Configuration for ex-fvwm users

[Hans Georg Schaathun]

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 11:04:28AM +0000, Chris G wrote:
> I use .Xmodmap for that.  Can anyone explain the difference or are they
> just two tools doing the same job?
> (...) 
> .Xmodmap (xmodmap) can do that too so would simplify things a little.

I used to use xmodmap for this, but managing dual keyboard layouts
purely with xmodmap is tricky, and I never managed to get it stable.
Besides, I have seen nobody who has managed three layouts that way.
When I started using three layouts, I created a shell script to switch
and an fvwm keybinding to switch.

That felt like an ugly hack, and I fancy the idea of having the panel
display the actual layout.  It is xkb which seems to be compatible with
the desktop and the panel applications, and since I no longer have the
time to fiddle with every detail of my config, I thought I'd try to 
be as main stream as possible ...  Furthermore, using xkb and the xfce
panel plugin, I can have different layouts for different applications. 
I have never seen that done with xmodmap.

I suppose one could use xmodmap to tweak the layout live on the
server, and then dump the new map with xkb.  But I have not tried,
and xkb seems to assume that layouts are stored centrally (by root),
rather than in user home directories.  There is probably a way around 
that, but the GUI and the man page won't point the way )-:

-- 
:-- Hans Georg