I tested Keyman in Ubuntu 24.04. It just works.
I installed the Keyman package, which set up everything needed to make Keyman work.
Then I used the Keyman configuration app to install one of the Keyman Greek keyboards. When the app finished, it printed a message to the effect that Windows-space shifts from one keyboard to the next.
Simple, easy. No head-scratching required.
Is there some issue with using the keyboards built into most Linux DEs? I’ve been using Gnome on Fedora and I had no trouble installing and using the ancient Greek layout. Or is Keyman doing something different?
Good question. I never studied the built-in keyboards enough to feel confident in setting them up. I got along well with emacs which has several input methods in ancient Greek. If I needed to type something in Greek, I did it in emacs and copied the text if needed elsewhere.
After hearing about keyman, I decided to try it. Since I had done the work, I decided to report.
What’s a DE, as in Linux DE?
DE = Desktop Environment. It’s all the stuff laid on top of the Linux kernel that you normally interact with. If you’ve just installed Ubuntu, then you also installed Gnome, which is the DE. There’s also KDE, XFCE, LXDE, etc.
You can do a lot in Emacs, for sure, but if you find that you’re often copying out of Linux, I recommend just installing the keyboard. You’ll go into your keyboard settings and then “Add Input Source.” There’s an option to add Ancient Greek.
The keyboard mostly corresponds with Beta code with a few exceptions (V is not digamma, for example). You’ll have to get used to which key adds which accent or breathing mark, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out.
cmw wrote:
DE = Desktop Environment. It’s all the stuff laid on top of the Linux kernel that you normally interact with. If you’ve just installed Ubuntu, then you also installed Gnome, which is the DE. There’s also KDE, XFCE, LXDE, etc.
You can do a lot in Emacs, for sure, but if you find that you’re often copying out of Linux, I recommend just installing the keyboard. You’ll go into your keyboard settings and then “Add Input Source.” There’s an option to add Ancient Greek.
The keyboard mostly corresponds with Beta code with a few exceptions (V is not digamma, for example). You’ll have to get used to which key adds which accent or breathing mark, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out.
All helpful comments.
I’m probably at a more elementary level of AG than you are. Although I worked my way through most of Mastronarde, his precepts fade quickly from my memory and must be re-learned. So, my writing is mostly writing sentences one at the time (from Plato’s Symposium at the moment), and then commenting on the sentences in English. I do this in handwriting. I can handwrite almost anywhere in the house. Besides that, my wife and I frequently use the public library, where I can sit at a big table, with my ipad on its little stand running the Attikos app, and some note cards for writing. Ditto Barnes and Noble (American bookstore chain).
The Attikos app runs in an ipad mini which I bought used a few years ago. It’s the most useful helper I have found. It also runs on an iphone, and the smaller screen isn’t too much of a hindrance.
Although I did fiddle with the polytonic Greek keyboards provided by Linux, I found for me the Greek-ibycus keyboard in emacs, and the Greek classical (aka Cappadocian) keyboard in keyman easier to use.
DE=Desktop Environment. Of course! Thanks!
Learning languages gets more difficult with age, I’m afraid. I was fortunate enough to learn Greek in school, but trying to learn a language these days I find that I can’t pick it up quite like I used to.
That said, you’re absolutely right to handwrite it out. Multiple studies show that writing it out physically beats even typing. I don’t know if they looked at writing on electronic tablets, though. Perhaps it’s the same? Personally, I enjoy the giant stack of note cards, but there is utility in a simple digital flash card system, too.