XKeyCaps(1) X Version 11 (16-Aug-98) XKeyCaps(1)
NAME
xkeycaps - graphically display and edit the X keyboard
mapping
SYNOPSIS
xkeycaps [-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
DESCRIPTION
The xkeycaps program displays a keyboard. Moving the mouse
over a key describes the keysyms and modifiers that that key
generates. Clicking left on a key simulates a KeyPress
event. Clicking right on a key brings up a menu of
operations, including a command to change the keysyms that
the key generates. This program is, in part, a graphical
front-end to xmodmap(1).
OPTIONS
xkeycaps accepts all of the standard toolkit options, and
also accepts the following options:
-keyboard keyboard-name or -kbd keyboard-name
Specifies the type of keyboard to display. There are
many different computer keyboards in the world, and
xkeycaps must know which one you are using in order to
function correctly. Case does not matter when
specifying a keyboard name.
If you're running on the console display of a Sun or HP,
then xkeycaps will interrogate the attached keyboard
hardware directly to determine what keyboard you're
using. But if you're running remotely, or on another
type of machine, then you must specify a keyboard
somehow.
-help
Lists the recognized values for the -keyboard option.
-gutterwidth number or -gw number
Specifies the number of pixels of space to leave between
each key.
-font fontname
Specifies the font to use to display the keycaps.
The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments are
commonly used with xkeycaps:
-display host:dpy
This option specifies the X server to contact.
-geometry geometry
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This option specifies the preferred size and position of
the window.
-bg color
This option specifies the color to use for the
background of the window. The default is light gray.
-fg color
This option specifies the color to use for the
foreground of the window. The default is black.
-bw number
This option specifies the width in pixels of the border
surrounding the window.
-xrm resourcestring
This option specifies a resource string to be used.
This is especially useful for setting resources that do
not have separate command line options.
DISPLAY
The bottom part of the window is a drawing of a keyboard.
In the top left of each key is printed the string which
actually appears on the surface of the key. In the bottom
right of the key is the (hexadecimal) keycode that this key
generates.
At the top of the screen are several lines of text
describing the key under the mouse (or the most recently
typed key.) These lines are:
KeyCode: This displays the text printed on the physical
key, and the keycode generated by that key in
hex, decimal, and octal.
KeySym: This displays the set of KeySyms that this key
currently generates.
ASCII: This displays the ASCII equivalent of this key,
taking into account the current modifier keys
which are down.
Modifiers: this displays the modifier bits which this key
generates. If a key generates modifiers, it is
a chord-key like Shift or Control.
AutoRepeat: Whether the X server claims that this key
autorepeats. I say ``claims'' because the
OpenWindows X server is the only one I have
encountered for which this information is
accurate. The per-key autorepeat flag seems to
be almost-universally ignored.
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COMMANDS
There are several buttons in the upper left corner of the
window. They are:
Quit
Exits the program.
Select Keyboard
Pops up a dialog box from which you can change which
keyboard is displayed. The left column lists the known
types of keyboards, and the right column lists the known
layouts (mappings) of those keyboards.
Type At Window
After selecting this, you are asked to click on some
other window. After doing this, clicking on keys on the
keyboard display will simulate key events on the window
you selected. Selecting the root window or the xkeycaps
window turns this off.
If you are using a window manager (for example, twm(1))
in which you can lock the keyboard focus on a window and
still click on other windows without having the focus
change, then you can accomplish the same thing merely by
focusing on another window and clicking on the keys in
the xkeycaps window.
Restore Default Map
This command restores the keyboard to its default state.
If you execute this command while displaying a keyboard
which is not the type of keyboard you are really using,
your keymap will be in a nonsensical state. There is no
way for xkeycaps to tell what keyboard you are using
except by taking your word for it, so don't lie.
Write Output
This command writes an xmodmap input file representing
the current state of the keyboard (including all of your
changes) to a file in your home directory.
The file will be called .xmodmap-hostname, where
hostname is the name of the machine you're running on.
It will warn you if the file already exists.
It prompts you with a dialog box: you can either write
an xmodmap file representing the state of every key, or
you can write a smaller file which describes only the
changes.
The idea is that in the appropriate startup script, you
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would add a line like
xmodmap ~/.xmodmap-`uname -n`
in the appropriate init file, so that those keyboard
modifications are made each time you log in. (If you're
not sure where this command should go, ask your system
administrator, as that tends to vary from site to site.)
