Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!oberon!cit-vax!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!oster
From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: International Macs + new user interface = ?
Message-ID: <22366@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 2 Jan 88 10:04:49 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
Lines: 38

Two questions about writing compatible macintosh software:

How do international issues effect <Cmd>-?
How do international issues effect the function keys on the large 
	keyboard?

1.) How do international issues effect <Cmd>-?.
<Cmd>-? is an evolving standard for help in the Macintosh environment,
yet, if the user actually holds down the <Cmd> key and hits the question
mark key, the system software shows my application a <Cmd>-/ keyDown
event.  I am capable of writing <Cmd>-/ as a synonym for <Cmd>-?, but 
what about non-American keyboards? Surely the '?' is not above the '/'
on every keyboard Apple will ever sell, anywhere in the world?
How do I do the right thing for all the foreign language keyboards that
Apple might introduce. (I want my software to work, well into the future.)

2.) How do international issues effect the function keys on the large 
	Apple Desktop Bus keyboard?
With the default 'KMAP' resource, the large Apple Desktop Bus returns the
same ASCII codes for <Clear> and <Escape>.  All the new special function keys 
(keys F1-F15, (these are not the <Cmd>-<Shift>-<numeral> keys)) return
the same ASCII code.  The user can use the <Control> key and the ordinary 
letters to generate any ASCII code.  How does Apple expect programmers to
work with this?  I can look at the keyNumber, and so tell one key from
another, but in the past Apple has specificly asked developers not to depend
on the key numbers, because the key numbers change from model to model, and
because different national keyboards (the French and English keyboards, for
example) generate different key numbers for keys in the same position.

Am I expected to install a custom 'KMAP' in my applications to map the low
function keys to Apple's suggested undo, cut, copy, paste, and clear?
If so, am I expected to swap it out in reponse to a SUSPEND event and swap
it back in response to a RESUME event?


--- David Phillip Oster            --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II.
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60.
Uucp: {uwvax,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu