Re: OT: M-S-$ Not Working

[Maxim Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com>]

On 07/02/2021 00:18, Tim Cross wrote:
> 
> I've not seen many
> editors with the same level of support for different alphabets and
> writing direction as Emacs and there are many keyborad layouts which
> don't include the '$' key. At the end of the day, it really just comes
> down to mapping of key codes - the 'image' on the key itself (and even
> the location) is largely irrelevant.

To have reliable shortcuts, it necessary to have a way to obtain 
"canonical" Latin key when another layout is chosen. E.g. comma position 
depends on layout. In emacs only key symbol from current layout is 
available, information on symbols in other groups for the same keycode 
is lost. Even layout change events are hidden from lisp code.

> Were you able to get any assistance with this on the Emacs devel list?

There was a thread in 2009, no results however. Unsure if it reasonable 
to raise the question again without a proposal how to solve the problem.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2009-05/msg00031.html

I have found a couple more workarounds on github. E.g. listening dbus 
messages related to keyboard layout changes (specific to particular 
desktop environment). In some sense they are similar to mine setup.

> Like it or not, computers are very english centric (and US english at
> that).

In gnome some Xkb-related features suitable for layouts (groups) are 
broken due to their focus on input methods for Chinese-Korean-Japanese 
scripts.