Clicking left on a key simulates a KeyPress event.
Releasing the button simulates a KeyRelease event. If you
click left on a key and move the mouse while the button is
down, KeyPress and KeyRelease events will be simulated on
every key you move the mouse over. Think of the mouse as
your finger: if you drag the mouse over several keys, they
will go down and up in turn.
Clicking left on a key which is associated with modifier
bits (such as Shift or Control) causes that key to ``lock''
down. Clicking left again releases the key. In this way,
you can generate key-chords with the mouse: to generate
Control-C, click left on the Control key, and then click on
the C key. Click on Control again to turn the control
modifier off.
Typing a key on the real keyboard simulates a
KeyPress/KeyRelease event pair in the same way that clicking
on a key does.
You can also combine mouse and keyboard input: for example,
if you use the mouse to select the Shift key, and type a
character, the event that is simulated will have the Shift
modifier set. And if you hold down the real Control key,
and click on the C key in the window, a Control-C event will
be generated. (Assuming, that is, that your window manager
does not intercept control-left-button for its own
purposes.)
Clicking right on a key pops up a menu of commands for the
given key. They are:
Exchange Keys
After selecting this menu item, you are asked to click
on another key. That key and the key on which you
brought up the menu will be exchanged. This changes the
keyboard mapping immediately.
Duplicate Key
After selecting this menu item, you are asked to click
on another key. That key will be made a copy of the key
on which you brought up the menu. That is, the two keys
will generate the same set of keysyms and modifiers.
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This changes the keyboard mapping immediately.
Disable Key
The key on which you brought up the menu will be made to
generate no keysyms and no modifiers. This changes the
keyboard mapping immediately.
Restore Key To Default
The key on which you brought up the menu will be
restored to its default state; no other key will be
altered. This actually changes the current keyboard
mapping.
Edit KeySyms of Key
This pops up the "Edit Key" window, which allows you to
arbitrarily change which keysyms and modifiers this key
generates.
On the left side of the window is the list of the
keysyms that this key currently generates. (A key may
generate up to eight keysyms; the interpretation of
these keysyms is described in the X protocol document,
and is summarized later in the KEYSYMS AND KEYCODES
section of this man page.)
The second column is a multiple-choice list of the eight
modifier bits that this key may generate. For example,
if you want a key to behave as a ``control'' key, you
should select the Control modifier.
The third and fourth column (the scrolling lists) are
for changing the keysym associated with the key. When
you select a keysym-position from the first column, the
character set and keysym will be displayed in the
scrolling lists. Clicking on a keysym in the ``KeySym''
column will install that keysym in the highlighted slot
in the first column.
To select a keysym from a different character set, click
on the character set name in the second column. (The
Latin1 and Keyboard character sets are the most commonly
used.)
At the bottom of the window are three buttons: Undo,
Abort, and Ok. Clicking on Undo reverts the Edit Key
window to the current state of the key in question.
Abort closes the Edit Key window without making any
changes. Ok closes the Edit Key window and installs
your changes (the current keyboard mapping is modified.)
KEYSYMS AND KEYCODES
To effectively edit your keyboard mapping, there are some
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terms you need to be familiar with:
KeyCode This is a raw scan-code that is read from the
keyboard; each physical key on the keyboard has a
different number associated with it; this mapping
cannot be changed (but that's ok.)
Generally, every keyboard has its own set of
KeyCodes, which is why you will probably need to
have a different keymap for every system you use.
KeySym This is a symbol which can be generated by a
single press of one key on the keyboard: for
example, all letters, numbers, and punctuation are
keysyms, and so are more abstract things like
``shift'' and ``control''.
Each KeyCode (that is, key on the keyboard) is
associated with certain KeySyms. The KeySyms are
what give the keys their semantics (and makes the
A key generate an A), not the KeyCodes.
Usually keys are associated with one or two
keysyms, which correspond to the symbols generated
when the key is pressed, and when it is pressed
while the shift key is held down. There is a
special case, which is that if the key contains
only one KeySym, and it is a letter, then the
Shift key does the obvious thing that one does to
letters.
KeyCap Not to be confused with KeySyms, this refers to
the text which is printed on the physical keys: it
is immutable (unless you repaint your keyboard...)
