bertrand@cui.unige.ch (IBRAHIM Bertrand) (10/11/90)
Hi, I am using X11r4 on a Sun 3/80 running SunOS 4.0.3, with a type 4 US keyboard. I would like to use the Mod1 key (Meta Left key according to Sun terminology) combined with the Shift key to generate accented letters with the [ ] ; ' ` , . and / keys. I tried to add the following lines to my .keycode.map file: keysym bracketleft=bracketleft braceleft egrave udiaeresis keysym bracketright=bracketright braceright ecircumflex icircumflex keysym semicolon=semicolon colon eacute odiaeresis keysym quoteright=quoteright quotedbl agrave acircumflex keysym equal=equal plus ediaeresis idiaeresis keysym backslash=backslash bar ucircumflex ocircumflex keysym quoteleft=quoteleft tilde ugrave but couldn't get xmodmap to accept that. I also tried: keycode 48=equal plus ediaeresis idiaeresis ... but couldn't get the keyboard to generate an accented letter, even though an "xmodmap -kp" would show the modified entries, i.e. 48 0x003d (equal) 0x002b (plus) 0x00eb (ediaeresis) 0x00ef (idiaeresis) ... I was however able to generate accented letters by redefining the "Shift-ed" definition of the function keys (F1 to F12) with the following lines in my keycode.map file: keycode 12=F1 eacute keycode 13=F2 egrave keycode 14=F10 ocircumflex ... Just in case it could help, here is what the "xmodmap -pm" outputs: xmodmap: up to 2 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses): shift Shift_L (0x6a), Shift_R (0x75) lock Caps_Lock (0x7e) control Control_L (0x53) mod1 Meta_L (0x7f), Meta_R (0x81) mod2 mod3 mod4 mod5 The different documentations (xmodmap, xterm, X, ...) do not give much hint about defining the keysyms corresponding to key-modifier combinations. Could any kind soul point me to the adequate documentation or directly tell me how to achieve my goal. Please respond directly to me. I can post a summary if there is enough interest. Thanks in advance, Bertrand Ibrahim Computer Science department, University of Geneva, Switzerland. BITNET: IBRAHIM@CGEUGE51.bitnet MHS, INTERNET: ibrahim@uni2a.unige.ch JANET: ibrahim%uni2a.unige.ch@uk.ac.ean-relay UUCP: mcsun!cui!bertrand.uucp or bertrand@cui.UUCP
mouse@LIGHTNING.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (10/12/90)
> I am using X11r4 on a Sun 3/80 running SunOS 4.0.3, with a type 4 US > keyboard. I would like to use the Mod1 key (Meta Left key according > to Sun terminology) combined with the Shift key to generate accented > letters with the [ ] ; ' ` , . and / keys. > I tried to add the following lines to my .keycode.map file: > keysym bracketleft=bracketleft braceleft egrave udiaeresis [...] > but couldn't get xmodmap to accept that. I also tried: > keycode 48=equal plus ediaeresis idiaeresis > but couldn't get the keyboard to generate an accented letter, even > though an "xmodmap -kp" would show the modified entries, i.e. > 48 0x003d (equal) 0x002b (plus) 0x00eb (ediaeresis) 0x00ef (idiaeresis) > I was however able to generate accented letters by redefining the > "Shift-ed" definition of the function keys (F1 to F12) with the > following lines in my keycode.map file: > keycode 12=F1 eacute [...] The problem is that keysyms after the first two in a key binding do not have standard interpretations, so you're at the mercy of the client program. I seem to recall that there is some sort of de-facto pseudo-standard that the third keysym is to be used when Mod1 is active, but I don't think the default XLookupString() does this; clients must handle it themselves. Keyboard handling is IMO one of the weakest points of X. I have been mulling over some of the possibilities, as have doubtless many others, but I have nothing concrete to suggest yet. > Could any kind soul point me to the adequate documentation or > directly tell me how to achieve my goal. Toolkit clients generally accept Translation resources to allow you to bind actions to keys; these actions can, I believe, include things like inserting a Latin-1 accented character into a Text widget and such things. However, the mechanism is seriously flawed. In particular, each client must have its Translation resources set up separately; there is no way to (say) set F9 to generate the string "foo" for all clients that simply call XLookupString, or to specify that Mod2-Shift-semicolon is to generate a capital thorn in all clients. I suspect that the situation is bad enough that the first semi-solution proposed will rapidly become a de-facto standard, which is part of the reason I'm holding off proposing any of the various ideas I've had - I don't feel they're good enough. der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (10/12/90)
The problem is that keysyms after the first two in a key binding do not
have standard interpretations,
Incorrect. A standard interpretation was introduced in R4.
I seem to recall that there is some sort of de-facto
pseudo-standard that the third keysym is to be used when Mod1 is
active, but I don't think the default XLookupString() does this;
There is a standard interpretation for a "group" modifier, and the
R4 XLookupString implements it.
Keyboard handling is IMO one of the weakest points of X.
It could certainly be improved, no question.