I use English and Russian keyboard layouts. For every single application I don't need to care which layout is currently selected for shortcuts, e.g. Ctrl+S and Ctrl+Ы do the same (S and Ы are on the same physical key). Of course, in Emacs it doesn't work this way: C-s triggers Isearch, but C-ы "is undefined".
I know that Emacs reinvents the wheel by providing built-in input methods (switchable by C-\), which does the remapping. However, it is very user-unfriendly at least for two reasons:
- it is a different key compared to everything else I use; my normal "Shift+Shift" way of switching keyboard layouts is already part of mechanical memory and having to use something else is very inconvenient;
- *all* of my configuration for XKB is of course gone if I try using Emacs input methods; e.g. special handling of the right Alt key (AltGr), which is very important to quickly type characters only available on English layout.
Paul