Chord This term refers to a set of two or more keys held
down simultaniously (by analogy with piano
keyboards.) All but one of the keys will
generally be Modifier Keys. Sometimes
Constellation is used to mean the same thing.
Modifier Key
This is a key like shift or control, which is used
to alter the interpretation of other keys which
are held down at the same time. Generally,
pressing a modifier key without also pressing a
non-modifier key does nothing.
A key is a modifier key if it has a Modifier
KeySym on it. (More specifically, if the KeyCode
of that key is associated with a Modifier KeySym.)
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Modifier KeySym
A KeySym is a modifier keysym if it has a Modifier
Bit associated with it. But, the rules are a
little more complicated than that. It's easier to
describe by example:
For a key to behave as one expects a shift key to
behave, the keycode should have the Shift modifier
bit set; and the key should generate one of the
keysyms Shift_L and Shift_R. If either of these
is not true, the key will not behave as a shift
key.
Analogously, a control key must have the Control
modifier set, and use one of the keysyms Control_L
or Control_R.
This implies that if you wanted to swap your shift
and control keys, it would not be enough to simply
swap their modifier bits: you must swap their
keysyms as well. If you only swap the modifier
bits, it might appear to work at first, but other
things would malfunction.
Keys like Meta (and Super, Hyper, etc.) are a bit
more complicated (see below.)
Modifier Bit
Modifier bits are attributes which certain keysyms
can have. Some modifier bits have predefined
semantics: Shift, Lock, and Control. The
remaining modifier bits (Mod1 through Mod5) have
semantics which are defined by the keys with which
they are associated.
That is, the Control modifier means Control if it
is attached to Control_L or Control_R, and is
illegal elsewhere.
But Mod1 means Meta if it is attached to Meta_L or
Meta_R; but it would mean Alt if it were attached
to Alt_L or Alt_R; or Hyper with Hyper_L or
Hyper_R; and so on. (It could not, however, be
attached to Control_L, since the Control modifier
has already spoken for those keysyms.)
If you're thinking that this is all senselessly
complicated... you're right.
X PROTOCOL DOCUMENT ON KEYMAPS
The following is a more precise technical explanation of how
keymapping works. This description is from the X Protocol
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document, and is reprinted here for your convenience:
A list of KeySyms is associated with each KeyCode. If
that list (ignoring trailing NoSymbol entries) is a
single KeySym ``K'', then the list is treated as if it
were the list ``K NoSymbol K NoSymbol''. If the list
(ignoring trailing NoSymbol entries) is a pair of
KeySyms ``K1 K2'', then the list is treated as if it
were the list ``K1 K2 K1 K2''. If the list (ignoring
trailing NoSymbol entries) is a triple of KeySyms ``K1
K2 K3'', then the list is treated as if it were the list
``K1 K2 K3 NoSymbol''.
The first four elements of the list are split into two
groups of KeySyms. Group 1 contains the first and
second KeySyms, Group 2 contains third and fourth
KeySyms. Within each group, if the second element of
the group is NoSymbol, then the group should be treated
as if the second element were the same as the first
element, except when the first element is an alphabetic
KeySym ``K'' for which both lowercase and uppercase
forms are defined. In that case, the group should be
treated as if the first element were the lowercase form
of ``K'' and the second element were the uppercase form
of ``K''.
The standard rules for obtaining a KeySym from a
KeyPress event make use of only the Group 1 and Group 2
KeySyms; no interpretation of other KeySyms in the list
is given here. (That is, the last four KeySyms are
unused.)
Which group to use is determined by modifier state.
Switching between groups is controlled by the KeySym
named Mode_switch.
By attaching that KeySym to some KeyCode and attaching
that KeyCode to any one of the modifiers Mod1 through
Mod5. This modifier is called the ``group modifier''.
For any KeyCode, Group 1 is used when the group modifier
is off, and Group 2 is used when the group modifier is
on.
Within a group, which KeySym to use is also determined
by modifier state. The first KeySym is used when the
Shift and Lock modifiers are off. The second KeySym is
used when the Shift modifier is on, or when the Lock
modifier is on and the second KeySym is uppercase
alphabetic, or when the Lock modifier is on and is
interpreted as ShiftLock. Otherwise, when the Lock
modifier is on and is interpreted as CapsLock, the state
of the Shift modifier is applied first to select a
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KeySym, but if that KeySym is lowercase alphabetic, then
the corresponding uppercase KeySym is used instead.
