Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re:  Request info on Key maps in X-11
Message-ID: <9012190732.AA03720@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 19 Dec 90 07:32:56 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

> HOw does one map a given key to a string of symbols in X-11?

> For example, I would like to bind the key labeled F1 on a SUN
> workstation to send out the string "hello".

In general, you can't.

As you discovered, xmodmap rearranges keys, rather than assigning
meanings to keys.

Some clients (those that use Xt?) accept a translations resource which
can usually specify this sort of thing; for example, something like the
folliwing works for xterm in a simple test I just ran using the -xrm
option:

xterm*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>F1: string(hello)

There is no general way, working across all clients, though.  You could
use

*Translations: #override <Key>F1: string(hello)

but that (a) doesn't let you further customize on an
application-specific basis and (b) works only for clients that
specifically deal with it (which may be automatic for the toolkit used,
but that's beside the point).

I have been thinking of various possible ways to deal with this problem
and have a couple of ideas I want to implement, but haven't gotten
around to actually doing anything yet....

					der Mouse

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			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu