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From: prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: More than two keysyms per keycode?
Message-ID: <1742@hugo.erbe.se>
Date: 16 Aug 90 21:20:17 GMT
Organization: ERBE DATA AB, Jarfalla, Sweden
Lines: 25

Many keyboards for international use has more than two characters
engraved on the keytops. For example, on most 102 key PC keyboards,
there's a key to the left of the 'Z' key on a U.S. keyboard with
"<" and ">" on the top (unshifted and shifted, respectively) and "|"
on the front (to be accessed by the use of the "Alt" key). Most
keys on the top row uses a similar scheme (the "2" key has '2', '"'
and '@' on it, for example).

Here's the problem: most X implementations doesn't allow more
than two keysyms per keycode, unshifted and shifted. There are
some vendors who has added support for both a second and, in some
cases, a third modifier to their libraries. How can one ensure that
a keyboard mapping that uses two or more modifiers and that works
with one vendors's X product will work in the same way with some other
vendor's X product?

As it is now, I can choose to either use a U.S. mapping or a national
mapping, but there's no way (on most hosts) to have access to all the
possible characters from the keyboard (say, both a-dieresis and @).

-- 
Robert Claeson                  |Reasonable mailers: rclaeson@erbe.se
ERBE DATA AB                    |      Dumb mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se@sunet.se
                                |  Perverse mailers: rclaeson%erbe.se@encore.com
These opinions reflect my personal views and not those of my employer (ask him).