ICCCM ON THE MODIFIER MAPPING
The following is a more precise technical explanation of how
modifier keys are interpreted. This description is from the
Inter-Client Communications Conventions Manual, and is
reprinted here for your convenience:
X11 supports 8 modifier bits, of which 3 are pre-
assigned to Shift, Lock and Control. Each modifier bit
is controlled by the state of a set of keys, and these
sets are specified in a table accessed by
GetModifierMapping() and SetModifierMapping().
A client needing to use one of the pre-assigned
modifiers should assume that the modifier table has been
set up correctly to control these modifiers. The Lock
modifier should be interpreted as Caps Lock or Shift
Lock according as the keycodes in its controlling set
include XK_Caps_Lock or XK_Shift_Lock.
Clients should determine the meaning of a modifier bit
from the keysyms being used to control it.
A client needing to use an extra modifier, for example
Meta, should:
Scan the existing modifier mappings. If it finds a
modifier that contains a keycode whose set of keysyms
includes XK_Meta_L or XK_Meta_R, it should use that
modifier bit.
If there is no existing modifier controlled by
XK_Meta_L or XK_Meta_R, it should select an unused
modifier bit (one with an empty controlling set) and:
If there is a keycode with XL_Meta_L in its set of
keysyms, add that keycode to the set for the chosen
modifier, then
if there is a keycode with XL_Meta_R in its set of
keysyms, add that keycode to the set for the chosen
modifier, then
if the controlling set is still empty, interact
with the user to select one or more keys to be Meta.
If there are no unused modifier bits, ask the user to
take corrective action.
The above means that the Mod1 modifier does not necessarily
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mean Meta, although some applications (such as twm and emacs
18) assume that. Any of the five unassigned modifier bits
could mean Meta; what matters is that a modifier bit is
generated by a keycode which is bound to the keysym Meta_L
or Meta_R.
Therefore, if you want to make a ``meta'' key, the right way
is to make the keycode in question generate both a Meta
keysym, and some previously-unassigned modifier bit.
THE MODE_SWITCH KEYSYM
In case the above didn't make sense, what the Mode_switch
keysym does is, basically, act as an additional kind of
shift key. If you have four keysyms attached to the A key,
then those four keysyms will be accessed by the chords: A;
Shift-A, Mode_Switch-A; and Mode_Switch-Shift-A,
respectively.
Like any Modifier Key, for Mode_switch to function, it must
have a modifier bit attached to it. So, select one of the
bits Mod1 through Mod5 (whichever is unused) and attach that
to the Mode_switch key.
THE MULTI_KEY KEYSYM
Not to be confused with Mode_switch, Multi_key allows the
input of multiple character sequences that represent a
single character (keysym.) A more traditional name for this
keysym might have been Compose.
The Multi_key keysym is not a modifier keysym. That is, for
it to function properly, it should not have any modifier
bits associated with it. This is because it is not a
``chording'' key: you do not hold it down along with other
keys. Rather, you press Multi_key, then release it, then
press and release another key, and the two together yield a
new character.
For example, one traditional binding would be for Multi_key,
followed by single-quote, followed by A to produce the
Aacute keysym.
Not all vendors support the use of the Multi_key keysym; in
particular, Digital, Sun, and HP support it, but the X
Consortium does not. (The reason for this, I am told, is
that ``Compose'' sequences are considered obsolete; the
party line is that you should be using Input Methods to do
this.)
Whether Multi_key works is a property of the Xt library (not
the X server) so it's possible that on a single system,
Multi_key might work with some applications and not others
(depending on how those applications were compiled and
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linked.)
If you use Lucid Emacs or XEmacs, then you can take
advantage of Multi_key sequences even if your version of Xt
doesn't support it, by loading the x-compose library, which
simulates the traditional Xt behavior. For more info, read
the commentary at the top of the file
"/usr/local/lib/xemacs-*/lisp/x11/x-compose.el".
DEAD KEYSYMS
Dead keys work similarly Multi_key, but they are two-
keystroke commands instead of three. For example, pressing
the Dead_tilde key, releasing it, then pressing the A key
would generate the single keysym Atilde. (They are called
``dead'' keys because they do not, by themselves, insert
characters, but instead modify the following character
typed. But HP likes to call them ``mute'' instead of
``dead,'' no doubt to avoid frightening the children.)
