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

  • From: Pete Goodeve <pete.goodeve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 16:47:13 -0700

Every time I try to follow this discussion, my head starts to spin (:-/)
but here's a little more input from my point of view...

On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 05:34:36PM -0400, John Scipione wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 4:32 PM, Adrien Destugues
> <pulkomandy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > That's why the current solution of just moving the keys around on the
> > keymap seems better to me.
> 
> Which is why this functionality isn't going away, different people
> prefer different methods
In general I think a direct visual connection to what you want to do
is most convenient and obvious to most people.
> 
> I still prefer the Modifier keys window despite its flaws because it
> allows me to choose from a few reasonable options and edits both sides
> of the keyboard simultaneously.
Hunh?  The Keymap pref I have doesn't provide this yet, so I'm not sure
if I'm understanding you here, but are you saying that it always makes
the same-labelled keys on both sides of the K/B the same?  Isn't one
of the necessary features to allow the left Alt to be 'Cmd', say, and
the right one to be 'AltGr'?  I certainly want to be able to assign
different functions to each -- I have to on some K/Bs.
> 
> > Of course, there could be improvements to this as well, for example I'd use
> > swap on left click drag and copy on right click, instead of the current
> > solution, since most of the time you want to move keys around, rather than
> > copying them.
Yes, that sounds better.  Though your suggestion [snipped] to have
a popup menu on right-click-crag seems better still.
> 
> 
> Lastly a right click (not drag) on a key should select from a list of
> replacement options. When right clicking on modifier keys the list
> should contain other modifier keys, for alphabetic keys it should
> contain different options.
Yes!  You beat me to it... I was going to suggest this as maybe the best
way to set a modifier in particular.


I think you have to allow the user to set any role on any (modifier) key,
and it should be easy to do, because *any* default setup is likely not
to work for somebody.  One of my machines running Haiku
is that old IBM ThinkPad, which has two Ctrls and two Alts -- and nothing
else.  To get both access to Tracker shortcuts and the extended characters,
I've set the r.h Ctrl to 'Opt', so that using it alone gives me the chars, and
using it with the Alt (Cmd) next to it gives me the shortcuts.
The default had the r.h Alt as Opt instead, which needed severe finger
contortions (on either side of the spacebar) to get the shortcuts!
With AltGr as well, I might have to set the l.h. Alt to that, so all four
modifier keys would have different (custom) functions.

Is it possible to assign two roles to a key?  E.g. the r.h. Ctrl would be AltGr
if used alone, but would be Opt if the Alt was pressed as well.  This is pretty
much what happens now -- the alternate characters don't appear if both
Cmd and Opt are pressed.

BTW, one thing completely missing from all this discussion is the 'Shortcuts'
preference [which I wasn't aware of until François pointed it out as a way
to use extra keys on a USB K/B).  Seems to me that this rather overlaps with
the Keymap a bit.  Shouldn't it be integrated somehow?

        -- Pete --

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