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

  • From: John Scipione <jscipione@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 16:39:03 -0400

This is also part of a larger debate about what bitmaps should appear
in the menu. Currently the bitmaps that are shown in the menu are
"CTRL",  "OPT", and "ALT". They are bitmaps so they are not
localizable. If you switch Control and Command in Keymap via the
"Switch Shortcuts to Linux/Windows mode" button or do the
corresponding action using the Modifier keys window or manually drag
and drop the keys in the main window (on the left-hand side anyway)
the "CTRL" and "ALT" bitmaps will be reversed in the menu. I also
selfishly made switching Option and Command in Keymap switch the "OPT"
and "ALT" menu bitmaps.

The solution that been approved for this is to alter the menu bitmaps
to correspond to the key roles (the column on the right in Modifier
keys) and not the key labels (on the left). So you'll have 3 bitmaps
"CTRL", "OPT", and "CMD" which correspond to an abbreviation of the 3
key roles Control, Option, and Command and never change based on your
Keymap. The idea behind this is that the function in the shortcut in
the menu never changes yet the label on the key that produces the
function is changeable via Keymap and varies from keyboard-to-keyboard
as well.

I still maintain that this is a bad idea because the concept of key
roles is foreign to new users and the menu is not a good place to try
and teach new concepts, but, I digress.

John Scipione

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