Again, these are not supported by all versions of the Xt
library (but can be simulated by XEmacs.)
Also note that different vendors have different names for
the dead keysyms. For example: depending on your vendor, X
server version, and the phase of the moon, you might find
that the name of ``dead-tilde'' is Dead_Tilde, Dtilde,
SunFA_Tilde, SunXK_FA_Tilde, DXK_tilde, DXK_tilde_accent,
hpmute_asciitilde, hpXK_mute_asciitilde, or even
XK_mute_asciitilde. It's a mess! You'll have to just try
it and see what works, if anything.
THINGS YOU CAN'T DO
People often ask if xkeycaps or xmodmap can be used to make
one key generate a sequence of characters. Unfortunately,
no: you can't do this sort of thing by manipulating the
server's keymaps. The X keyboard model just doesn't work
that way.
The way to do such things is to set translation resources on
particular widgets. It has to be done on an application-
by-application basis. For example, here's how you would
convince xterm(1) to insert the string next when you hit
F17:
xterm*VT100.Translations: #override \
<Key>F17: string("next")
Other applications may have different mechanisms for
accomplishing the same thing, and some applications might
not support it at all. Check the relevant man pages for
specifics.
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Likewise, you can't convince one key to generate another key
with modifiers (for example, you can't make F1 behave like
Ctrl-A except by using translations, as above.)
It is also not possible to make a keyboard key behave as a
mouse button.
LOSER VENDORS
Both HP and S.u.S.E. ship their systems with broken keyboard
settings by default. They really should know better, but
they don't.
As explained above, it is undefined behavior for one
modifier bit to be shared between two keys with dissimilar
semantics.
By default, HP uses Mod1 for both Meta and Mode_switch.
This means that it's impossible for a program to tell the
difference between, for example, Meta-X and Mode_switch-X.
So, to repair this mess, you need to give the Mode_switch
key a different modifier bit (mod2, for example.) Or, you
could just remove it from the keymap entirely.
S.u.S.E. Linux is even more screwed up than HP: whereas HP's
default keymap contains only one bug, S.u.S.E.'s default map
contains three completely different errors!
First, their default keymap has the Control modifier
attached to both the Control key and the Multi_key. This is
completely crazy, because not only is Multi_key not a
control key, it's not even a chording key! It mustn't have
any modifier bits attached to it at all.
Second, they attach Mod1 to Meta_L and also to Alt_R. Some
people think that ``meta'' and ``alt'' are synonyms, but the
fact is that the X Window System does not agree. Those are
distinct keys. It's possible to have both ``meta'' and
``alt'' keys on the keyboard at the same time, and to have
programs interpret them distinctly. But of course only if
they don't bogusly share the same modifier bit, making the
interpretation of that bit be ambiguous.
Third, they attach Mod5 to both Scroll_Lock and to Hyper_R,
which is wrong for reasons that should by now be obvious.
The easiest way to fix your S.u.S.E. configuration is to:
remove control from Multi_key; change the left Alt key to
generate Alt_L instead of Meta_L; and delete the Hyper_R
keysym from the keyboard.
If you have any pull with these vendors, I encourage you to
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encourage them to get their act together.
X RESOURCES
XKeyCaps understands all of the core resource names and
classes as well as:
*Keyboard.keyboard (class Keyboard)
Which keyboard to display; this is the same as the
-keyboard command-line option. If this is not
specified, the default keyboard is guessed, based on the
server's vendor identification string.
*Keyboard.Keyboard.selectCursor (class Cursor)
The cursor to use when selecting a key or window with
the mouse. The default is the crosshair cursor.
*Keyboard.Key.highlight (class Background)
The color to use to highlight a key when it is
depressed. If this is the same as the background color
of the key, it is highlighted with a stipple pattern
instead.
*Keyboard.Key.keycapColor (class Foreground)
The color to paint the keycap string.
*Keyboard.Key.keycodeColor (class Foreground)
The color to paint the keycode number.
*Keyboard.Key.borderColor (class Color)
The color of the box around each key.
*Keyboard.Key.keycapFont (class Font)
The font to use to draw the keycap string.
