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

  • From: Rimas Kudelis <rq@xxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2012 22:33:04 +0300

2012.04.06 21:45, Ingo Weinhold rašė:

Adrien Destugues wrote:

Le Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:04:35 +0200, Rimas Kudelis<rq@xxxxxx>  a écrit:

[...]

I think a sane alternative for Terminal would be to use Cmd+Alt+foo or
Cmd+Shift+foo to enter Ctrl+foo escape sequences (that is, Cmd+Alt+C
would produce ^C).

I don't see how that would improve anything at all. The current problem is that 
Haiku's Terminal uses other key combos than terminals on Linux (which 
apparently aren't even consistent with each other). Moving the control 
character combos to other shortcuts that aren't used on Linux either doesn't 
make the situation any better.

[...]


Well, for me, the improvement would be that:
a) Copy command would be the same among all Haiku apps (Cmd+C)
b) the need for separate Command and Control would be no longer (as I said, I think these words are pretty much synonyms for one, and for two, Command key does not exist on PC keyboards)
My suggestion would make the default key mappings incompatible with Linux terminals, but such compatibility would at least be made possible (e.g. Terminal could even have shortcut presets for compatibility with other terminal emulators).
My desire is simply not to have Command and Control or Alt and Opt as different keys. Command, Option and Meta or Control, Alt and Super are good sets of key names, but Control, Command, Opt and Alt isn't. At least I.M.O. 



As for the global commands: I was wondering, how much are F1-F12 used in
Haiku? Perhaps these 12 keys could be enough to cover all globally
needed commands? Or are these reserved for Midnight Commander
compatibility?

The Fx keys are generally left to application use.
But do Haiku apps use them? At least on Windows, I know that F1 is used extensively to pop up application help, and F3 is commonly used for Find (again). Some other F's have common usage in certain apps (e.g. F5, F11 and F12 are used to trigger refresh, full screen and developer tools in web browsers), but I'm wondering how extensive such usage really is... 


Command + Fx currently switches workspaces. One more thing to move around
to Option key, along with Command+Tab triggering twitcher, and a few
others.

Using a modifier that has only one key on many and none on some keyboard is a 
no-go IMO.
A few years ago I had a new HP keyboard, which was supplied with an HP server and didn't have Win keys. I also know that older ThinkPad's didn't have them. But I don't think that lack of these keys on some keyboards should stop Haiku from acknowledging that they keys exist and giving them a decent (and unique) role. My logic is: if you want a keyboard without Win-keys, you should be ready to accept the fact that you won't be able to use shortcuts with them. Of course, Win+foo should not be the only way to achieve some critical task (e.g. turn off the PC), but nobody suggests that anyway.
Additionally, with notebooks and netbooks becoming much more popular than desktop PC's, I think it's naive to expect that all of them will have two of each keys. E.g. my 15" notebook lacks the right Windows key, that leaves only AltGr and Ctrl on the right-hand side. By the way, does anyone here think that having two Control keys is more important than having two Command keys? 

Rimas

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