steved@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Steve Dempsey) (06/28/89)
After a thorough examination of the documentation shipped with Ultrix 3.0,
I have come to the conclusion that the answer to my question is not
contained therein.
I would like to remap my keyboard so shift-comma/period produces the old
<angle> brackets. This was simple under X10, but now it looks like I must
have an Xdefault entry like:
Xterm*Vt100*Keymap*Tranlations: Shift<key>,: string("<")
or some such thing. So what is the proper incantation, and where is it
documented?
Steve Dempsey, Center for Computer Assisted Engineering
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 +1 303 491 0630
INET: steved@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu, dempsey@handel.CS.ColoState.Edu
UUCP: boulder!ccncsu!longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu!steved, ...!ncar!handel!dempseyalan@shodha.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) (06/28/89)
In article <2097@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>, steved@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Steve Dempsey) writes: > > After a thorough examination of the documentation shipped with Ultrix 3.0, > I have come to the conclusion that the answer to my question is not > contained therein. > The man page you want is the one for xmodmap, which for some reason isn't on the distribution even though the command is. I'm including a copy of the man page from the X11R3 distribution. The information you want is included as an example. .de EX \"Begin example .ne 5 .if n .sp 1 .if t .sp .5 .nf .in +.5i .. .de EE .fi .in -.5i .if n .sp 1 .if t .sp .5 .. .TH XMODMAP 1 "25 October 1988" "X Version 11" .SH NAME xmodmap - utility for modifying keymaps in X .SH SYNOPSIS .B xmodmap [-options ...] [filename] .SH DESCRIPTION .PP The \fIxmodmap\fP program is used to edit and display the keyboard \fImodifier map\fP and \fIkeymap table\fP that are used by client applications to convert event keycodes into keysyms. It is usually run from the user's session startup script to configure the keyboard according to personal tastes. .SH OPTIONS .PP The following options may be used with \fIxmodmap\fP: .TP 8 .B \-display \fIdisplay\fP This option specifies the host and display to use. .TP 8 .B \-help This option indicates that a brief description of the command line arguments should be printed on the standard error. This will be done whenever an unhandled argument is given to .I xmodmap. .TP 8 .B \-grammar This option indicates that a help message describing the expression grammar used in files and with -e expressions should be printed on the standard error. .TP 8 .B \-verbose This option indicates that .I xmodmap should print logging information as it parses its input. .TP 8 .B \-quiet This option turns off the verbose logging. This is the default. .TP 8 .B \-n This option indicates that .I xmodmap should not change the mappings, but should display what it would do, like \fImake(1)\fP does when given this option. .TP 8 .B \-e \fIexpression\fB This option specifies an expression to be executed. Any number of expressions may be specified from the command line. .TP 8 .B \-pm This option indicates that the current modifier map should be printed on the standard output. .TP 8 .B \-pk This option indicates that the current keymap table should be printed on the standard output. .TP 8 .B \-pp This option indicates that the current pointer map should be printed on the standard output. .TP 8 .B \- A lone dash means that the standard input should be used as the input file. .PP The \fIfilename\fP specifies a file containing \fIxmodmap\fP expressions to be executed. This file is usually kept in the user's home directory with a name like \fI.xmodmaprc\fP. .SH EXPRESSION GRAMMAR .PP The .I xmodmap program reads a list of expressions and parses them all before attempting execute any of them. This makes it possible to refer to keysyms that are being redefined in a natural way without having to worry as much about name conflicts. .TP 8 .B keycode \fINUMBER\fP = \fIKEYSYMNAME ...\fP The list of keysyms is assigned to the indicated keycode (which may be specified in decimal, hex or octal and can be determined by running the .I xev program in the examples directory). Usually only one keysym is assigned to a given code. .TP 8 .B keysym \fIKEYSYMNAME\fP = \fIKEYSYMNAME ...\fP The \fIKEYSYMNAME\fP on the left hand side is looked up to find its current keycode and the line is replaced with the appropriate \fBkeycode\fP expression. Note that if you have the same keysym bound to multiple keys, this might not work. .TP 8 .B clear \fIMODIFIERNAME\fP This removes all entries in the modifier map for the given modifier, where valid name are: Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4 and Mod5 (case does not matter in modifier names, although it does matter for all other names). For example, ``clear Lock'' will remove all any keys that were bound to the shift lock modifier. .TP 8 .B add \fIMODIFIERNAME\fP = \fIKEYSYMNAME ...\fP This adds the given keysyms to the indicated modifier map. The keysym names are evaluated after all input expressions are read to make it easy to write expressions to swap keys (see the EXAMPLES section). .TP 8 .B remove \fIMODIFIERNAME\fP = \fIKEYSYMNAME ...\fP This removes the given keysyms from the indicated modifier map. Unlike .B add, the keysym names are evaluated as the line is read in. This allows you to remove keys from a modifier without having to worry about whether or not they have been reassigned. .TP 8 .B "pointer = default" This sets the pointer map back to its default settings (button 1 generates a code of 1, button 2 generates a 2, etc.). .TP 8 .B pointer = \fINUMBER ...