił yuułuʔiłʔatḥ ʔaḥʔaaʔaƛsi n̓ačuʔałʔaƛsi hiikʷis.

Khoekhoe (source): ǂKam !ũi-aob gye ǁẽib di gūna ǃhomi ǃna gye ǃũi hã i.

Azerbaijani 1922 alphabet (source): Butun insanlar ləƶaqət və huqyqlarьna gɵrə azad və bərabər doƣylyrlar.

Zhuang 1957 alphabet (source): Bouч bouч ma dəŋƨ laзƃɯn couƅ miƨ cɯyouƨ, cinƅyenƨ cəuƽ genƨli bouчbouч giŋƨdəŋз.

Dan Liberian alphabet (source): … Yi Dɛn aaꞵi, ɥ́ gɥ́ lɵ́ gbée pə saalɵɛ … Ƃi, ɥ zòɔpúú-mɛ̀nùa Kín káɛ, ɥ wɔkɔ̀ …

Ik linguistic orthography (source: Schrock 2014): Kɔnɔ kaɪnɪ́ɛ́ nɔɔ iánée Máyɛ́ɛ Ɗiwᵃ, mɪta noo kíʝá ɔtáɪ́, enese ɛ́ba arútétikᵉ.

Chukchi (source: Dunn 1999): Cawcəwatˀm ewət ŋˀocˀəqaɣte enaralˀət. Cakəɣetˀm ətlenjuqej nəppəluqin. Naqam ŋˀocˀəqaɣte ənpənacɣəqaɣte ətlˀat.

Polish (source):
Mag skłonił się. […]
— Jak się nazywa ta wieś, panie? — zapytał przybysz. Kowal wzruszył ramionami.
— Głupi Osioł.

Various typographical marks (source: various Wikipedia articles)
„Hast du den Artiken ‚EU-Erweiterung‛ gelesen?‟
« Voulez‐vous un sandwich, Henri ? »
What are those‽

Mathematics: ∀ a,b,c,x ∈ ℂ. (ax² + bx + c = 0) ⇒ (x = (−b ± √(b² - 4ac)) ÷ 2a)

Haskell:

(∘) ∷ ∀ α β γ. (β → γ) → (α → β) → (α → γ)
g ∘ f = \x → g (f x)

(Yes, I know those last two aren’t strictly languages, but they’re good as a demonstration…)

Design Principles

Conkey is based around the following design principles:

• Conkey extends the US keyboard layout. It does not change or swap any part of this base layout. (Versions based on UK, Dvorak, Colemak etc. layouts are not planned, but I would be more than happy for someone else to make one if they are interested.)
• All special characters use the AltGr modifier key for access, and no other key.
• Mnemonic key sequences should be preferred when possible.
• Conkey supports primarily Latin scripts. Characters from other scripts should only be added if they have been used at some point alongside a Latin-based script.

Any future development should conform to these principles.

Development

Conkey uses the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) for development. This is highly recommended for any complex work on Conkey. However, if you want to make simple modifications only, the keyboard layout description file has a fairly simple plaintext format which can easily be modified.

Conkey is available in versions for both Linux and Mac OSX. If you are interested, ports of Conkey to other platforms would be welcomed; refer to the instructions here for details.

Installation

Install Conkey using the files from the latest release. Alternately, get the files by building Conkey yourself.

Windows

Install by unzipping installer.zip and running the setup.exe file within. If you already have a previous version of Conkey installed, it may be a good idea to uninstall that first using the Control Panel.

Linux

Keyboard input on Linux requires several components to work together:

• XKB manages the mapping between the physical keys on your keyboard and the keycodes received by your computer.

• An input method (IM) provides the means to input letters, numbers and other characters.

• The IM requires an input method engine (IME) to process individual keyboard layouts.

• Finally, your desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, Xfce, etc.) needs to autostart the IM on login so that it can interpret your typing.