*Keyboard.Key.keycodeFont (class Font)
The font to use to draw the keycode number.
*Keyboard.Key.borderWidth (class Int)
The thickness of the box around each key.
*Keyboard.Key.gutterWidth (class Int)
How many pixels to leave between this key and it's
neighbors to the right and bottom.
The class of each key widget is ``Key,'' as you see above.
The name of each key is the string(s) printed on its face.
So if you wanted (for example) the Shift keys to have wider
borders, you could specify that with
xkeycaps*Keyboard.Shift.borderWidth: 2
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ACTIONS
It is possible to rebind the actions which happen when a key
or mouse button is pressed or released. These actions are
available on the Keyboard widget:
HighlightKey(condition, arg)
This places the key in question in the highlighted
state.
If no argument is passed to this action, then the key is
determined by the event which invoked this action. If
this action is invoked by a KeyPress or KeyRelease
event, the key-widget is the key corresponding to the
key that the event represents. If it is a ButtonPress,
ButtonRelease, or PointerMotion event, then the key-
widget is the one under the mouse.
The argument may be one of the words mouse, highlighted,
or displayed, meaning the key under the mouse, the key
most recently highlighted, or the key currently being
described in the ``Info'' area at the top of the window,
respectively.
The condition may be one of the words ifmod, unlessmod,
iftracking, unlesstracking, ifhighlighted, or
unlesshighlighted. If ifmod was specified and the key
in question (as determined by the argument or by the
invoking event) is not a modifier key, then this action
is not executed. The unlessmod condition is the
opposite. The iftracking and unlesstracking conditions
allow you to do some actions only if (or unless) the key
is being ``tracked'' with the mouse (see below.) The
ifhighlighted and unlesshighlighted actions allow you to
do some things only if (or unless) the key in question
is currently in the highlighted state.
UnhighlightKey(condition, arg)
This places the key in question in the unhighlighted
state. Arguments are as above.
ToggleKey(condition, arg)
This makes the key be highlighted if it is
unhighlighted, or unhighlighted if it is highlighted.
Arguments are as above.
SimulateKeyPress(condition, arg)
This action makes a KeyPress event corresponding to the
key be synthesized on the focus window. Arguments are
as above.
SimulateKeyRelease(condition, arg)
This action makes a KeyRelease event corresponding to
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the key be synthesized on the focus window. Arguments
are as above.
TrackKey(condition, arg)
This makes the key in question begin being ``tracked'',
which means that moving the mouse off of it will
simulate a button-release action, and then will simulate
a button-press action on the key that the mouse has
moved on to. This action may only be invoked from a
ButtonPress or ButtonRelease event.
UntrackKey(condition, arg)
This makes the key in question no longer be ``tracked.''
DescribeKey(condition, arg)
This action causes the key and its bindings to be
displayed in the ``Info'' section at the top of the
window, if it is not already described there.
The default actions for the Keyboard widget are:
<Motion>: DescribeKey(mouse,unlessTracking) \n\
\
<KeyDown>: HighlightKey() \
DescribeKey(unlessMod) \
DescribeKey(displayed) \
SimulateKeyPress() \n\
\
<KeyUp>: UnhighlightKey() \
DescribeKey(displayed) \
SimulateKeyRelease() \n\
\
<Btn1Down>: HighlightKey(unlessMod) \
ToggleKey(ifMod) \
TrackKey(unlessMod) \
SimulateKeyPress(ifHighlighted) \
SimulateKeyRelease(unlessHighlighted) \n\
\
<Btn1Up>: UntrackKey(highlighted) \
SimulateKeyRelease(highlighted,unlessMod) \
UnhighlightKey(highlighted,unlessMod) \n\
\
<Btn3Down>: XawPositionSimpleMenu(keyMenu) \
MenuPopup(keyMenu) \n
If you don't want a key to be described each time the mouse
moves over it, you can remove the <Motion> action. In that
case, you should probably add DescribeKey() to the
<Btn1Down> and <KeyDown> actions.
If you want the key under the mouse to be described even
while the mouse is moving with a button down, then remove
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the unlessTracking parameter from the DescribeKey action
bound to <Motion>.
