Dear user,

Thanks for your interest in this program. I've tried to make it easy
to use, but can't claim much success here. That's at least partly because
it's hard to know how you might want to use it. I assume that very few
people will ever see this code. I further doubt that many of those will
actually change the keyboard they use.

That said the short version of how to use this program goes:
1. start clisp in a directory that contains the files in this archive.
2. enter these commands:
   (compile-file 'keyboad)
   (load 'keyboad)
   (gogo 1)
   (kb-record-winners)

If this all works, the directory will now contain a file named "output" or
some such thing. It will contain, among other data, a string that describes a
keyboard layout. What you DO with that string is a complicated matter. If
you're actually reading this, I imagine you have the knowledge required to turn
the output of this file into an actual, usable keyboard layout for your
computer. For this purpose I have used Microsoft's keyboard layout creator:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx

For GNU-Linux world, I have changed these files:

/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/us
/etc/X11/xkb/rules/xfree86.xml

I learned how to do this at these pages

http://www.linux.com/articles/113715
http://hektor.umcs.lublin.pl/~mikosmul/computing/articles/custom-keyboard-layouts-xkb.html

If those pages are missing, try searching for "linux custom keyboard layout."

Read on if you're bored.

I could try to be more specific, or even to set you up with makefiles and such
that would allow you to download my code, type make and then start using your
new layout. I could try that, but I cannot see that ever happening.

It takes a fair amount of effort to learn a new keyboard and further effort
to keep using that keyboard. I very much like using my layout (slightly
modified Dvorak), but it does take effort. For instance, every once in a while,
Ubuntu updates itself in such a way as to eliminate the changes I've made to the
files that define my keyboard layout and I have to re-edit these files. As this
happens infrequently, I often have to re-learn something in order to make the
required changes.

Now, if my job involved much typing, I would want to use my keyboard, but it's
doubtful that I would be allowed to change the company's computer in the
required ways. How many times do you want to explain why you want to use
something other than QWERTY?