  <!-- A number of these exist: I recommend [IBus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Input_Bus), --> <!-- but Conkey has also been tested with [Fcitx 5](https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Fcitx_5) (which seems to work better on Wayland). --> <!-- Conkey requires [`m17n`](https://www.nongnu.org/m17n/) as its IME. -->

Naturally, the exact configuration will differ depending on how your system is set up. The following guidelines should work for most systems:

• As with many Linux keyboard layouts, Conkey requires a specialised AltGr modifier key. You will also see this called the ‘Level 3 Shift’ or ‘3rd level modifier’ by XKB. However, most modern keyboards lack this key, so you will need to change the XKB settings so that a physical key on your keyboard behaves as AltGr instead.

  Many desktop environments allow this to be configured in the settings. Usually this is in a section named ‘Keyboard’ or similar. On KDE, the setting should be in ‘Input Devices → Keyboard → Advanced → Key to choose the 3rd level’. On GNOME, install Tweaks and then set ‘Keyboard & Mouse → Additional Layout Options → Key to choose the 3rd level’ within the tweaks tool. On Xfce, try ‘Keyboard → Advanced → Change layout option’ (making sure to uncheck ‘Use system defaults’).

  Otherwise, you can try one of the following methods:

  • XKB configuration options such as lv3:ralt_switch can be set directly, either by running a command like setxkbmap -option lv3:ralt-switch, or by using a configuration file. (At least on my machine, the possible XKB options are listed in /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst).
  • You can make a custom XKB layout containing a key mapped to ISO_Level3_Shift.
  • You can also use xmodmap: e.g. to remap right-Alt to AltGr, run xmodmap -e 'keycode 108 = ISO_Level3_Shift ISO_Level3_Shift ISO_Level3_Shift ISO_Level3_Shift'.

  Note: remapping a key to AltGr means that it will no longer work in its previous function! This is why Right Alt is often a good choice — few programs require an Right Alt key specifically.

• Next, install an IM. If you’re using GNOME you might already have IBus installed. If not, installing IBus or Fcitx 5 should be straightforward: for details, consult the instructions for your distribution. (e.g. on Arch Linux, to install IBus use pacman -S ibus and set the appropriate environment variables.) You will also need to install m17n integration — usually this is in a package called ibus-m17n, fcitx5-m17n or similar.

• Ensure that your desktop environment launches the IM on login. GNOME may do this automatically, as might KDE (though I haven’t tested the latter); otherwise set up a command such as ibus-daemon -drxR or fcitx5 -rd to be run on login.

• Get the Conkey keyboard layout by downloading latn-conk.mim from the latest release. Create a directory called .m17n.d in your home directory (if it does not already exist), and place latn-conk.mim in it.

• Finally, log out and back in. It should now be possible to add Conkey as a keyboard layout in the IM settings. You can use the AltGr key you set up earlier to input diacritics, letters and symbols.

  Note: on IBus, for AltGr to work, you may need to select ‘Use system keyboard layout’ (in the ‘Advanced’ tab of the preferences). The equivalent setting on Fcitx5 should be enabled by default.

If the above instructions do not work, then you can also try the XCompose file mentioned below.

Mac OSX

(Thanks go to @akamchinjir for providing the instructions below.)

Conkey for Mac OSX is provided as a zipped .bundle. To install Conkey:

1. Unzip the zipped directory.
2. Within the zip file, there should be a Conkey.bundle directory. Copy this directory into ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts.
3. Log out and then back in. The new keyboard should now be available in the System Keyboard Preferences dialog.

The ~/Library file may be hidden in Finder. You can still navigate to it by choosing “Go to Folder” in the “Go” menu and then entering ~/Library directly. Or you can make it permanently visible by entering chflags nohidden ~/Library in the terminal. If the ~/Library folder does not already contain a “Keyboard Layouts” folder, just create it.

It should also work if you put the .bundle directory in /System/Library.

XCompose

Some platforms provide a compose key to convert key sequences into alternate characters. Though this does not provide a full ‘keyboard layout’ per se, Conkey has been adapted to work with XCompose, with the ‘compose key’ / ‘multi key’ taking the place of AltGr.

The following installation instructions should work for Linux:

1. Download the XCompose file from [the latest release