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|
<!doctype html>
<html lang="ar">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>لؤلؤة</title>
<!--<meta name="description" content="">-->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=IBM+Plex+Mono|IBM+Plex+Sans:100,400&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/purecss@1.0.1/build/pure-min.css" integrity="sha384-oAOxQR6DkCoMliIh8yFnu25d7Eq/PHS21PClpwjOTeU2jRSq11vu66rf90/cZr47" crossorigin="anonymous">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/purecss@1.0.1/build/grids-responsive-min.css">
{# bokeh #}
{% for f in bokehres.js_files -%}
<script src="{{ f }}"></script>
{%- endfor %}
{% for f in bokehres.css_files -%}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ f }}">
{%- endfor %}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="title-card pure-g">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-lg-1-3">
<div class="lbox">
<h1 class="title"><img class="logo" src="lulua-logo.svg" alt="لؤلؤة"></h1>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-sm-1-2">
<!--<h2 class="subtitle">لوحة مفاتيح العربية المريحة</h1>-->
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-sm-1-2">
<h2 class="subtitle" lang="en">Ergonomic Arabic Keyboard Layout</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-lg-2-3">
<div class="lbox">
<div class="layout">
<img src="ar-lulua.svg" alt="لؤلؤة">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<p>This is work in progress and contributions are welcome. Head over to
<a href="https://github.com/PromyLOPh/lulua">GitHub</a> to see where
you can help.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>Goals</h2>
<ul>
<li>Ergonomic typing of unvocalized and vocalized text with 10 fingers</li>
<li>Modern Standard Arabic and Quranic Arabic</li>
<li>Localized numbers (European/Arabic-Indic)</li>
<li>Usable as primary or secondary keyboard</li>
<li>Compose-based</li>
<li>Support for Markdown, RST, Wikitext and similar markup</li>
</ul>
<p>Other languages using the Arabic alphabet (regional dialects, Urdu,
Persian) are explicitly not supported.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>Usage</h2>
<dl>
<dt>Windows</dt>
<dd>Download <a href="ar-lulua-w64.zip">driver</a> and follow instructions in <kbd>INSTALL.txt</kbd></dd>
<dt>Android</dt>
<dd>Install
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.menny.android.anysoftkeyboard">AnySoftKeyboard</a>
and
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anysoftkeyboard.languagepack.arabic">Arabic for AnySoftKeyboard</a>
<dt>Linux</dt>
<dd>Run: <code>xmodmap <a href="ar-lulua.xmodmap">ar-lulua.xmodmap</a></code></dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="indepth-card">
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h1>Learn more</h1>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<section>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>الأبجدية العربية</h2>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>The Arabic alphabet</h2>
<p>
28 letters make up the Arabic alphabet and quite a few extra
symbols are required for proper text input, like the hamza in its different
shapes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">أ إ آ ء ئ ؤ</bdo>, ta marbutah <bdo
dir="ltr" lang="ar">ة</bdo>, alif maqsurah <bdo dir="ltr"
lang="ar">ى</bdo> and various diacritics for vowelized texts.
<!-- -->
Since the performance of a keyboard layout depends on the text entered
it is necessary to study its mono-, di- and trigraph frequencies first.
<!-- -->
The novel corpus built for the following analysis consists of
</p>
<table class="pure-table"><thead><tr><th>Source</th><th></th><th>Words</th><th>Characters</th></thead><tbody>
{% for c in corpus|sort(attribute='source.name') %}
<tr>
<td><a href="{{ c.source.url }}">{{ c.source.name }}</a></td>
{% set count = c.get ('count') %}
{% if count %}
{# use new style formatting, for some reason %7,d does not work #}
<td>{{ '{:7,d}'.format(count[0])|numspace }} {{ count[1] }}</td>
{% else %}
<td></td>
{% endif %}
{% set stats = c.get ('stats') %}
{% for k in ('words', 'characters') %}
{% set i = stats[k]|approx %}
<td>{{ '%5.1f'|format(i[0])|numspace }} {{ i[1] }}</td>
{% endfor %}
</tr>
{% endfor %}
<tr><td>Total</td><td></td>
{% for k in ('words', 'characters') %}
{% set i = corpustotal[k]|approx %}
<td>{{ '%5.1f'|format(i[0])|numspace }} {{ i[1] }}</td>
{% endfor %}
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
The plot below shows <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا ل ي م و ن</bdo> can be
considered the most frequently used letters in the Arabic language.
