[Skin]

First of all I want to thank you for Kodi. I really appreciate your work. I am using Kodi on Raspberry Pi with several on-screen keyboard layouts: English, German and Russian, and think they are great when entering letters using IR remote control. But I find, it is far more convenient to enter text with hardware keyboard, and am planning to buy Bluetooth keyboard specially for OSMC + Kodi.

My native language is Russian and I watch sometimes Russian videos. The problem is that the hardware keyboard is able to enter only characters from English keyboard layout. I have seen several guides how to switch to German or Danish layouts, but they are guides to change the layout permanently. Those mentioned languages are based on Latin letters, so there is no problem in searching for English videos and entering something in Linux consle.

Russian keyboard layout has no one from Latin letters and Russian people have to switch layouts constantly, especially because some English words are used to describe things like computer terms or trade marks or some system command should be entered in console. In this case I need to be able to enter a text string consisting of mixed letters and switch layouts 4-5 times while entering one string.

I would appreciate if:

1. Hardware keyboard will enter in Kodi letters from currently selected on-screen keyboard layout
2. Hardware/software keyboard layouts could be switched simultaneously using some hardware keyboard keys combination.

[graham-h]

I would appreciate if:

1. Hardware keyboard will enter in Kodi letters from currently selected on-screen keyboard layout
2. Hardware/software keyboard layouts could be switched simultaneously using some hardware keyboard keys combination.

It might be difficult to get (2) implemented and I would say limited use to have the on-screen layout change - you can always see what you are typing. If you leave the focus on the keyboard layout control you can change on-screen layouts just by hitting enter.

(1) may be coming soon to OSMC, but can you help by letting me know what sort of keyboard you have in mind and what you would say is a 'typical' Russian keyboard?

[Skin]

can you help by letting me know what sort of keyboard you have in mind and what you would say is a 'typical' Russian keyboard?

Related to hardware it is really typical USB keyboard, nothing special.

Related to layout it is as follows: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...ussian.svg

[graham-h]

Thanks, but one thing that bothers me is some cyrillic keymaps I have looked at use right-ctrl to toggle layouts and small keyboards rarely have that. Hence the question.

[Skin]

Layout switching keys combination depends on software and not on layout. None of layout switching keys are standard ones. Each software manufacturer implements it to his best knowledge. I would prefer to have a dedicated key with LED, as in Yamaha MSX PCs (http://www.badral.net/uploads/2016/12/ya...yboard.jpg , right to the space bar), but manufacturers won't implement this.

In Microsoft Windows several keys could be chosen to switch keyboard layouts: either Ctrl+Shift or left Alt+Shift. In MS-DOS era LeftShift+RighShift combination was popular.

Now in Microsoft Windows I have three keyboard layouts: German, English and Russian, and I should admit that toggling between them isn't convenient. Luckily MS Windows allows to assign key combinaton to each keyboard layout. I've set Alt+Shift+1 for German, Alt+Shift+2 for English and Alt+Shift+3 for Russian and I should not look at keyboard indicator to determine which layout is being set. I know for certain that specific key combination gives me specific layout.

I noticed a difference in behavior of Caps Lock key in different layouts: in English and Russian layouts this button affects only letters, in German layout it affects everything and behaves as if Shift is being pressed / released.

There are several things that MS Windows could be criticised for, but in terms of internationalization you can take it as a best example.