ubuntu-x-swat team mailing list archive

[Reşat SABIQ <tilde.birlik@xxxxxxxxx>]

For starters, Crimean Tatar isn't really related to Mongolian. Mongols
in related territories got assimilated, and their language hasn't had a
major influence on Turk(ic) languages: although some words from
Mongolian have been adopted and are in use. Now to the issue at hand.

> To a large extent, this issue is connected to the entirely wrong
approach of keylayouts in Linux (am a Mac OS user, and creator of
several keylayouts for Romanian—several variants, Old Italic, Old Church
Slavonic, Czech. So, I feel competent to speak about this issue (see
http://www.unibuc.ro/ro/cd_sorpaliga_ro , the English page seems to be
under revision). Linux distros deal with political entities, and then
places keylayouts under countries / states, an entirely wrong view, even
if, of course, covering a reality. But what happens with those
situations when there is no state there? What about Old Church Slavonic,
Old Italic / Etruscan, Gothic etc. etc. Shall we randomly put them under
a certain pretext?

> And, very briefly: the long-standing improvised solution of keyboard
layouts in Linux, so rigid and so impossible to modify (as in Mac OS,
using either Alex Eulenberg’s site or John Brownies’s UKELELE) is the
main reason why linux cannot be efficiently used in foreign language
teaching and never in dealing with special situations like old languages
like Old church Slavonic, Old Italic / Etruscan, Gothic etc. etc.
because is a tantalizing cause to try to create your keylayouts in
linux. This is, in fact, the essence of the discussion

I agree with these 2 quotes. I have expressed similar, if not the exact
same, opinions in this regard. The issue is not with Crimean Tatar
layouts, but with the design pushed by 1 or 2 people (without any
discussion). The design is based on political entities, rather than
linguistics, thus stirring unnecessary inter-ethnic conflicts. No other
OS has such a politicized keyboard layout approach. The only reason it
is still flying in Linux, is because there hasn't been any discussion
about the design: the decisions have been made by 1 or 2 people without
any open public discussion. Well, it is obvious that political entities
have no place in software: so they have to be removed, leaving only
linguistic considerations.

I personally do not accept the superiority of an opinion of 1 maintainer (who is in fact a subject of a country that has been torturing languages for centuries). If 1 such person is stonewalling a proper design for keyboard layouts, it would be totally OK from my viewpoint to do any of the following:
a. overrule such an opinion
b. provide patches for Ubuntu and see what the Ubuntu community thinks about it: if it goes through in Ubuntu, there's a chance other distros will pick a more logical approach as well (this would be OK initially, but in longer term would probably necessitate c.)
c. branch xkeyboard-config project into a new open source project that is free from political entities and considerations, and based solely on linguistics and informatics

The alternatives to fixing the real issue mentioned here, involving
deleting Crimean Tatar layouts, would be an unacceptable bigorty from my
viewpoint, and will only waste people's time. This sounds to me like
fixing a symptom, instead of root cause: one could look up some tragic
examples of these kinds of mistaken approaches from medical science.

Sorin, i would recommend resolving the design issues, which are also
pertaining to examples that you mentioned, like Old church Slavonic, Old
Italic / Etruscan, Gothic, etc. Once politics is removed from design,
the matter will be solved entirely, in its root cause, and will take
care of future other similar cases.

Regards.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X,
which is subscribed to xkeyboard-config in ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/418939

Title:
  Too many crimean tatar keyboard layouts added for Romania