Region-specific symbols pages matching physical keyboard layouts - #2681
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Region-specific symbols pages matching physical keyboard layouts#2681MiMoHo wants to merge 11 commits into
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Instead of changing the shared default symbols layout for everyone (which disrupts existing muscle memory, cf. the discussion on HeliBorg#2630 and HeliBorg#2621), the symbols page now follows the secondary (Shift) layer of each region's physical keyboard, wired per subtype via the existing SYMBOLS: extra value mechanism (previously only used for symbols_arabic). Each new symbols_<region>.txt equals the default symbols.txt but with its first row replaced by that region's shifted number row, so long-pressing a digit yields what Shift+digit yields on the matching hardware keyboard (number rows cross-checked against kbdlayout.info KLC sources): symbols_de ! " § $ % & / ( ) = -> de, de-DE symbols_nordic ! " # ¤ % & / ( ) = -> sv, da, nb, fi, et-EE symbols_uk ! " £ $ % ^ & * ( ) -> en-GB symbols_es ! " · $ % & / ( ) = -> es, ca, gl-ES, eu-ES The US/QWERTY default is untouched. This makes § discoverable on German QWERTZ (Shift+3) without a global change (refs HeliBorg#2621), and reframes symbol placement as regional rather than a one-size-fits-all default (refs HeliBorg#2630). Icelandic is intentionally left out of the Nordic group (its Shift+4 is $, not ¤). SubtypeTest.subtypeStaysEnabledOnEdits assumed the es resource subtype has no SYMBOLS layout; the revert step now returns to the actual resource subtype so the test is robust to regional overrides. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…nvariant test Adds four more regional symbols pages, following the same pattern (first row = the region's shifted number row, cross-checked against kbdlayout.info KLC sources); the US/QWERTY default stays untouched: symbols_it ! " £ $ % & / ( ) = -> it symbols_iso ! " # $ % & / ( ) = -> is, pt-PT, es-419, es-US, hr, sr-Latn, sl symbols_br ! @ # $ % ¨ & * ( ) -> pt-BR (ABNT2) symbols_tr ! ' ^ + % & / ( ) = -> tr (Turkish-Q) symbols_iso is the generic ISO shifted number row (# on 3) shared by the regions that use it identically, so seven subtypes reuse one file instead of seven near- duplicates (the layout picker lists every file unfiltered, so fewer files = less clutter). Scope stays SYMBOLS-only: no MORE_SYMBOLS/NUMBER_ROW region files, since currency ($$$) and localized digits ([number_row]) are already handled by centralized, locale-driven logic that these must not duplicate. New ParserTest.symbolsLayoutsFirstRowInvariant enforces the load-bearing coupling for every symbols/*.txt: the first row must have exactly 10 keys (it is mapped 1:1 onto the number row for digit long-press hints and alphabet-key symbol hints) and must keep % reachable there even without the number row (guards issue HeliBorg#428). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The regional symbols files were accidentally created from a working copy that still had the PR HeliBorg#2630 &/- swap in the second row, so every region file differed from the default in two ways instead of one. Restore the default order (& before -) so the only intended difference from symbols.txt is the first row (the region's shifted number row). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Extend the regional principle from the shifted number row (row 1) to the direct symbol keys: in every region file place _ adjacent to - (they are the same physical key everywhere, _ = Shift+-), and drop & from the direct row since on these keyboards & sits on the number-row shift layer (DE Shift+6, UK/BR Shift+7) and is therefore already the digit long-press hint. & stays reachable via that hint and the punctuation long-press cluster. The US/QWERTY default is untouched, so this resolves the -/_ adjacency (refs HeliBorg#2630) regionally rather than globally. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…popup On UK and ABNT2 hardware, = \ and | are base-level keys, so hardware faithfulness cuts the other way for them: add = to the + popups and \ | to the / popups in symbols_uk/symbols_br (row 2, which is never replaced by the number row). Give the ABNT2 ¨ key its dead-accent family as popups. Remove the duplicate · from the - popup in symbols_es (it is a direct row-1 key there). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Enabled and selected subtypes are stored as full serializations, so changing a resource subtype's extra value (e.g. adding a SYMBOLS layout) made exact-match consumers fail: getSelectedSubtype fell back to the first enabled subtype (wrong language after upgrade), and changeAdditionalSubtype computed isEnabled/isSelected as false, so edits silently did not take effect. loadEnabledSubtypes already resolves such entries by locale + main layout; now it also writes the resolved serialization back, and getSelectedSubtype falls back to a locale + main layout match (preferring resource subtypes) and heals its pref. Also fix a tautological comparison in the default-subtypes fallback and the missing qwerty normalization in the disable-changed-builtin workaround. