i recently bought an ergonomic keyboard from GOLDTOUCH, and it's got
a really un-ergonomic placement for the control key. i want to swap it with
the 'help' key, which i've never even had on a keyboard before. but
none of the keymapping utilities i've found (doublecommand, ukulele)
seem to recognize that key. i guess it's really not standard on Mac
keyboards. (kudos to apple, the help key does actually launch online help
in some contexts. but i only ever hit it accidentally, while groping
for the control key, so it still SUCKS!)
anyway, since there's source for doublecommand here, i assume i
could download it and modify it to solve my problem, eventually.
but i'm sure people have had this problem or something like
it before. is there a general HOWTO somewhere for modifying
the doublecommand source to perform any old keyboard remapping not
supported in the standard list of remappings?
or has anybody here already solved swapping the HELP and
control keys on an external keyboard? =)
thanks very much for your help key help,
-mykle-
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I've done this a few times already (albeit with regular keyboards), and this is how I do it:
1. Start by activating debug mode in the DoubleCommand preference pane, so that keypresses are logged into /var/log/system.log. Write down the keycodes for the specific keys you want to change on your keyboard, both the original code and the code as currently rewritten by DC, if there is a difference.
2. While you do that, watch out for any remapping you might have done in the Keyboard System Preferences, those will occur upstream of DC if I recall correctly.
3. Now look into the source (Substitute.cpp in particular), and implement your changes based on how DC's options are implemented.
4. Keep in mind that Control is not a regular key but a modifier, so the code is a bit different. There are several options that alter Control's behavior already, so this will not be very difficult to understand.
5. Build the modified source and load the resulting keyboard extension, then test with debug mode to determine whether it's working.
HTH...
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
hi.
i recently bought an ergonomic keyboard from GOLDTOUCH, and it's got
a really un-ergonomic placement for the control key. i want to swap it with
the 'help' key, which i've never even had on a keyboard before. but
none of the keymapping utilities i've found (doublecommand, ukulele)
seem to recognize that key. i guess it's really not standard on Mac
keyboards. (kudos to apple, the help key does actually launch online help
in some contexts. but i only ever hit it accidentally, while groping
for the control key, so it still SUCKS!)
anyway, since there's source for doublecommand here, i assume i
could download it and modify it to solve my problem, eventually.
but i'm sure people have had this problem or something like
it before. is there a general HOWTO somewhere for modifying
the doublecommand source to perform any old keyboard remapping not
supported in the standard list of remappings?
or has anybody here already solved swapping the HELP and
control keys on an external keyboard? =)
thanks very much for your help key help,
-mykle-
Hi,
I've done this a few times already (albeit with regular keyboards), and this is how I do it:
1. Start by activating debug mode in the DoubleCommand preference pane, so that keypresses are logged into /var/log/system.log. Write down the keycodes for the specific keys you want to change on your keyboard, both the original code and the code as currently rewritten by DC, if there is a difference.
2. While you do that, watch out for any remapping you might have done in the Keyboard System Preferences, those will occur upstream of DC if I recall correctly.
3. Now look into the source (Substitute.cpp in particular), and implement your changes based on how DC's options are implemented.
4. Keep in mind that Control is not a regular key but a modifier, so the code is a bit different. There are several options that alter Control's behavior already, so this will not be very difficult to understand.
5. Build the modified source and load the resulting keyboard extension, then test with debug mode to determine whether it's working.
HTH...