Keyboard Layouts For Circuitpython

The goal of this repository is to contain a list of keyboard layouts for use with the Circuitpython adafruit_hid library, that can be used as a reference for international keyboards and can be distributed as a "bundle" in the style of the Adafruit bundle.

It is intended to be compatible with circup for easy installation with a command like this, once circup supports third-party bundles.

circup install keyboard_layout_win_fr

Layouts

Layouts require first installing the keyboard_layout module (keyboard_layout.mpy in the bundle zip), containing the base class for the layouts. This file should be part of adafruit_hid in the future and will then be removed.

For the plaform platform (win, mac) and the layout language lang. The module keyboard_layout_platform_lang has a class called KeyboardLayout. It contains the layout information for use with the Keyboard to type text.

import usb_hid
from adafruit_hid.keyboard import Keyboard
from keyboard_layout_win_fr import KeyboardLayout
keyboard = Keyboard(usb_hid.devices)
layout = KeyboardLayout(keyboard)
layout.write("Bonjour le monde")

Switching layouts on start can be done by conditionally importing a different layout module, or renaming the imported layout class like this for example:

from keyboard_layout_win_fr import KeyboardLayout as LayoutFR
from keyboard_layout_win_de import KeyboardLayout as LayoutDE

Keycodes

keycode_<platform>_<lang> modules are an attempt to make it easier to swap layouts. While keycode numbers are really physical positions on a keyboard, HID Keycodes normally reference the US keyboard for key names. These localized keycodes offer a level of conversion allowing to use Keycode.A across azerty and qwerty keyboards for example. It won't swap control and command to match the platform however. (A helper module could do that).

if IS_AZERTY:
	from keycode_mac_fr import Keycode
else:
	from adafruit_hid.keycode import Keycode

kbd.send(Keycode.COMMAND, Keycode.A)

Helpers

The consumer_control_extended module brings a big list of names for the consumer controls page in the HID specs, to be used with adafruit_hid.consumer_control.

The Layout Generator

This needs to be further documentend, but for now tests/make_validated.sh shows an example of how to use it. There is a live version of the web generator, though it might not always be the current release.

https://www.neradoc.me/layouts/

NOTE

A few layouts and keycodes are currently implemented, they are not thouroughly tested. The keycode_mac_fr.py file is more experimental.