<!-- -->
Together they account for more than 55% of all letters in the corpus.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure id="letterfreq">
<div class="lbox" lang="en">
<div id="letterfreq-div"></div>
</div>
<figcaption class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<p>Arabic letter frequency distribution</p>
</div>
</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</section>
<section>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>Layout properties</h2>
<p>Throughout this evaluation color coding is used to identify fingers:</p>
<dl class="colorcodes">
<dt class="finger little">red</dt>
<dd>little finger</dd>
<dt class="finger ring">blue</dt>
<dd>ring finger</dd>
<dt class="finger middle">magenta</dt>
<dd>middle finger
<dt class="finger index">violet</dt>
<dd>index finger</dd>
<dt class="finger thumb">cyan</dt>
<dd>thumb</dd>
</dl>
<p>Asymmetry is defined as the difference between left and right hand usage.</p>
<p>
The layout proposed uses four layers and assumes a 102/105 key ISO
keyboard common in Europe to accomodate the shift keys necessary.
<!-- -->
These are in order: <span class="layer second">Shift on the left and
right</span>, <span class="layer third">caps lock on the left and the
rightmost key in the middle row</span>, <span class="layer fourth">the
key right of the left shift key and the key labeled <em>Alt Gr</em> to
the right of the spacebar</span>.
<!-- -->
Symbols are assigned to the four layers by their function: <span
class="layer first">characters</span>, <span class="layer
second">punctuation</span>, <span class="layer
third">diacritics</span>, <span class="layer fourth">other</span>.
</p>
<p>
The first layer was optimized using an extended reimplementation of <a
href="http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?typing_effort">carpalx</a>.
<!-- -->
From several runs with 100.000 iterations each the layout which had
good scores and looked reasonable to the human eye was picked.
<!-- -->
Optimal arrengement of layers two and up are still under investigation.
</p>
<p>
The most frequent letters have all been assigned to the home row, which
makes them easily accessible.
<!-- -->
<bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ا</bdo> and <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ل</bdo>
are typed with different hands, balancing the load on hands almost
evenly.
<!-- -->
The index and middle finger of both hands share the majority of the
typing load, but naturally the left middle finger is used more
frequently due to its assignment to the letter alif.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{% macro fingerhandstats(stats) %}
{% set hands = stats.hands %}
{% set fingers = stats.fingers %}
<div class="fingerhandstats" dir="ltr" lang="en">
{% for hand in Direction %}
{% set handpct = hands[hand]/stats.buttonPresses*100 %}
<div class="{{ hand.name.lower() }}" style="width: {{ '%.3f'|format(handpct) }}%;">
<div class="hand">{{ '%.2f'|format(handpct) }}%</div>
<div class="fingers">
{% for finger in fingerOrder[hand] %}
{% set fingerpct = fingers[(hand, finger)]/stats.buttonPresses*100 %}
{# finger width is relative to parent (i.e. hand) #}
{% set fingerwidth = fingers[(hand, finger)]/hands[hand]*100 %}
<div class="{{ finger.name.lower() }}" style="width: {{ '%.3f'|format(fingerwidth) }}%;">{{ '%.2f'|format(fingerpct) }}</div>
{% endfor %}
</div>
</div>
{% if loop.first %}
<div class="asymm"><small>Asymmetry: {{ '%.3f'|format(stats.asymmetry) }}</small></div>
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}
</div>
{% endmacro %}
<figure id="ar-lulua-heat">
<div class="lbox" lang="en">
<img src="ar-lulua-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-lulua']) }}
</div>
</figure>
</section>
<section id="related">
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2><a href="#related">Related work</a></h2>
<p>This section explores existing keyboard layouts made for the
Arabic language and analyzes their usability.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="ar-asmo663" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-asmo663">ASMO 663</a></h3>
<p>
Trying to unify existing layouts, the Arab Standardization and
Meterology Organization (<abbr>ASMO</abbr>), now part of
<a href="https://www.aidmo.org/"><abbr>AIDMO</abbr></a>, published an Arabic
keyboard layout in 1987 as
<a href="https://www.aidmo.org/smcacc/ar/index.php?option=com_sobi2&Itemid=2&limitstart=2150">standard 663</a>
titled <em>Arabic terminal keyboard layout</em>.
