Input layout switching should have an option to do static ordering in addition to MRU ordering
The current behavior of input layout switching is the MRU (most recently used) ordering. For example, if I have three layouts: EN/TH/JA, then after I switch to the next layout by hitting the Super+Space
once, this order becomes TH/EN/JA (just like Alt+Tab
windows switcher).
The author of the original comment (see first paragraph) said in 3) that this behavior is more "predictable". However, I believe is not quite the case. Most of the time this requires the visual pop-up cue to determine the current layout being switched to, which causes the typing to significantly slow down for people with at least 3 layouts, and also for those who needs to switch layouts midway in almost every single sentences (think multilingual people).
On the contrary, having the static cycling of layout switching could be more predictable since users already knows the current typing layout, so users would know exactly how many shortcut keystrokes to hit to switch to the next desired layout. (To extend the above example, hitting Super+Space
once should have sent users from EN to TH, then after typing normally for a few seconds, hitting the same shortcut should send users to JA.
Of course, some other user may still prefer MRU as opposed to static ordering. So should there be an option to choose either way?
By the way, weirdly enough, when grp:alt_shit_toggle
is set for xkb-options
in org.gnome.desktop.input-sources
, this static cycling behavior is followed. I am not sure why it is inconsistent with Super+Space
shortcut behavior as mentioned earlier.