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Kanata APL Layouts

Image of a keycap with the APL logo on it in green tones

International keyboard layouts for APL.

GitHub Licence

About

Kanata is cross-platform software to modify the behaviour of keyboard input. This repository contains Kanata configuration files to enable typing APL symbols.

Usage

This repository provides Kanata configurations as .kbd files. Specific instructions for running Kanata on different platforms are found in the Kanata repository.

Autostart on Microsoft Windows

Follow these steps to have the Kanata APL keyboard start automatically when you log in.

  1. Download one of the .kbd files from this repository
  2. Download kanata_gui.exe from the Kanata releases page
  3. Place the two downloaded files in the same permanent location.
  4. Rename the keyboard layout file to kanata.kbd
  5. Right click on kanata_gui.exe
    1. Click Show more options
    2. Click Create shortcut
  6. Press Win+R, type shell:startup and press Enter
  7. Copy the shortcut to this startup folder

When you log in, the Kanata icon should appear in your system tray.

Autostart on Linux

Most users can follow these instructions to have Kanata start at login.

  1. Download the kanata executable from the Kanata releases page
  2. Make sure it is executable and move it to /usr/local/bin/kanata 
    chmod +x kanata
sudo mv kanata /usr/local/bin/kanata
  3. Download one of the .kbd files from this repository
  4. Modify the following configuration and save it to /lib/systemd/system/kanata.service 
    [Unit]
Description=Kanata keyboard remapper
Documentation=https://github.com/jtroo/kanata

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/kanata --cfg /home/user/.config/kanata/config-name.kbd
Restart=no

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
  5. Enable the service
    • Run it now with sudo systemctl start kanata
    • Run at login with sudo systemctl enable kanata

System administrators and other users with particular security concerns should refer to Yvan-Masson's suggested configuration in the Kanata discussions.

Available layouts

Shifting key layouts

When Kanata uses these configurations there are one or more keys defined that, while held, enable the output of APL symbols.

They are set to Caps Lock and Right Ctrl, but can be changed by editing the section beginning deflayermap (base). Double-tap the prefix key to perform its original action. The double-tap timeout is 200ms by default, but can be changed in the section defalias apl-mode.

The names and symbols for keys are found in the function str_to_oscode in the source and are defined according to the US English layout. Often these are the same keys as in other layouts, but the documentation includes more information about configuration for non-US keyboards.

Layout (link to diagram) Kanata configuration file
English (United Kingdom) en-GB_APL.kbd

Prefix key layouts

A prefix key is a special key or character which is entered immediately before typing the corresponding key. The following layouts use both Backquote (also known as backtick or grave, `) ⍺nd Backslash (\) as prefix keys.

Prefix keys can be configured by editing the section beginning deflayermap (base).

Double-tap the prefix key to perform its original action. The double-tap timeout is 200ms by default, but can be changed in the section defalias apl-mode.

Layout (link to diagram) Kanata configuration file
English (United Kingdom) en-GB_APL.kbd