<!-- -->
The layout has several shortcomings:
Most notably it clusters letters by their visual similarity (<bdo
dir="ltr" lang="ar">ض ص، س ش، ح ج خ</bdo>) and not frequency.
<!-- -->
Also it overuses the right index finger by assigning the four
high-frequency letters <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ا ت و ة</bdo> to
it.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-asmo663-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-asmo663']) }}
</div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<div id="ar-osx" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-osx">Mac OS X</a></h3>
<p>
Mac OS X’s Arabic keyboard layout makes a few small changes to ASMO
663 by moving the <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ة</bdo> to a hard to
reach spot on the right of the top row.
<!-- -->
It also moves the short vowels from the first to the top row of the
second layer and replaces them with symbols.
<!-- -->
The bottom row keys are aditionally shifted to the right, beginning
with <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ر</bdo>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-osx-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-osx']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-linux" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<figcaption class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-linux">Linux</a></h3>
<p>
A more common layout is the one used on Linux, which also exists on
Windows with minor changes to the first layer.
<!-- -->
While its top and center row barely differ from ASMO 663 the
bottom row now contains a separate key for the ligature <bdo
lang="ar" dir="ltr">ﻻ</bdo>, likely inherited from <a
href="https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-arabic-typewriter-keyboard-and.html">early
typewriter layouts</a>.
<!-- -->
But at the cost of pushing punctuation characters to the second
layer, <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">د</bdo> into the top and <bdo
dir="ltr" lang="ar">ذ</bdo> even further into the number row.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-linux-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-linux']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<p>In contrast to the layouts presented so far the following
layouts claim to be optimized for the Arabic language and were, at
least partially, created algorithmically.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="ar-alramly" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-alramly">Al-Ramly et al</a></h3>
<p>
One of the eariest accounts can be found in the article <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-6670(17)64475-6">Statistical
Distribution of Arabic Letters Aids to the Design of a New
Keyboard</a> by Al-Ramly et al published in 1980.
<!-- -->
The Arabic half of the proposed bi-lingual layout seems to be
hand-optimized based on several metrics including character
frequencies – without mentioning a source for them though – visual
similarity (“letter groups”) and their position on previous
layouts.
<!-- -->
It tries to balance load between hands, assign more work to index
and middle fingers and place common letters in the home row.
<!-- -->
However the asymmetry given in the article, 0.032, cannot be
reproduced here.
<!-- -->
For the most part the layout lacks combining and pre-combined
characters, a task that is left to “machine intelligence” making it
hard to use nowadays.
</p>
<p>
While the layout distributes load between fingers quite well it
favors the left hand by assigning <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا</bdo>
and <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ل</bdo> to it.
<!-- -->
The decision to place <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ث</bdo> in a very
prominent spot seems weird, given it only accounts for 0.5% of all
symbols, even in their own analysis.
</p>
</div></div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-alramly-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-alramly']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-idlebi" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-idlebi">Idlebi et al</a></h3>
<p>
Another article from the early days of computers published in 1990
is <a
href="https://archive.org/details/computers_and_the_arabic_language_1990/page/n112/mode/2up">Design
of Arabic Keyboard Layout Based on Statistical Properties of Arabic
Characters</a> by Idlebi et al.
<!-- -->
They present two examples of programmatically optimized layouts and
account for character and bigram frequencies based on a corpus of
100.000 characters, finger movement time of unknown origin and finger
load.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately the results use 12 keys per row and are not suitable
for use with current European keyboards, which usually feature only 11 keys
in the bottom row.
<!-- -->
Thus the layout displayed below lacks the Arabic question mark and
comma in the bottom right.
<!-- -->
Probably due to their unusual assumption that middle- and
ring-finger rest in the top row their results are suboptimal,
placing both <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا</bdo> and <bdo dir="ltr"
lang="ar">ي</bdo> in the top row.
<!-- -->
Their analysis notices this and suggests improved positions for
both characters, but these are not actually implemented.
<!-- -->
The big asymmetry is caused by placing <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا
ل ي</bdo> and <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">و</bdo>, four of the five
most frequent letters, on the right hand side.
