Add composition as a toggle option in all layouts

[quasipedia]

As a user with a complex identity who types primarily in a language with a given set of accented letters, and secondarily in a language with a different second set of accented letters, I would like to be able to choose if the keyboard should try to compose characters independently by what layout I chose (=it should be a separate checkbox under the layouts option in the settings). Unwanted (accidental) composition should be undone with a backspace

Example:
a followed by " will result in ä. If the user now taps backspace it will result in a".

This is useful because you may for example primarily type in Swedish and have the letters äëöå as primary taps/swipes, but you may occasionally text to an Italian relative, and want to be able to quickly compose àèìòùáéíóú, rather than switching the full layout, where the position of the main taps/swipes change.

Other than that: this project is amazing. I have been using MessagEase since my palm III time (yes! MessageEase pre-dates smart phones!) and finding a free and open source version of it has been a godsend! <3

[dessalines]

This would be something better on a per-key basis. Not all letters have composed types.

@quasipedia could you handle this one?

[smurfix]

IMHO you can ignore whether letters have composable types or not. You just need a way to enter the combining diacritical of your choice. In principle, assigning keys to them should be sufficient.

For displaying the diacritical on the keyboard you probably need to emit either a punctuation space U+2008 or a ◌ U+25CC (the latter would make distinguishing between an accent and a cedilla easier …) in front of the diacritical mark.

Backspacing through a letter+plus+diacritical sequence should separate the two by inserting a punctuation space, then another backspace should remove both the space and the diacritical.

[dessalines]

@smurfix can you handle this one?

[smurfix]

I'm not exactly out of work, but I'll have a look at the code.

[smurfix]

Well, this seems tractable. First (and rather easy) step: remove the explicit compose tables and simply append u0301 instead of replacing an a with an á. Same for the others. Instead of the ç cedilla special-case, just support Compose+Comma → u0327, that way users can write a z̧ or even an ẍ̧̀ if they need that.

Oh yes, special case: if the last character is a space: replace it with the non-combining version of the mark. Combiners are not displayed on spaces. (Alternately you could replace the space with its non-breaking sibling u00A0.) There's also Compose+period → u0323 ("dot below"). Dot Above u0307 is also moderately common and could be Compose+colon.

What currently is not tractable, however, is my work system's inability to run Gradle. 🤬 The stupid errors I get are beyond my ability to track down, let alone fix, given limited free (or even "free") time. Thus I'm sorry but as much as I'd want to I can't provide you with a pull request that has a non-zero chance of actually compiling, let alone working.

[dessalines]

Can re-open if someone wants to work on this.