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Extend stored subtype prefs (enabled, selected, additional, per-app) of the 22 rewired locales with the regional SYMBOLS layout, unless one was chosen explicitly. This keeps stored prefs matching the changed resource subtypes and brings the regional symbols page to existing additional subtypes, including the shipped default German (QWERTY) subtype, which now also carries symbols_de for new installs. Runs via checkVersionUpgrade, so backup restores are covered too; subtypes are reloaded afterwards because SubtypeSettings.init already ran on the not-yet-migrated prefs. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- symbolsLayoutsFirstRowInvariant: guard against silently passing when the layouts directory is not found - allResourceSubtypeLayoutsExist: every layout referenced by a KeyboardLayoutSet extra value in method.xml must exist as an asset (a typo silently falls back to the default layout otherwise) - symbolsOverrideCanBeRemoved: removing a resource subtype's SYMBOLS override keeps the subtype enabled as an additional subtype - stalePrefsHealAfterResourceSubtypeChange: pre-change pref serializations heal on load, selection survives by locale + main layout match, and edits take effect afterwards Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The test workflow only triggered on app/src/main/java changes, so PRs touching layouts, method.xml, or the tests themselves ran no CI at all. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
symbols_ch carries the Swiss Shift+digit row (+ " * ç % & / ( ) =, kbdlayout.info/kbdsg) shared by the German, French, and Italian Swiss layouts; ç is a hardware-faithful direct key and useful for French. Serbian Cyrillic gets symbols_iso: its physical Shift row (KBDYCC) is identical to the Latin one, and Serbian users commonly switch scripts on one keyboard. The upgrade migration covers the four subtypes. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New resource strings only, following each file's existing style for layout_symbols_arabic; per CONTRIBUTING, new strings may be added directly (existing translations are untouched and stay on Weblate). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This was referenced Jul 20, 2026
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What
Region-specific symbols pages: the first row of the symbols layout (which also feeds the digit long-press popups and the symbol hints on the letter keys) matches the Shift+digit row of the user's physical keyboard layout instead of being US-only for everyone.
layouts/symbols/(symbols_de,_nordic,_uk,_es,_it,_iso,_br,_tr,_ch; the existingsymbols_arabicis untouched), each identical to the defaultsymbols.txtexcept for the regionalized rows. Every Shift row was verified against kbdlayout.info (sources in the table below).KeyboardLayoutSet=…|SYMBOLS:…extra value inmethod.xml(the mechanism symbols_arabic already uses) for 26 subtypes: de, de-DE, de-CH, fr-CH, it-CH, sv, da, nb, fi, et-EE, en-GB, es, ca, gl-ES, eu-ES, it, is, pt-PT, es-419, es-US, hr, sr-Latn, sr, sl, pt-BR, tr. The US/default page and all other subtypes are untouched. No framework changes.AppUpgradestep extends stored subtype prefs (enabled/selected/additional/per-app) with the regional SYMBOLS entry unless one was chosen explicitly, andSubtypeSettingsnow heals stale serializations at load time (this also fixes a pre-existing silent-reset when method.xml extra values change, plus a tautological comparison ingetSelectedSubtype).%reachable — the number-row coupling and % symbol is hard to find - no redundancy #428), allKeyboardLayoutSetreferences in method.xml must exist as assets, symbols-override removal keeps the subtype enabled, and an end-to-end stale-pref healing test.assets/,res/xml/, and test changes (previously a PR touching only layouts or method.xml ran no CI).! " § $ % & / ( ) =! " # ¤ % & / ( ) =! " £ $ % ^ & * ( )! " · $ % & / ( ) =! " £ $ % & / ( ) =! " # $ % & / ( ) =! @ # $ % ¨ & * ( )! ' ^ + % & / ( ) =+ " * ç % & / ( ) =Why
Notes / open questions for you
This is a draft mainly because of one policy question: wiring
SYMBOLS:in method.xml changes the default for existing users of those subtypes (they'd see the regional first row after updating — the migration keeps everything else seamless). Three ways to ship it, all supported by this implementation:Happy to rework to (2) or (3) — the layout files, tests, healing, and translations are identical in all three variants.
Deliberately not included (documented reasoning available): regional More-Symbols/number-row files (would duplicate centralized currency/number-row logic), inverted layouts (AZERTY/CZ/SK/HU/LT — different mapping, later wave), Macedonian (typographic quotes in its Shift row, special case).
Refs #1384, #428. Supersedes #2630, #2621.