How often did you experience start typing with undesirable language layout after switching windows? If so, this might interest you.
This annoyance can be encountered on every OS AFAIK and surprisingly it hasn’t been addressed properly. The main problem is that user can easily get lost when switching windows and/or forget about changed language layout, especially on large screens where tray indicator is not very noticeable.
To make language layout input more noticeable, my proposal is one of the following:
- Change cursor border color to unique one for each alternative language layout user has defined in settings.
- Change only I-beem(text) cursor border color
- Set unique I-beem cursor shape with indexed text seen on system tray - e.g. I fr
While open to debate, IMHO the best implementation is 3) since it is good enough for colorblind people as well. Also arguably, it can be (later) further expanded to support CAPSLOCK state.
REASONING:
- This can be seen as continuation of “We Care About Your Input” KDE goal.
- “In GNOME 51, pointer cursors are rendered from scalable SVG images”, so we can safely assume SVG cursors are a standard by now.
- Such unique feature can be easily regarded as “first good impression” for new users, and may affects many as KDE strives internationally.
TTBT, I’m not fully aware of underlying work requested for such task considering history of quirks with changing cursors on Linux, but to my knowledge it shouldn’t be too demanding. Of course, advices and better insights are always welcomed.
I pledge 50€ by Paypal once FR is merged.