How to add layer for fully non-ascii alphabet?

[greqov]

Hello! What is the correct way to add cyrilic layer? I end up with this scenario: created a bunch of aliases like

  й (unicode й)
  ц (unicode ц)
  у (unicode у)
  к (unicode к)
  е (unicode е)
  н (unicode н)

and then added a layer with those aliases:

(deflayer ru
  _    _    _    _ 
  @grl _    _    _ 
  _    @й   @ц   @у

And then I have to do the same for uppercase letters because kanata can't capitalize aliases.
Is it correct approach? Because in some input fields (in internet/desktop apps) I can see numbers before they will be replaced (not always tho) with a letter. For example, in KMail (KDE mail app) I see 439 not й, so I can't even use search function there.

[gerhard-h]

I think fork solves your problem

ԗ_ (unicode ԗ)
Ԗ  (unicode Ԗ)
ԗ  (fork @ԗ_ @Ԗ (lsft rsft)))

or

ԗ (fork (unicode ԗ) (unicode Ԗ) (lsft rsft)))

[greqov]

Oh! This solution helps with shift layer, but 'numbers' issue is still here. btw the easiest way to reproduce it is to type something in terminal where you run kanata. For example, it will print 517 for ԗ sign.

[rszyma]

Take a look at #507

tldr: unicode action has some flaws (it doesn't work in every app), the most reliable solution as of now is to have cyrylic characters on xkb keymap

[jtroo]

The best way to make this work properly is to use xkb configurations and swap between whatever default xkb cfg you use and a Cyrillic xkb config. You could use Kanata cmd to help with the config switching too.

Kanata's mechanism for outputting Unicode isn't as widely supported as what xkb does. This is because (on Linux) Kanata operates at the kernel key code layer. A US keyboard and a Cyrillic keyboard use mostly the same kernel layer key codes. The translation for these key codes happens at the desktop environment / xkb layer, with the default key code -> symbol/keysym mapping being selected on OS installation for some distros.

[psaikido]

How do we switch to an xkb layout from kanata? Does this mean to simply turn off kanata to use xkb?

[jtroo]

@psaikido To clarify, xkb and kanata operate on different layers of the operating system. They are compatible, but the configurations do need to be coordinated with each other to behave as desired.

Please have a read through the rest of the discussion and linked issues for further understanding.