#113 Remap querty hardware keyboard -> dvorak

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: vbraun.n...@gmail.com

There is no way to remap the hardware keyboard on my ThinkPad Tablet with the shipped software. Since the boot loader is locked we can't change /system/usr/keylayout/*kl, so we can't even fix it. Since more and more tablets ship with usb hosts, being able to change the hardware keyboard mapping is more and more important.

This patch implements a querty->dvorak remapper, so I can connect a qwerty hardware usb keyboard and touch-type in dvorak on it. A new preferences setting is added to make it optional.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: Klaus.We...@gmail.com

Thank you for the contribution, and I like the idea of providing better support for hardware keyboards, but this patch seems to be a bit too special-purpose. I'd prefer to put this on hold until I finally make progress on customizable keymaps, but I definitely want to keep this in mind as a use case that the new system should support. In general, language switching should also support having a hardware keyboard do the right thing, but this is tricky.

One issue with the current patch is that it appears to assume that the hardware keyboard sends keycodes corresponding to a US QWERTY layout, and I don't think that's a safe assumption in general.

See also issue 84 (binding hardware keys to actions), issue 87 (Alt key support for hardware keyboards), and issue 13 (customizable key maps).

Status: Accepted

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: vbraun.n...@gmail.com

I agree of course that eventually the mapping of hardware keys/buttons should be much more customizable. My thoughts were that there should be a few popular keymaps, e.g. US dvorak, UK dvorak, UK azerty, and a user-definable keymap otherwise for all those wooky flip-out keyboards. It doesn't make sense to independently select hardware layout vs. keymap, for example you can't really map a German keyboard to ordinary (US) dvorak because the shape of the enter key.

Issue 13 seems to be unrelated - software keyboard layout should be independently selectable from hardware keymap. I touchtype dvorak but prefer querty for hunt&pecking on the soft keyboard - tactile and visual parts of the brain are apparently separate :-)

One thing that I only though of later is that I might have assumed honeycomb; Before the software keys might have been delivered to onKeyDown/onKeyUp, I just don't know for sure.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: vincent....@gmail.com

I don't know if it is the right place to post, but I want to remapp my azerty hardware keyboard. I used the patch given and some code from http://andruide.free.fr/AzertyKeyboard/ in order to remapp my bluetooth azerty keyboard. I know it's not the most beautifull approach to tackle this issue, but it works and I can use my hardware keyboard now :) I attach the patch, you may find it usefull.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: Klaus.We...@gmail.com

Thanks for the patch, I do plan to support hardware keyboards better but I still need to think about the best way to integrate it. I'd prefer to avoid having a large collection of ad-hoc remappings built into the code since that would turn into a maintenance headache.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: techgee...@gmail.com

Perhaps you can collaborate with the author of External Keyboard Helper. It's able to arbitrarily remap both Bluetooth and USB keyboards, including the ASUS Transformer series keyboard dock.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: gusch...@gmail.com

I ran into a similar problem with my Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The keys printed on the hardware keyboard are german layout, but it sends US keycodes. I'm going to try the remapper patch for me.
Maybe it will work for me too, would be nice.