# Switching keyboard layouts in insert mode

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553>\
**Category:** Recipes & Guides\
**Created:** [May 8, 2019, 10:09am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553 "2019-05-08T10:09:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/andreyorst/32/29_2.png) [@andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/andreyorst)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 10:09am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553/1 "2019-05-08T10:09:19Z")

</div>

So, [maybe you know that I’m Russian](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/do-any-non-english-speakers-use-kakoune/480/3) or maybe not, but I know that on this forum we got several posts about using Kakoune with non qwerty layouts: [[1]](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/do-any-non-english-speakers-use-kakoune/480) [[2]](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-for-non-qwerty-layouts/403/4), as well as some discussions on Kakoune’s GitHub issue tracker: [[3]](https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/issues/2151). Since for me it’s not a big deal, as I don’t really need non qwerty layout, I don’t notice the problem too much.

But sometimes I want to write Russian text in Insert mode, and still be able to use Kakoune commands in normal mode. I could use system-wide layout change, but this will cause a problem: when I go back to normal mode nothing is working until I change layout back to `qwerty`.

The feature to change layout within the editor for insert mode only is presented in Vim with `set keymap=russian-jcukenwin` and in Emacs with `(setq default-input-method 'russian-computer)`, and I wanted to add something like this to Kakoune too.

Here’s what I got:

```
declare-option -hidden str langmap "us"
define-command -docstring "toggle-layout: toggle between keyboard layouts in insert mode only" \
toggle-layout %{ evaluate-commands %sh{
    perl -Mutf8 -CS -e 'use strict;
        use utf8;
        my $us_qwerty = q{`~@#$^&|qQwWeErRtTyYuUiIoOpP[{]}aAsSdDfFgGhHjJkKlL;:''"zZxXcCvVbBnNmM,<.>/?};
        my $ru_jcuken = q{ёЁ"№;:?/йЙцЦуУкКеЕнНгГшШщЩзЗхХъЪфФыЫвВаАпПрРоОлЛдДжЖэЭяЯчЧсСмМиИтТьЬбБюЮ.,};
        my $map;

        if ($ENV{kak_opt_langmap} eq "us") {
            $map = "map";
            print "set-option global langmap ru\n";
        } else {
            $map = "unmap";
            print "set-option global langmap us\n";
        }

        for my $key (split //, $us_qwerty) {
            $_ = $key;
            eval sprintf "tr/%s/%s/", map quotemeta, $us_qwerty, $ru_jcuken;
            print "$map global insert -- %🦀$key🦀 %🦀$_🦀\n";
        }'
}}

```

Basically it remaps all the keys for insert mode to insert `ЙЦУКЕН` characters instead of `QWERTY` ones. It uses Perl `tr` command to translate layouts. Basically this script generates such output:

```
set-option global layout ru
map global insert -- %🦀`🦀 %🦀ё🦀
map global insert -- %🦀~🦀 %🦀Ё🦀
map global insert -- %🦀@🦀 %🦀"🦀
...

```

I’ve mapped this command to Ctrl+\, as it is standard Emacs mapping, but Vim users may want to map it to Ctrl+^.

```
map global normal '' ': toggle-layout<ret>'
map global insert '' '<a-;>: toggle-layout<ret>'

```

I’m thinking about externalizing this to a plugin, so people could add their layouts, but I hope that Kakoune will provide such functionality OOTB, like Vim and Emacs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/andreyorst/32/29_2.png) [@andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/andreyorst)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553/2 "2019-05-09T12:19:25Z")

</div>

Also available in a plugin format now: [langmap.kak](https://github.com/andreyorst/langmap.kak)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/alexherbo2/32/1140_2.png) [@alexherbo2](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/alexherbo2)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553/3 "2019-05-11T12:04:17Z")

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You may create an utility to generate the language mappings on demand, so you don’t have to store the mappings in the plug-in itself.

```auto
xmodmap -pke

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/andreyorst/32/29_2.png) [@andreyorst](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/andreyorst)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 12:23pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/switching-keyboard-layouts-in-insert-mode/553/4 "2019-05-11T12:23:02Z")

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> [@alexherbo2](#):
>
> xmodmap -pke

I’ve thought about it, but it’s not truly cross platform. Won’t work on Mac, not sure if it will work in Cygwin, or BSD. By storing those inside plugin I at least can ensure that there are layouts that are supported directly. Also I’ts just a remapping, therefore you still use your qwerty layout, and this means that for some languages some keys will not work as they do work with real keyboard layout that xmodmap returns.