[PATCH weston v2 1/3] toytoolkit: Allow operation without a keymap

[Bill Spitzak]

Daniel Stone wrote:
> On 21 June 2013 23:02, Bill Spitzak <spitzak at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If clients use the input method for all the text input, exactly how much is
>> left of xkb keyboards? It looks like all this compiling is so that dead keys
>> and all the shift states work for producing different characters. That can
>> all be done by the input method and thus only the input method has to
>> compile xkb, if anybody.
> 
> If the only input API you need is the input method API, then you don't
> need other input APIs.
> 
> wl_keyboard is pretty much for people who need to support non-textual
> keyboard input, e.g. hotkeys/media keys and shortcuts.  As long as
> those usecases continue to exist - which is forever - we're going to
> need wl_keyboard in addition to wl_text.

I think I am not asking the right question.

Imagine a client that uses wl_keyboard for "hotkeys/media keys and 
shortcuts" and uses the input api for all text, exactly like you suggest.

Now imagine we feed this client an edited xkb description. It is edited 
to remove as much complexity as possible without breaking the client. 
For instance every single key that produces text and every dead key is 
changed to produce the letter 'a' no matter what the shift state is.

What I suspect is the minimum resulting xkb description where this 
client still works is going to be a LOT smaller, and will be much closer 
to the proposed gamepad evdev mapping.