If you don't want the modifier keys to toggle, then change
the Button1 actions to
xkeycaps*Keyboard.actions: #override \
<Btn1Down>: HighlightKey() \
TrackKey(unlessmod) \
SimulateKeyPress() \n\
<Btn1Up>: UntrackKey(highlighted) \
SimulateKeyRelease(highlighted) \
UnhighlightKey(highlighted) \n
Remember that these actions exist on the Keyboard widget,
not on the Key widgets. If you add actions to the Key
widgets, things will malfunction.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY
to get the default host and display number.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the
global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER
property.
XKEYSYMDB
to get the location of the XKeysymDB file, which lists
the vendor-specific keysyms.
UPGRADES
The latest version can always be found at
http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/
SEE ALSO
X(1), xmodmap(1), xset(1), xdpyinfo(1)
BUGS
Because this program has default colors that aren't "black"
and "white", the -rv command-line option doesn't work. But
the incantation
% xkeycaps -fg white -bg black -bd white
will do what you want on a monochrome screen.
The NeXT default map is believed to be incorrect; someone
with access to a NeXT will need to debug this.
There is no portable way to be sure what keyboard is being
used; this means it will often not default to the correct
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one, and if the user makes changes to the keymap while
displaying a keyboard which is not the right one, very bad
things can happen.
If you depress more than a dozen keys at a time, many X
servers get confused, and don't transmit enough KeyRelease
events; the result of this is that the xkeycaps keys will
get ``stuck'' until they are pressed again. (Don't go like
that.)
The AutoRepeat flag is apparently useless on all X servers
except the OpenWindows one (I've never seen another server
that didn't ignore it.)
You don't get to select from the set of Vendor keysyms
(those keysyms which are defined in the XKeysymDB file)
unless you're running X11r5 or newer.
NCD's non-US keyboards do not use the standard R4/R5
mechanism for attaching more than two keysyms to one key;
instead of simply having three or four keysyms attached to
the keycode in question, the Compose key changes the actual
keycode of the key (it turns its high bit on.) The xkeycaps
program doesn't really understand this. Someone from NCD
support told me that in future releases they will do things
the R4/R5 way instead of the way they do things now, so
hacking xkeycaps to understand the current behavior is
probably not worth the effort.
The Type at Window command doesn't seem to work on the
WreckStation version of XTerm. I assume some variation of
the normal XTerm's Allow SendEvents command is necessary.
If you can't select anything from the right-button popup
menu, it might be because you have NumLock or CapsLock down.
I'm not sure how to fix this, it seems to be some dumb Xt
thing.
If the popup menu is always greyed out, or doesn't
correspond to the key that you clicked on, it might be
because you're running xswarm, an old version of xautolock,
or some other program that antisocially interferes with
event-propagation. (Don't go like that.)
Because of the nonlinear way in which this program uses
XLookupString, there's no sensible way for it to do compose
processing, and show you the results of ``dead'' key or
Multi_key sequences.
It needs to know about more keyboard types (and no doubt
always will...)
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L-shaped keys aren't drawn accurately. We should use the
Shape extension for that.
In addition to displaying the ASCII version of the given
character, it should display the corresponding character in
the character set (Latin2, Kana, Greek, etc.) This would
require having fonts for all of those character sets,
though, and as far as I can tell, they don't all come
standard.
When running on a Sun and talking to an OpenWindows server,
we should parse the appropriate file from
$OPENWINHOME/etc/keytables/ to determine the default keymap.
No doubt there are system-specific ways of doing this in
other environments as well.
The HP C compiler complains about "invalid pointer
initialization" in the header files. This is a bug in that
compiler, not in xkeycaps. This compiler bug goes away if
you invoke HP's cc with the the -Aa (ANSI) option.
The xmodmap program still sucks. Since its ADD and REMOVE
directives take keysyms as arguments instead of keycodes,
there are things that you can do with XKeyCaps that you
can't represent in an xmodmap script (at least, not without
great pain.)
The xmodmap program has no commands for changing the
autorepeat status of keys, so that information is not
written in the output. Perhaps we could write out an
appropriate xset command instead. (For example, to turn on
autorepeat on PgUp (which happens to have key code 103) on
Solaris, you would do: "xset r 103".)
Some versions of OpenWound use a nonstandard mechanism for
specifying which keys have toggle (lock-like) behavior
(whereas most other X servers base this behavior on the
keysym: if Caps_Lock or Shift_Lock is generated, the key
locks, otherwise it does not.) XKeyCaps doesn't know how to
change the lock status on these servers. This is because I
don't know how, either. If you know what system calls are
necessary to hack this behavior, tell me.