</p>
</div></div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-idlebi-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-idlebi']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-malas" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-malas">Malas et al</a></h3>
<p>
About 20 years later (2008) Malas et al. presented an alternative
layout generated by a genetic algorithm in their article <a
href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1bf8/74dcaa7f21c2cc3c6c5e526b61a9ee352bba.pdf">Toward
Optimal Arabic Keyboard Layout Using Genetic Algorithm</a>.
<!-- -->
They used a snapshot of the Arabic Wikipedia probably from around 2008 and
optimized for typing speed only, claiming 35% faster typing compared
to the <a href="#ar-linux">currently used layouts</a>.
<!-- -->
However the decision to put <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> in the top
row seems odd.
<!-- -->
Assigning the same left index finger to <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا
ي و</bdo>, which are three of the most frequent letters, heavily
strains this particular finger.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-malas-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-malas']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-khorshid" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-khorshid">Khorshid et al</a></h3>
<p>
In figure 8 of the paper
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264837659_A_new_optimal_Arabic_keyboard_layout_using_genetic_algorithm">A new optimal Arabic keyboard layout using genetic algorithm</a>
published in 2010 Khorshid et al. present yet another layout.
<!-- -->
They reject the idea of using contemporary text sources like
newspapers or books and consequently their only input text is a
copy of the Quran, whose distribution of mono- and digraphs
is quite different from modern, non-religious texts.
<!-- -->
A 36% improvement over the standard keyboard based on their
criteria for ergonomic layouts is claimed in their conclusion as
well.
<!-- -->
However their algorithm seems to favor the bottom row instead of the
easier to use top row since it places the letters <bdo dir="ltr"
lang="ar">ب ت ر</bdo> there.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-khorshid-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-khorshid']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-osman" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-osman">Osman et al</a></h3>
<p>
In 2015 patent
<a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US9041657B2/en">9,041,657 B2</a>
was filed in the US, presenting yet another computer-generated layout.
<!-- -->
Its genetic algorithm was seeded with just 54 Arabic e-books consisting
of 7 million characters in total.
<!-- -->
Overall it claims to be 9% faster than default layouts.
<!-- -->
This layout rips off most of the standard layout’s second layer,
but amusingly fails to include a question mark, while it does
provide <em>three</em> single-quote marks ’ and <em>two</em> Arabic
semicolon <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">؛</bdo>.
<!-- -->
Additionally it places <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> in an even
worse position than Malas’ layout.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure id="ar-osman">
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-osman-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-osman']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="ar-phonetic" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#ar-phonetic">Phonetic</a></h3>
<p>
The <a href="http://arabic.omaralzabir.com/home">Arabic Phonetic Keyboard</a>
simply maps the QWERTY layout to Arabic letters, based on their sound.
Thus Q becomes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ق</bdo>, Y becomes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> and so on.
It claims to be optimized for writing vowelized texts, especially
Quranic Arabic, and thus includes quite a few combining characters and
special symbols.
Although it claims to make frequently used letters easily available –
based on the work of Intellaren – it makes no effort to arrange letters
according to their usage frequency.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<figure>
<div class="lbox">
<img src="ar-phonetic-heat.svg">
{{ fingerhandstats(layoutstats['ar-phonetic']) }}
</div>
</figure>
<div id="intellark" class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h3><a href="#intellark">Intellark</a></h3>
<p>
While technically speaking not a layout but alternative input
method, <a href="http://www.intellaren.com/intellark">Intellark</a> by
Intellaren is worth mentioning.
<!-- -->
It is based on repeatedly pressing the same button to modifiy the
current character.
<!-- -->
For example pressing A on the QWERTY keyboard cycles through the
alternatives <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا أ إ آ</bdo> and <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ء</bdo>.
<!-- -->
Obviously this is slow, error-prone and violates Dvorak’s guidelines
for keyboard layout designs.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<section>
<div class="pure-g flexreverse">
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2">
</div>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-md-1-2" lang="en">
<div class="lbox">
<h2>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p>This work would not have been possible without Martin Krzywinski’s
work on <a
href="http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/?typing_effort">carpalx</a>.
<!-- -->
Neo Layout’s <a
href="https://github.com/neo-layout/neo-layout/tree/master/windows/kbdneo2/Quelldateien">kbdneo2</a>
Windows driver proved to be an invaluable source for understanding the
undocumented nature of Windows keyboard driver development.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
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