Keyman Update for 24 November 2023

This blog reports on significant Keyman product and keyboard development updates over the two weeks from 11-24 November 2023.

As always, you can follow all of our development online at github.com/keymanapp/keyman, and you may find the Keyman Development Status Site at status.keyman.com both interesting and slightly overwhelming!

Keyman minor releases

Keyman 16.0.143 (stable) was released in this cycle.

A breaking change for Keyman Engine for iOS 16.0.143 is that the marmelroy/Zip framework was replaced with weichsel/ZIPFoundation due to problems with using the marmelroy/Zip framework with Carthage and recent versions of XCode (#9958). While we prefer not to make breaking changes in stable patch releases, in this instance it was unavoidable, as the XCode upgrade timetable is controlled by the App Store requirements, and not in sync with the Keyman release schedule. Please get in touch if you need assistance with upgrading your Keyman Engine usage in iOS apps!

Keyman 17.0.209-alpha through 17.0.217-alpha were also released in this cycle.

Some significant changes in Keyman Developer 17 in the last two weeks include adding support for LDML keyboard projects, including significant tidy up of the Keyman Developer Project interface (#9949). Keyman for iPhone and iPad and Keyman for Android have improvements in their predictive text banner display. Keyman Developer now warns you if you attempt to use virtual keys in the output of rules (#10062).

Keyman Engine for iOS 17.0 now uses weichsel/ZIPFoundation framework in place of marmelroy/Zip framework.

Keyboard updates

• A new keyboard layout for the Akebu language of Togo is now available. Ce clavier est destiné aux ulitisateurs de la lange Akebu au Togo. C’est disponible pour l’ordinateur at aussi pour les appareils tactiles (#2464). With thanks to @MattGyverLee.
• An initial version of a predictive text dictionary for Mengisa (Cameroon) is now available for community feedback. Mengisa predictive text can be tested with the SIL Cameroon keyboards (#228). With thanks to @MattGyverLee.
• The FirstVoices Nuxalk keyboard adds the l key, which was missing, in version 10.0 (#2458). Credit to @HopsAndHops.
• Version 1.5.2 of the Kayǎn keyboard re-orders the punctuation on long-press of period key (#2462).
• The Gondi (Devanagari) keyboard has been updated to version 1.1.2 to include a new version of the Annapurna SIL font (#2461).
• The FirstVoices ’Wuìk̓ala keyboard has been renamed (from ‘Uwik̓ala), backspace has been tweaked to delete accents separately, and the mobile layout has been refreshed in version 9.3 (#2460). Credit to @HopsAndHops.
• A set of about 50 FirstVoices keyboards have been updated to improve the display of the online documentation (#2439). Credit to @HopsAndHops.
• Version 2.0 of the Dega keyboard for Indigenous people groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam introduces significant updates to improve start-of-sentence detection and Caps Lock support, cleanup of the touch layout, and improved documentation (#2453). Thanks @MakaraSok!