[haiku-development] Re: AltGr Key, key_map, and the US-International Keyboard

Le Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:43:40 +0200, John Scipione <jscipione@xxxxxxxxx> a écrit: 


My point is AltGr already exists, you've got 2 of em! They are just
called "option" and are mapped to the Windows key, at least on
US-International. What's so wrong with that?


I use a thinkpad, and have no R-Win key :)

On windows I get this :
Control : triggers shortcuts like copy/paste
Alt : Triggers menu stuff
Win : System-wide shortcuts
AltGr : special chars
For example, win+E opens Explorer, altGr+E types the € sign. Alt+E triggers some menu shortcuts, and Ctrl+E does some control char in terminal. As you can see, these are 4 different modifiers, with 4 different actions. There is no way to do this with any combination of Option/Command/Control. We just need an extra one to do the same.
So yes, I get only one ALT/Command key, and the Win key is mapped to Option, and not used anywhere besides opening deskbar menu. 
I get two control keys that are used only in terminal.
But, the most important thing is, it matches the actual keyboard layout I have, and behaves as expected.
On the current French keymap, AltGr is mapped to Option, and RWin is mapped to Command to "compensate". This isn't annoying at all on this particular keyboard (which has no RWin key anyway), but on a full-size keyboard, it's very confusing when you try to use this RWin key and notice it doesn't work like LWin. And whatever way you swap them around, it just doesn't works, and make the "linux/windows mode" swap get things not like linux/windows at all.
Yes, this AltGr keys make the keyboard assymetrical, and in Haiku with default settings the most useless keys (control and option) have two physical keys, while the most useful ones (command and altgr) have only one each. But that's ok for me. It's a problem to solve with keyboard manufacturers, actually. 

--
Adrien.

Other related posts: