keyboard

xkb keyboard layout for developers that require German umlauts.

Core aspects

• Uses the US keyboard layout as a base
• Supports German Umlauts and Czech letters (and probably some other languages too)
• Uses Capslock as Ctrl-Alt
• Embraces Linux Console Command shortcuts. Examples:
  • Capslock + j simulates Return
  • Capslock + h deletes a character

Reasoning

Since the German keyboard layout is very impractical for programming, and I don't believe in switching back and forth bwetween layouts, I simply took the US layout and added Umlauts and a few other things to it.

This allows me to use all those precious braces and brackets in a reasonable manner as well as typing all German umlauts and even the uppercase ẞ, which is a (newish) part of the German language that the regular German keyboard layout doesn't have.

Drawbacks

• You lose the expected functionality of your Capslock key and can't easily scream at people in chat anymore
• Takes a while to get used to
• You will have a hard time using normal keyboard layouts afterwards

Key setup

Please refer to the comments in rukb. They should tell you everything you need to know.

Installing

Download rukb to your xkb/symbols folder, e.g.:

sudo wget -P /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols https://raw.githubusercontent.com/r-unruh/keyboard/main/rukb

Make sure it is downloaded under the correct file name - especially if you're updating the layout.

Enable it:

setxkbmap rukb

To make the change permanent, add setxkbmap rbkb to a script that launches with your X-session.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.