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You say you imagine different layouts cause problems and sending Unicode characters would be better, but you did not give a single reason. I regularly use diff

by yiyus 8y ago

You say you imagine different layouts cause problems and sending Unicode characters would be better, but you did not give a single reason. I regularly use different keyboard layouts and it has never been a problem. It does not suppose any lost of time or engineering effort. When you have to usually communicate in different languages (which is common for the most part of the world), it is very useful. I have also built several keyboards, and I cannot imagine the pain it would be having to define a key for every Unicode character.

rwmj 8y ago
I gave several reasons: Every time I install a new computer I have to select the keyboard layout, or the layout is wrong and I cannot type properly. Think of all the user and engineering effort wasted to support this corner case of switching keyboard layouts (so the keycaps don't even match the keys sent), used by a tiny number of users. I personally know of how much work went into getting QEMU to support keyboard layouts. It has to convert characters back to scancodes so the guest OS can convert the same scancodes back to characters. It was a nightmare to get it right. Such a lot of effort for such a silly feature. > I have also built several keyboards, and I cannot imagine the pain it would be having to define a key for every Unicode character. What? There's no reason you would define a key for every Unicode character.
- yiyus 8y ago
  Many users do not even know that keyboard layouts can be changed. I think you are hugely overestimating the effort spent in this. I understand this could be tricky for QEMU, but emulators are always tricky. They are exceptional, not the norm. And what I don't understand, is how it would work in your ideal world. Let's assume we do not allow users to change keyboard layouts. How do I input characters for different languages? Am I supposed to have a different keyboard for every language or do I need a keyboard than can change layouts? Would those keyboards be included in laptops? How is this simpler than keyboard layouts in the OS? I do not say you would have to define a key for every Unicode character, but if the OS is expecting Unicode, either you have to define some way to send it from the keyboard, or you implement in the OS some mapping, but at that point you would just be using Unicode characters as scancodes and we would be back at square one.
nerdponx 8y ago
I have also built several keyboards, and I cannot imagine the pain it would be having to define a key for every Unicode character. What, like a QMK-style C macro for every Unicode code point? that's not the only way to design the API.

by yiyus 8y ago

rwmj 8y ago

I gave several reasons: Every time I install a new computer I have to select the keyboard layout, or the layout is wrong and I cannot type properly. Think of all the user and engineering effort wasted to support this corner case of switching keyboard layouts (so the keycaps don't even match the keys sent), used by a tiny number of users. I personally know of how much work went into getting QEMU to support keyboard layouts. It has to convert characters back to scancodes so the guest OS can convert the same scancodes back to characters. It was a nightmare to get it right. Such a lot of effort for such a silly feature. > I have also built several keyboards, and I cannot imagine the pain it would be having to define a key for every Unicode character. What? There's no reason you would define a key for every Unicode character.

yiyus 8y ago
Many users do not even know that keyboard layouts can be changed. I think you are hugely overestimating the effort spent in this. I understand this could be tricky for QEMU, but emulators are always tricky. They are exceptional, not the norm. And what I don't understand, is how it would work in your ideal world. Let's assume we do not allow users to change keyboard layouts. How do I input characters for different languages? Am I supposed to have a different keyboard for every language or do I need a keyboard than can change layouts? Would those keyboards be included in laptops? How is this simpler than keyboard layouts in the OS? I do not say you would have to define a key for every Unicode character, but if the OS is expecting Unicode, either you have to define some way to send it from the keyboard, or you implement in the OS some mapping, but at that point you would just be using Unicode characters as scancodes and we would be back at square one.

nerdponx 8y ago

I have also built several keyboards, and I cannot imagine the pain it would be having to define a key for every Unicode character. What, like a QMK-style C macro for every Unicode code point? that's not the only way to design the API.