Bug 312838

Summary: Feature request: Caps Lock state indication by upper/lower case of the layout characters.
Product: [Unmaintained] kdeplasma-addons Reporter: mb <mxite>
Component: Keyboard IndicatorAssignee: Andriy Rysin <arysin>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: wishlist CC: nate, plasma-bugs-null
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description mb 2013-01-07 19:13:37 UTC
It would be great if upper/lower case of characters in the tray indicated the current state of Caps Lock. For example:
us—US english layout, caps off
US—US english layout, caps on
ru—russian layout, caps off
RU—russian layout, caps on
and so on...

Reproducible: Always
Comment 1 Andriy Rysin 2013-02-01 04:49:11 UTC
That's interesting idea, but I am not sure why one would need that, is it for keyboards without caps lock LED? There's also couple of problem with it:
* it probably should not be just for Caps Lock, but also when Shift is pressed, if yes
* there's also 3rd and 4th layers in many layouts, when they are activated some indication will be useful as well?
* users can enter custom labels to use in the indicator, if they enter capital characters this won't work
Comment 2 mb 2013-02-01 09:15:01 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)

Thank you Andriy!

> That's interesting idea, but I am not sure why one would need that, is it
> for keyboards without caps lock LED? 

It is for touch typing when you never see keyboard LEDs. There is a plasmoid indicating LEDs state but it takes additional space, it may be inconvenient for small screens or with tons of other plasmoids on the panel.
Actually, ideal layout and caps (and maybe something else) indication for touch typing is near the text cursor but I'm afraid there is no such software for Linux and it may be beyond the features of the kxkb.

> There's also couple of problem with it:
> * it probably should not be just for Caps Lock, but also when Shift is
> pressed, if yes

Yes.

> * there's also 3rd and 4th layers in many layouts, when they are activated
> some indication will be useful as well?

Yes. Maybe with some special characters like €£ or something.

> * users can enter custom labels to use in the indicator, if they enter
> capital characters this won't work

Yes, it may be necessary to add settings for customizing capital/Nth level characters indication as well. Actually, this idea has struck me exactly when I customized 'RU' and 'US' to 'я' and 'z'.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-03-20 03:37:34 UTC
Plasma has had this for a while now.