chrisj@netcom.COM (Christopher T. Jewell) (02/11/91)
In a former life I used a Sun workstation. When I started working for that employer, I typed `man kb', perused the output for a while, and then hacked on an existing C program until it issued enough ioctl() calls to: 1. remap the keyboard to my notion of a Dvorak layout; 2. turn the linefeed key into an additional control key (emacs is much more pleasant with control keys, as well as meta keys, on both sides); 3. Turn one of the left-side function keys into a caps lock. Now I find myself using an IBM Xstation 120 attached to an RS-6000, and I want to do at least the first part of the same trick, and preferably also get the Ctl/Act key on the right hand side of the keyboard to be just a control key, at least in emacs. Unfortunately, there seems to be no such man page as ``kb''. Hence the following questions: 1. Is the information analogous to Sun's "man kb" available in AIX, but someplace that I haven't thought to look yet, or doesn't the information exist at all? (If the information is available, but only for the console keyboard, I might be able to arrange a swap with the coworker who is now using the machine's console.) 2. Can someone confirm (or deny) my suspicion that the Xstation keyboard is compatible with the PS/2 keyboard, and someone (else?) point me to a vendor of Dvorak keyboards for the PS/2 (or better still, Dvorak keyboards explicitly sold for use on the Xstation)? Please email responses and I'll summarize. adTHANKSvance. -- Chris (Christopher T. Jewell) chrisj@netcom.com apple!netcom!chrisj
chrisj@netcom.COM (Christopher T. Jewell) (02/19/91)
In article <23602@netcom.COM> I requested pointers to information on either replacing the keyboard of an IBM Xstation 120 with one which has a Dvorak layout, or remapping the keyboard of the same Xstation, attached to an RS/6000 running AIX, by software means. No one offered a hardware source for Dvorak keyboards, but several people replied with help on software remapping, summarized below. The Short Summary: ``man xmodmap'' (for X on any platform); ``man keycomp'' (specific to RS/6000); The Long Summary: Peter Halvorson (ne201ph@prism.gatech.edu) was the first to reply, pointing out that under X Windows the program xmodmap permits one to remap the keyboard. Sure enough, ``man xmodmap'' provided all the information I needed. Barbara La Scala (bfls@cain.anu.edu.au) not only pointed to xmodmap, but also sent along a pair of data files which can be passed to xmodmap on Suns (probably on the RS/6000 as well, I'm not sure), one to switch to the Dvorak layout, and the other to switch back to the Sholes (qwerty) layout. Charlie Pilzer (clp@beartrack.com) also mentioned xmodmap, and recommended the O'Reilly books on X, with the answers to my question starting on page 227 of Volume 3 'X User's Guide'. Aaron Dailey (bldvm4.iinus1.ibm.com!daileyaj) referred me to the man page for an IBM-specific program named keycomp, which appears to provide even more powerful keyboard remapping than xmodmap does. (If for some strange reason you wanted holding down the control key and typing N to generate LineFeed instead of ShiftOut, keycomp could do it, while xmodmap couldn't.) Birger Wathne (birger@sdata.no) offered somewhat different X solutions: >Just make a resource file for you favourite terminal window. >if you normally use xterm, make a resource file called XTerm somewhere in >your XAPPLRESDIR or XUSERFILESEARCHPATH. You can remap the keyboard using >these resources. Talk to some friendly X guru. > >You can also have different mappings and have xterm use them by invocing >it with the -name option. That way "xterm -name Dvorak" would give one >layout while just xterm could be the ordinary default. > >Of course this way you will have to remap for all applications. > >You could also try adding these keybindings to your .Xdefaults >file. It should be possible to make them global there, but i have not tried it. Jim Roskind (jar@hq.ileaf.com) offered to send me some files which could lead me towards an X solution, and also mentioned Seasoned Systems (1-800-334-5531) for a DOS solution. One final note: the man page for xmodmap mentions that some windows may ignore the remapping events provided by xmodmap and keep on interpreting keystrokes based on the mapping in effect when the window was created: it does *not* mention that aixterms are among the windows which don't understand remapping. At first I was annoyed by that, but it's actually useful: I can iconify the aixterm which gets opened at xinit time and leave it in a corner of my display for the benefit of coworkers who might want to type on my terminal (perhaps to demonstrate a problem or solution to me) without having to learn Dvorak typing. If anyone wants a copy of my xmodmap data file and/or the ones Barbara sent me, just send me email. Thank you Aaron, Barbara, Birger, Charlie, Jim, and Peter. (If anyone else tried to reply but your email bounced or got dropped on the floor, thanks for making the effort anyway.) -- Chris (Christopher T. Jewell) chrisj@netcom.com apple!netcom!chrisj