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From: prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: International keyboards
Message-ID: <1759@hugo.erbe.se>
Date: 4 Sep 90 08:01:17 GMT
References: <1212@vision.UUCP>
Organization: ERBE DATA AB, Jarfalla, Sweden
Lines: 35

In a recent article ahall@vision.UUCP (Andy Hall) writes:

>On european keyboards some keys have an alternate character associated with
>them in addition to the normal shifted characters. This is normally accessed
>via an alt key to the right of the spacebar often labelled "Alt Gr". For 
>instance on a Danish PC keyboard the 7 key generates:
>
>	unmodified	7 	( seven )
>	shifted		/	( slash )
>	alt gr'ed       {	( left brace )

...which is true for many other European keyboard layouts as well.

>Question 2: Assuming the alt gr combination generates "XK_Alt_R down , XK_7 down
>" what mechanism is an X client/server meant to use to turn this into a left
>brace ? (i.e. should the Alt Gr be another modifier ? )

Yes, it really should. I think it's time to introduce the concept of
"group shift" (a la ISO IS 8884) into X.

>Question 3: Assuming the Alt Gr key is to be another modifier is there a
>standard for which modifier it is ?  and when will there be Xlib support for
>this modifier ?

There's no standard for this. I asked about the same thing just a few weeks
ago. Some brave vendors, like Data General, uses assigns the right Alt
key to "mod2" and uses the mod2 modifier as a secondary shift. Thus, it
becomes possible to enter all the characters on a Danish/Swedish/German/etc
keyboard using unshifted, shifted and Alt Gr'ed key combinations.

-- 
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).