xachab / ipakeyboard

IPA keyboard layout for Onboard

This is a solution for linguists who wish to type unicode IPA via a virtual keyboard.

Ce dépot est une solution pour les linguistes qui souhaitent saisir des symboles unicodes de l'API avec un clavier virtuel.

It is an alternative to web based unicode IPA keyboards.

The repository holds an International Phonetic Alphabet Layout setup for the Onboard virtual keyboard. It contains two keyboard layouts (standard and compact) and a theme, designed to go together. Below is the standard layout and theme :

The keyboard has four panels (Vowels, Consonants 1 and 2, others), and is currently in beta version. The compact layout is less faithful to the phonetic table in terms of placement of the keys, but keys appear bigger for the same keyboard size.

Install

Installing onboard

Onboard is present in the Ubuntu repository. For latest versions, you could also use the launchpad ppa. I have tested the layout for versions 1.0 and 1.2.

Installing the layout

Copy the contents of both folders layouts/ and themes/ respectively into :

~/.local/share/onboard/layouts/

and

~/.local/share/onboard/themes/

Then launch onboard via your application menu or by typing:

onboard

Launch onboard preferences by launching onboard then going to Preferences > Layout, or by typing onboard-settings in a terminal. Select IPA or IPA (compact). Then go to Preferences > Theme and also select IPA.

Usage

Launch onboard. The keyboard appears on top of your windows. Click on the keyboard to insert the character. Change panels by clicking "V", "C1", "C2" or "...".

For some latin letters, holding a key offers variants (some of which might already be in the keyboard):

To use with LaTeX, you need unicode to be handled, so you should use xelatex rather than pdflatex. Wether on LaTeX or on a conventional text editor, you also need to use a font which has good unicode coverage of the IPA. I use the Linux Libertine family, but it is not the only one and the international phonetics association recommends the DejaVu Sans font.

ipakeyboard's Issues

Open: front ɶ central a and back ɑ ɒ

The opened vowels in front, central and back are wrongly arranged.

Approximants are wrong on C2

Should be ɻ j ɰ but instead ʋ ɹ ɻ

First click does not work

The first click to choose one syllable does not work.

Return to vowel keyboard

After inputting one syllable, the keyboard always returns to vowels, which is inconvenient for users. Please make it stay where users already choose.

interested to contribute to v1.4.2 ?

I have launched a fork v1.4.2 https://github.com/dr-ni/onboard.git since the launchpad repo seems to be dead.
If you are a developer and want to help to solve old and new problems you are very welcome to join it. We should resuscitate it again...

How to install

Hello there,

I hope you still answer my newbie-like question. I tried to install your programme, but I didn't manage to get it working.
What I did (not sure about the terms though):

• downloaded the repository via git clone https://github.com/XaraB/IPAKeyboard.git
• copied the two folders as said in the readme (I had to create the folder "onboard")
• ran the command "onboard", but it didn't found the command.

My assumption is that I lack a programme called "onboard", but I couldn't find it anywhere (neither in the official debian packages nor on github).

If you could help me with this one, I would really appreciate it, as I find your programme quite useful, especially as you arranged the symbols according to their place of production.
Best,
undermaster

Keyboard closes on most key presses.

Getting the following error:

(onboard:2747728): Gdk-ERROR **: 10:21:59.689: The program 'onboard' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 3983 error_code 2 request_code 135 (XKEYBOARD) minor_code 9)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the GDK_SYNCHRONIZE environment
   variable to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Trace/breakpoint trap

When I launch the keyboard it looks as expected (I've configured it slightly w/ re to background transparency):

Each of these keys appear to work fine.

The i and y keys work, but the next key over (close + central) crashes the program with the above error. The pattern appears to be any 'standard' letters (i.e. ones that I find on my English Keyboard) seem to work, but any of the IPA special characters cause the above error.

I can go to the other screens (C1, C2, etc.). They look a little different (although this is just cosmetic as far as I can tell):

I didn't have a font selected in the settings, so I thought maybe it was that I didn't have an appropriate font. I've tried several which all show the symbols in the font so I don't think this is the reason. Here are some possibly relevant screen shots of the settings:

Happy to grab anything else if needed. Any insight/help is appreciated!

Misc. Info
My system is Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS. I'm using whatever the default GUI is for the system.
Onboard is version 1.4.1-5build5