Comment 10 for bug 418939

1. First of all, a clarification of what this issue is really about:
it's about Romanian users being exposed to layouts for languages they don't have any interest in seeing (or even, apparently, which they would rather not see). Hence, i renamed the bug.
1.1. While as an oppressed minority i have gotten used to seeing languages and keyboards i don't have any interest in seeing, i can definitely put myself in the shoes of someone who isn't used to that.
1.2. Even though i believe i wouldn't be discomforted by seeing Crimean Tatar layouts as a Romanian, i concur with Lucian that such cluttering of languages with other languages is unnecessary, although i am not sure whether we agree about the root cause and the solution to this (perception) issue (i disagree with deleting keyboard layouts because somebody representing interests of a different language doesn't want to see them, but i'm hoping Lucian would support more peaceful (and more logical IMHO) solutions).
2. The root cause of the issue is primarily the design of the keyboard config UI (and arguably the design of xkeyboard-config as well, which could be worked around in the UI, but isn't).
3. The optimal solution of this issue, is in changing the design of keyboard config UI, at a minimum, as well as that of xkeyboard-config, at a maximum. Therefore, i'm marking this bug as a duplicate of 19978.
3.1. I just want to clarify:
I never agreed with Sergey's "rule" that 'most', but it's worth mentioning 'not all', languages have to be listed, in xkeyboard-config, under a country (or countries), as opposed to being listed w/o this indirection via countries. And i don't agree that countries have to be present in the UI as a separate tab, along with languages, as opposed to being represented along with languages, when needed.
I especially didn't agree with these rules for Crimean Tatar, as a language of people dispersed in large proportions (no thanks to a certain country's policies) across so many countries. And i have to remind readers, that Sergey explicitly said that Crimean Tatar layouts have to be listed, in xkeyboard-config, under specific countries. While representation in the UI remains a separate bug, i am trying to emphasize that my contributions have been restricted by certain factors.
3.2. AFAIK, Sergey has made these rules up by himself. I am not aware of any discussion with participation of users across countries and continents and languages as to what would be the best approach, but please correct me if i'm wrong.
3.3. A simple temporary partial solution as an alternative to changing the design of keyboard config UI (or xkeyboard-config for that matter), is to show layouts by language in the 1st tab, and layouts by country in the 2nd tab in the UI. This wouldn't really solve the perception and clutter issue per se, but it would make it less noticable for most users, because most would suffice with layouts by language.

As a side note, i have to mention that Crimean Tatar layouts represent a super-set of Turkish layouts, and are thus also applicable to users of the Turkish language. In fact, most Crimean Tatar users use Turkish as much as if not more than Crimean Tatar. That means these layouts are applicable for about 57000 people in, or about .03% of population of, Romania. I asked about 1 layout that i thought could potentially be a candiate for removal from Romania list because of it not being likely to be used, but was told that it is used as well. That said, seeking proportional representation of keyboard layouts (or other language aspects) in software is a ludicrous idea. I'm attaching an example from Mac showing 4 keyboard layouts for Inuktitut (out of something like 59 total keyboard layouts, i.e. over 6% of layouts are Inuktitut layouts). Number of speakers of Inuktitut: 35000, or roughly 0,00051% of the population of the world (Mac does the right thing and doesn't list languages under countries, instead just showing a list of languages). If anything this example indicates to me Canada's respect for human rights, and language and cultural rights of its minorities. I have no objection to adding as many other layouts under Romania as is necessary to reduce the ratio of Crimean Tatar layouts to .03%, but i think that would then qualify for a comedy movie.

Finally, i find it completely unacceptable that people representing interests of language A or B attempt to have layouts for language C deleted (well, Sergey actually did that about 1 year and 10 days ago, and i personally will have a hard time forgetting that experience), or otherwise interfere with the affairs of language C. This was commonplace in the times of Stalin, and Russia still has policies to that effect to this day. AFAIK, in the times of Ceauşescu or his predecessors, there were also attempts to force Crimean Tatars in Romania to use the language of Volga Tatars (despite similarities there are differences), though they were unsuccessful, completely or at least for the most part. Despite some of those historical interference attempts in Romania, Romania has overall played a much more positive role in the preservation of Crimean Tatar language and identity than Soviet Union, at least in comparison to Soviet Union since 1936-to-1939 period. We must not go back to unfortunate historical interference and oppression times, but forward towards mutual respect and understanding. If over time, people representing interests of language C decide that they don't benefit much from having a certain layout, they will take care of that layout themselves. It is not up to people representing interests of language A or B to decide on matters of language C. And software design should not provoke such unpleasant emotions or reactions: quite the opposite, it should promote human rights, and mutual understanding and respect. This is especially true for open-source software.

Regards.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 19978 ***