http://bit.ly/2cCJjXH
Appearance: Keyboards seem simple
Reality: Significant complexity in input of many writing systems
Support: Each platform has its own keyboard description format
Differing technical capabilities
Wide variance in layouts, breadth of language support
Standards: LDML has keyboard description.
Descriptive. Not implementable
No broadly recognised open repository of keyboards
Where are we today?
Extension of LDML standard to support definition of keyboard layouts for majority of languages: Keyboard Definition Language (KDL)
Development of open source reference input method framework (Keyman) based on existing Keyman code, that consumes KDL
Refresh Keyman’s current repository of keyboards to support KDL layouts
Extension of existing Keyman Developer (KMDEV) keyboard development tools to support KDL
The opportunity
Given these four components:
KDL + Keyman + Repository + KMDEV =
We get:
⇒ An open, mature, vigorous, platform-independent keyboarding solution
⇒ Impetus for advocacy with platform vendors in order to achieve broad adoption
The goal
All language communities empowered to create content on any platform
New platforms can support all languages from release day 1
Elimination of 10+ year ramp up of support that we have seen historically for all new platforms
Keyboards cease to be a limiting factor for language support
Fewer incompatible solutions
Resources freed up to focus on new input paradigms, other languages
Outcomes
Why choose to leverage Keyman?