How to automatically change keyboard layout on switch to vim normal-mode?

Question

Sometimes I use vim to write non-US text, and when I wanna use any command in normal mode, I need to change layout to US. It's possible to do that automatically?

PS. I can do mapping like this, but in this case command looks like :ц instead :w - not pretty and typo-risk.

Update

I don't want to use keymap option, because I prefer switch languages by CapsLock. I've try to write autocmd for InsertLeave event, but failed...

Update 2

Probably anybody know, why the following not work?

function SetUsLayout()
  !setxkbmap us,ru
endfunction

autocmd InsertLeave * call SetUsLayout()

Shoplifter

The answer here is relevant: https://mcmap.net/q/384616/-how-to-avoid-constant-switching-to-and-from-english-keyboard-layout-to-type-vim-commands-when-writing-in-non-latin-language-e-g-greek – Midshipmite

See my answer to a similar question "Vim “annoyance” with keyboard layouts" rather than the one linked in the previous comment, since it covers effectively the same issue and it is more thorough. – Byte

I already write in Update, that don't want to use keymap option, because it's not possible to map CapsLock in vim. – Shoplifter

Answer 1

Looks like, that cross-platform solution doesn't exist... So, under KDE I use the following:

function! SetUsLayout()
  silent !qdbus org.kde.keyboard /Layouts setLayout us > /dev/null
endfunction

autocmd InsertLeave * call SetUsLayout()

Shoplifter

Answer 2

:help langmap

is likely to provide all the info you need.

Pouf

"Characters entered in Command-line mode will NOT be affected by this option." So hjkl works fine, but commands not. – Shoplifter

This deals with what you asked for: normal mode commands. See :help keymap for the command mode. – Pouf

Ok, I can set keymap=russian-jcukenwin, but to switch to US I need to use ctrl+^ (or map any other), but not very convenient CapsLock. – Shoplifter

I'm not really in a position to test it out (french layout) but you could try something like :nnoremap : :<C-^>. What's the deal with CapsLock? – Pouf

https://mcmap.net/q/88627/-how-to-map-caps-lock-key-in-vim At now I try to use OS-dependent solution: setxkbmap to switch layout automaticly on InsertLeave event – Shoplifter

This approach is limited in that some keyboard layouts, for example the Canadian Multilingual layout, map keys not to characters but to the first keystroke of a digraph. For example, the key which in the US Standard layout produces [ will, when pressed with the Canadian Multilingual Layout active, initiate the creation of a circumflex-accented character, e.g. ê. – Absorbefacient

Answer 3

For me, using qdbus is the best option. I've made a simple but fragile plugin that works really well for me: https://github.com/ironhouzi/bikey-vim/tree/master/plugin

I call it fragile, since it doesn't have much robustness to it if anybody else wants to use it.

I mostly want English when I'm using Vim, with a few exceptions. When I want to write in my native language, I hit 'leader'-k and my airline status bar will show that I've switched language. When the language is not English, the script will ensure that every time I enter insert mode, my native language is set through qdbus. Every time I leave insert mode, the language is set back to English. It also supports individual settings between buffers. Even though this might not be the best way to do things, I thought I'd share it, in case someone else might get some use out of it.

Whittle

Answer 4

In Ubuntu I use the following:

function! SetUsLayout()
  silent !qdbus org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard /org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/Keyboard org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard.SetInputSource 0 > /dev/null
endfunction

autocmd InsertLeave * call SetUsLayout()

or shorter:

silent !gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources current 0  

Corlisscorly

Answer 5

In Linux with X11 you can do the following for nvim\vim:

SetUsLayout = function()
  vim.api.nvim_command('silent !xkb-switch -s us')
end

vim.api.nvim_command('autocmd InsertLeave * call SetUsLayout()')

(Here's an extended use case senario)

Proptosis