IRK, mapping and dead keys

[dsavard]

I have a Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard and I am currently using the IRK package. I am trying to figure out how to remap the keyboard to something more suitable for my mother tongue, french-canadian. I looked at the IRK.conf file, but it is not obvious to me how I can use it, in particular for the dead keys when I need a sequence of two keys to draw a single glyph.

Someone can give me some hints...

[kopsis]

I don't recall seeing anything in the IRK source code to support "dead keys". About the only thing you could do would be use IRK.conf to map certain combinations (eg. Fn+E) to the Unicode character you want (eg. #0201: É). Note that you'll need different combinations for upper and lowercase accented letters. Not bad for a language with just a few extra letters, but not so good for a language with lots of different accented characters. Even if you can set up enough unicode mappings, remembering them all would be a real chore. It will be interesting to see if IRK 2.0 addresses this.

[dsavard]

Thanks for the answer, I hope 2.0 will address this problem or a not too far away subsequent version. Anything I can do to help with this? Becoming a beta tester?

[dsavard]

The web site for IRK is often not accessible from here, is it the same thing for other users? I tried many times to access it in order to get infos and the source code, I am getting a message saying the site is not accessible.

Could the author consider moving  his site to a more reliable server? sourceforge.net?

The site I am trying to access is the siter from the ZSI: IRK Web site

So, maybe someone can answer my question. Looking at the IRK.conf file, i don't understand the mapping method. What the first column is referring to?

For example, in the following entry:

S[7] = 50:@

What S[7] means? I guess S is for shift, but why [7]? How can I implement, if possible, something like Shift+AltGr+some key? This method would enable me to map the keyboard to the CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 Canadian keyboard without any dead keys (well, that's not the one I am acustomed to use, but at least there is a standard for something that can be very usable and already documented). It is working by assigning 3 levels and 2 modes to a single key, giving up to 6 different glyphs/actions for a single key. On the Targus keyboard, I may assign the "Done" key to CtrlLeft, "Today" to AltGr (don't know how yet...), this will make it possible to build the entire ANSI Canadian keyboard with minor deviations in a few keys positions on the physical keyboard.

So, the three levels are selected using: normal, Shift and CtrlLeft ("Done" physical key on the Targus). The two modes are selected using: normal and AltGr ("Today" physical key on the Targus).

[guylhem]

You mean this one : http://www.externe.net/clavier-normalise/

The one I use at the moment :-) Whose X and console-mode driver I made for the OLF :-) The best layout ever made to type in french.

Maybe beaujoie.com could design some nice stickers to map the japanese keys ?

[dsavard]

Exactement! Mais j'imagine que le tiens ce n'est pas un Targus sans-fil.  

Pas besoin d'auto-collants, c'est un clavier americain avec quelques touches supplementaires. Quant a l'ergonomie du clavier, faudra voir a l'usage, comme j'ai appris a taper sur des dactylos a une epoque reculee, il y a des habitudes qui sont difficiles a perdre. Ensuite, faut tout convertir, sinon c'est le bordel, ce qui implique au bas mot une demi-douzaine de claviers... Mais on verra, si je peux reconfigurer proprement le Targus...

[kopsis]

What S[7] means? I guess S is for shift, but why [7]? How can I implement, if possible, something like Shift+AltGr+some key?

The "7" in S[7] just means the seventh element in the array of shift key mappings. The actual numbers aren't important as long as all the shift key definitions use unique sequential numbers.

As for mapping Shift+AltGr+... that's not possible without hacking the source code. The way IRK is currently written, the only user definable mappings are for Shift+, Cmd+, Fn+, and Num+. There's no way to combine those and get something like Shift+Cmd+

[dsavard]

Thanks Dave. Anyone knows if by any chance this behavior has been changed in the upcoming version (2.0)?

I just sucessfully accessed the site this afternoon and was able to grab some info and the source code for 0.11.

[guylhem]

Non je n'ai pas un targus mais un Micro (le tout petit, infra rouge) que je vais bientôt remplacer par un bluetooth.

Niveau touches, j'aimerais avoir ÉÈÀÇ en touches propres, et ^"'`~ en touches mortes au minimum, et idéalement un clavier normalisé « standard ».

Vu le peu de touches sur les clavier actuels, pas encore possible. Il en faudrait 86 + pavé d'édition... en tout cas le nombre de touches sera un critère important pour l'achat du prochain clavier !

PS: j'ai contacté l'auteur d'IRK pour lui envoyer du code pour bluetooth et lui demander de faciliter le remappage du clavier pour ne pas avoir à éditer le code source. Un simple .map serait plus pratique !

[wayne]

Little bump here to ask is anyone came up with a decent french canadian adapted irk.conf file? dsavard maybe? Before pouring in hours of work, i'd like to know if anyone else did it before.

I now know dead keys aren't supported in the current irk, so a good map might be all I need afterall. Just a few accentuated characters to cover the basic.

[kopsis]

Wayne, what ROM/Zaurus are you using? I'm close to building a version of my Zkbdd IR keyboard drivers for Sharp (and compatible) ROMs (it's currently targeting pdaXrom). If it works it would give you much better control over custom key mapping. The keyboard specific parts of the driver are actually Lua scripts that you can tweak on the Z itself without the need to rebuild anything.

But my ability to test on Sharp ROM is pretty limited so I need volunteers to try it out and give me feedback. Interested?

[wayne]

I immediately volunteer for thorough testing and commenting

Here's my setup
Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard
Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 PXA250
Watapon 1.6.1 ROM (based on Sharp 1.32 ROM)

[lpetroni]

But my ability to test on Sharp ROM is pretty limited so I need volunteers to try it out and give me feedback. Interested?
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Don't know if my setup is ok but I also would like to help testing:

My setup:

SL-5500
Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard (same of Wayne I believe)
Sharp ROM v3.13

Brazilian-portuguese here, with lots of accented characters.

lpetroni

[kopsis]

I've been totally slammed with "real work" lately, but the Sharp ROM build of zkbdd is still on my todo list. Hopefully I can find a little free time over the holidays to catch up on some projects.

[wayne]

Heh, I know what being too busy feels like ...

Keep us posted.

I can't stand IRK anymore. I made a weird map to accomodate the french canadian layout, and now for fun, IRK decides to delete half my maps one in a while.