The XKB interface of X11R6 looks to provide most of the
information which xkeycaps needs to know, but I haven't had
time to investigate this yet.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright c 1991-1999 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use,
copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all
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XKeyCaps(1) X Version 11 (16-Aug-98) XKeyCaps(1)
copies and that both that copyright notice and this
permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No
representations are made about the suitability of this
software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
express or implied warranty.
AUTHOR
Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 10-nov-91.
Please send me any changes you make! Especially new
keyboards. The strength of this program lies in the fact
that it knows about so many different keyboards, thanks to
the hundreds contributions I've received over the years. If
you have to make your own modifications, please do your
part! Send the changes back to me so that I can incorporate
them into a future release.
Thanks to:
Jonathan Abbey, Alon Albert, Vladimir Alexiev, David
Arnold, David Axmark, Ruediger Back, Pedro Bayon, Corne
Beerse, Eric Benson, Christoph Berg, Markus Berndt,
Roger Binns, Stefan Bj|rnelund, black@westford.ccur.com,
Mark Borges, Volker Bosch, Dave Brooks, Lorenzo M.
Catucci, Michel Catudal, Francois Regis Colin, John
Coppens, Cesar Crusius, Bart Van Cutsem, Matthew Davey,
Christopher Davis, Albrecht Dress, Kristian Ejvind,
Michael Elbel, Joe English, Eric Fischer, Morgan
Fletcher, Olivier Galibert, Carson Gaspar, Andre
Gerhard, Daniel Glastonbury, Christian F. Goetze, Dan R.
Greening, Edgar Greuter, John Gotts, Berthold Gunreben,
Jens Hafsteinsson, Adam Hamilton, Magnus Hammerin,
Kenneth Harker, Ben Harris, Mikael Hedin, Tom Ivar
Helbekkmo, Mick Hellstrom, Neil Hendin, Andre Heynatz,
Mike Hicks, Alan Ho, Hide Horiuchi, Dirk Jablonowski,
Alan Jaffray, Anders Wegge Jakobsen, Chris Jones, Jorgen
Jonsson, Peter Kaiser, Heikki Kantola, Tufan Karadere,
Benedikt Kessler, Philippe Kipfer, Edwin Klement, John
Knox, Haavard Kvaalen, Frederic Leguern, Simon Leinen,
Michael Lemke, Tor Lillqvist, Torbj|rn Lindgren, Tony
Lindstrom, Richard Lloyd, Ulric Longyear, Ulf Magnusson,
Cliff Marcellus, John A. Martin, Tom McConnell, Grant
McDorman, Hein Meling, Jason Merrill, Aleksandar
Milivojevic, Manuel Moreno, Ken Nakata, Pekka Nikander,
Todd Nix, Leif Nixon, Christian Nybo, Antoni Pamies
Olive, Edgar Bonet Orozco, Steven W. Orr, Martin
Ouwehand, Daniel Packman, John Palmieri, Chris Paulson-
Ellis, Eduardo Perez, Michael Piotrowski, Andrej
Presern, Jeremy Prior, Dominique Quatravaux, Matthias
Rabe, Garst R. Reese, Peter Remmers, Todd Richmond, Ken
Rose, Pavel Rosendorf, Gael Roualland, Lucien Saviot,
Johannes Schmidt-Fischer, Andreas Schuch, Larry
Schwimmer, Joe Siegrist, Jarrod Smith, Tom Spindler,
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Robin Stephenson, Joerg Stippa, D. Stolte, A. A.
Stoorvogel, Juergen Stuber, Markus Stumpf, Jeffrey
Templon, Jay Thorne, Anthony Thyssen, Christoph Tietz,
tkil@scrye.com, Juha Vainikka, Poonlap Veeratanabutr,
Ivo Vollrath, Gord Vreugdenhil, Ronan Waide, Jan
Wedekind, Bj|rn Wennberg, Mats Wichmann, Stephen
Williams, Barry Warsaw, Steven Winikoff, Carl Witty,
Stephen Wray, Endre Witzoe, Kazutaka Yokota, Yair Zadik,
and Robert Zwickenpflug.
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