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> Really, sending typed characters as UTF8 strings would be far preferable, and it wouldn't require processing power on the part of the keyboard (the keyboard w
by progman 12y ago
> Really, sending typed characters as UTF8 strings would be far preferable, and it wouldn't require processing power on the part of the keyboard (the keyboard would just send the strings, not parse them).
This is not a keyboard problem but simply a driver problem. Usually USB devices transmit a USB ID to the PC so that the PC can handle them appropriately. So if we simply had a customizable layer between USB keyboards and the application layer then your problem would be solved. If the layer knows the USB ID of your keyboard then it could choose the correct driver automatically so that you wouldn't have to worry about your french keyboard.
- seszett 12y agoBut why need such a layer when the keyboard could easily handle it itself? Each USB keyboard would need its own special driver to be installed on the system? Or would you have instead a large list of USB IDs and associated layouts? With some separate mechanism to allow custom layouts, or something. What's the problem with the keyboard knowing its own keys and just telling the symbol of the key that is pressed? Sure, it would still need some sort of escape sequence, or a way to mark whether a key's string is literal like Ù or symbolic like AltGr, but that doesn't sound too difficult. It would also make it less difficult to add a new symbol like € to keyboards.
- lloeki 12y ago> What's the problem with the keyboard knowing its own keys and just telling the symbol of the key that is pressed? Physical position, for which key codes are mostly† correct. Think ZQSD vs WASD. † for interesting definitions of "mostly"