\fP This sets to pointer map to contain the indicated button codes. The list always starts with the first physical button. .PP Lines that begin with an exclamation point (!) are taken as comments. .PP If you want to change the binding of a modifier key, you must also remove it from the appropriate modifier map. .SH EXAMPLES .PP Many pointers are designed such the first button is pressed using the index finger of the right hand. People who are left-handed frequently find that it is more comfortable to reverse the button codes that get generated so that the primary button is pressed using the index finger of the left hand. This could be done on a 3 button pointer as follows: .EX % xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1" .EE .PP Many editor applications support the notion of Meta keys (similar to Control keys except that Meta is held down instead of Control). However, some servers do not have a Meta keysym in the default keymap table, so one needs to be added by hand. The following command will attach Meta to the Multi-language key (sometimes label Compose Character). It also takes advantage of the fact that applications that need a Meta key simply need to get the keycode and don't require the keysym to be in the first column of the keymap table. This means that applications that are looking for a Multi_key (including the default modifier map) won't notice any change. .EX % keysym Multi_key = Multi_key Meta_L .EE .PP One of the more simple, yet convenient, uses of \fIxmodmap\fP is to set the keyboard's "rubout" key to generate an alternate keysym. This frequently involves exchanging Backspace with Delete to be more comfortable to the user. If the \fIttyModes\fP resource in \fIxterm\fP is set as well, all terminal emulator windows will use the same key for erasing characters: .EX % xmodmap -e "keysym BackSpace = Delete" % echo "XTerm*ttyModes: erase ^?" | xrdb -merge .EE .PP Some keyboards do not automatically generate less than and greater than characters when the comma and period keys are shifted. This can be remedied with \fIxmodmap\fP by resetting the bindings for the comma and period with the following scripts: .EX ! ! make shift-, be < and shift-. be > ! keysym comma = comma less keysym period = period greater .EE .PP One of the more irritating differences between keyboards is the location of the Control and Shift Lock keys. A common use of \fIxmodmap\fP is to swap these two keys as follows: .EX ! ! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L ! remove Lock = Caps_Lock remove Control = Control_L keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L add Lock = Caps_Lock add Control = Control_L .EE .PP The \fIkeycode\fP command is useful for assigning the same keysym to multiple keycodes. Although unportable, it also makes it possible to write scripts that can reset the keyboard to a known state. The following script sets the backspace key to generate Delete (as shown above), flushes all existing caps lock bindings, makes the CapsLock key be a control key, make F5 generate Escape, and makes Break/Reset be a shift lock. .EX ! ! On the HP, the following keycodes have key caps as listed: ! ! 101 Backspace ! 55 Caps ! 14 Ctrl ! 15 Break/Reset ! 86 Stop ! 89 F5 ! keycode 101 = Delete keycode 55 = Control_R clear Lock add Control = Control_R keycode 89 = Escape keycode 15 = Caps_Lock add Lock = Caps_Lock .EE .SH ENVIRONMENT .PP .TP 8 .B DISPLAY to get default host and display number. .SH SEE ALSO X(1) .SH BUGS .PP Every time a \fBkeycode\fP expression is evaluated, the server generates a \fIMappingNotify\fP event on every client. This can cause some thrashing. All of the changes should be batched together and done at once. Clients that receive keyboard input and ignore \fIMappingNotify\fP events will not notice any changes made to keyboard mappings. .PP .I Xmodmap should generate "add" and "remove" expressions automatically whenever a keycode that is already bound to a modifier is changed. .PP There should be a way to have the .I remove expression accept keycodes as well as keysyms for those times when you really mess up your mappings. .SH COPYRIGHT Copyright 1988, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. .br Copyright 1987 Sun Microsystems, Inc. .br See \fIX(1)\fP for a full statement of rights and permissions. .SH AUTHOR Jim Fulton, MIT X Consortium, rewritten from an original by David Rosenthal of Sun Microsystems.
stripes@wam.UMD.EDU (06/28/89)
In article <2097@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> steved@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Steve Dempsey) writes: [stuff removed] >I would like to remap my keyboard so shift-comma/period produces the old ><angle> brackets. This was simple under X10, but now it looks like I must >have an Xdefault entry like: > > Xterm*Vt100*Keymap*Tranlations: Shift<key>,: string("<") > That does look un-nice, and not only that but it won't change the keys for dxmail, dxterm, xmh, and everything but xterm... >or some such thing. So what is the proper incantation, and where is it >documented? It's called xmodmap, there is a man page on our VAX, so you should have one too. I feed it this file which changes the <> keys as well as changeing the big "X in a Triangle like thing" key where the backspace belongs into a backspace (I use many termanls, and the VAXstation is the only one with a easy to find Delete key, so I set stty erase ^H...) feel free to change any or all of it... keycode 237 = period greater keycode 232 = comma less keycode 188 = BackSpace Delete !0xffff Delete > > Steve Dempsey, Center for Computer Assisted Engineering > Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 +1 303 491 0630 >INET: steved@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu, dempsey@handel.CS.ColoState.Edu >UUCP: boulder!ccncsu!longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu!steved, ...!ncar!handel!dempsey -- stripes@wam.umd.edu "Security for Unix is like Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The Mutitasking for MS-DOS" "The dyslexic porgramer" - Kevin Lockwood "A career is great, but you can't run your fingers through it's hair"
dike@flume.Berkeley.EDU (Jeff Dike) (06/28/89)
The following works for me: xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xe8 = comma less' xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xed = period greater' Jeff