Remapping characters/keysyms (not whole keys)
Monday, August 26, 2002 at 2:01 am
Posted by James A. Crippen
(1 messages posted)
I've used the RemapKey program (no idea where to get it, but try Google) to configure
all the Windows machines that I have to live with to use my really idiosyncratic
keyboard layout.
I have a Symbolics Lisp Machine (an XL1200) that has a particularly interesting keyboard
whose layout I fell in love with. Paul Graham has a picture
of the layout available. Note the position of the Control key, and how the Meta
(Alt to you PC people) key succeeds it going outward from the Spacebar, with the
other two Super and Hyper keys (which are also modifier keys like Control and Meta)
further out. Putting the Control key beneath your thumb is very convenient and doesn't
give you Emacs pinkie unlike the "next to A" position. The Rubout key functions
like BackSpace and the BackSpace key just moves the cursor back a space, without
deleting anything. Putting it next to the A key makes backspacing, a common action,
very easy and less stressful since it's in the home row.
My personal layout which I use on all Unix machines has BackSpace and CapsLock switched,
and Control, Meta, Super, and Hyper keys proceeding outward from the Spacebar. It
also has the square bracket and parentheses swapped because I type a lot more parens
in any given day than I type brackets. Having them unshifted is a great boon.
In Windows I've had no problem with most of the remapping (although I miss Super
and Hyper, and instead have to put up with the non-modifer keys of 'Windows' and
'Menu'). But I have yet to figure out how to swap brackets and parens. As far as
I've seen Windows only supports remapping keys and not what X Windows calls
"keysyms", or the characters that a key produces in a shifted or modified state.
So I'm curious -- how do I swap parens and brackets?
BTW, for those of you curious about the venerable Symbolics Lisp Machines,
see the Symbolics
Lisp Machine Museum.
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