@EastEriq, wow, I've been trying to do the exact same thing today, looking at other keyboard.txt files floating around the internet and trying to figure out what's different. My attempts weren't as precise as yours, though.
It still doesn't work, BUT it suddenly hit me - why didn't I actually
open one of those other files in my system/language/keyboard, just because they were for different languages? it was silly of me not to do it, because now I see the content looks completely different. Their extension is .extkbd, but they open with a regular text editor and the EN one, for instance, looks like this:
#en_kb tab delimeted
#key normal shift caps shiftcaps
#KEY_ESC ESC
KEY_1 1 ! 1 !
KEY_2 2 @ 2 @
KEY_3 3 # 3 #
KEY_4 4 $ 4 $
KEY_5 5 % 5 %
KEY_6 6 ^ 6 ^
KEY_7 7 & 7 &
KEY_8 8 * 8 *
KEY_9 9 ( 9 (
KEY_0 0 ) 0 )
KEY_MINUS - _ - _
KEY_EQUAL = + = +
#KEY_BACKSPACE BACKSPACE
#KEY_TAB TAB
KEY_Q q Q Q q
KEY_W w W W w
KEY_E e E E e
KEY_R r R R r
KEY_T t T T t
KEY_Y y Y Y y
KEY_U u U U u
KEY_I i I I i
KEY_O o O O o
KEY_P p P P p
KEY_LEFTBRACE [ { [ {
KEY_RIGHTBRACE ] } ] }
#KEY_ENTER ENTER
#KEY_LEFTCTRL LEFTCTRL
KEY_A a A A a
KEY_S s S S s
KEY_D d D D d
KEY_F f F F f
KEY_G g G G g
KEY_H h H H h
KEY_J j J J j
KEY_K k K K k
KEY_L l L L l
KEY_SEMICOLON ; : ; :
KEY_APOSTROPHE ' " ' "
KEY_GRAVE ` ~ ` ~
#KEY_LEFTSHIFT
KEY_BACKSLASH \ | \ |
KEY_Z z Z Z z
KEY_X x X X x
KEY_C c C C c
KEY_V v V V v
KEY_B b B B b
KEY_N n N N n
KEY_M m M M m
KEY_COMMA , < , <
KEY_DOT . > . >
KEY_SLASH / ? / ?
#KEY_RIGHTSHIFT
KEY_KPASTERISK * * * *
#KEY_LEFTALT
KEY_SPACE SPACE
#KEY_CAPSLOCK
KEY_DELETE DELETE
KEY_BACKSPACE BACKSPACE
As soon as I have time, I'll try to figure out what each thingy does and make an equivalent for Japanese. Wondering if I should try replacing the first and second column, or the third and fourth? (I'm working on intuition here, I don't know the first thing about how it's done, but trial and error should do it.)
Of course, even if it works, I expect all it will do is allow one to write hiragana and maybe katakana, without that wonderful magic that brings up kanji options in the suggestion box above the keyboard. Wish I knew how that happens. But it's better than nothing! (Also, I tried adding Chinese as a second keyboard earlier and now my English keyboard also shows suggestions on top. I could swear they weren't there earlier. Funny.)
Hope to return with successful updates. (Not promising anything about a legendary Monday, though - I've read enough of this forum to know better
)