From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Physical keyboard events Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 18:44:36 +0200 Message-ID: <86froe6eq3.fsf@gnu.org> References: <86r07z58or.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="34760"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Cecilio Pardo Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Tue Oct 29 17:45:56 2024 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1t5pLv-0008rN-MW for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 29 Oct 2024 17:45:55 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1t5pLE-0004G1-UR; Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:45:13 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1t5pLD-0004FS-5n for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:45:11 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1t5pLB-0002Ry-2M; Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:45:10 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=MIME-version:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: Date; bh=eRgKlmYPgXrz1yv61cTZSc5Wv/R9UolSi5Cn9CIcFy0=; b=iK49nFgO6Fv0RK4P1wGu hht+gD549C9HF83c7iYuVn1JEBeG3NAn3eYsaTOTrnCHTIO8cp0gbiyuw+vxGWzXnbFGuoK4k8SeW y5U7YYoXtymZ2NgCnyg0wlUwO047K0yhM5LU05TrzP78MCRwVT5jSheC/BIuYE2+WI6ZnHktGkTI5 E6+pOAO7cSTy61z4XAzRqc/MXeKzEgTM2d/04rcldlGMiPhGBgcoRAdykeXOve48IyUXeChTEUHIX yX5o+D3mT/t5M9VeD2xbAyyEFcNbT/hvdgY4OGvX/I4RagSznBW0rAjX1aGWuj3Kckkfe8ptTEhby 84rNYz6w54cyfg==; In-Reply-To: (message from Cecilio Pardo on Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:07:16 +0100) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:324924 Archived-At: > Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:07:16 +0100 > Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org > From: Cecilio Pardo > > On 29/10/2024 14:40, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > > >> I'm planning to implement physical key press/release events for emacs. > >> I would add a new element to 'enum event_kind', that in turn would > >> send a new input event. This input event will be bound in > >> 'special-event-map' so that it will not modify the normal flow of > >> keyboard input. Platform dependent code would send these events > >> on key press and release. > > > > I hope these new events will not be sent at all times, only when some > > optional variable is set (similar to track-mouse, perhaps). I > > wouldn't want Emacs to start processing press/release events on Shift > > or Ctrl unless a Lisp program needs that, and I don't think we want to > > change our processing of keyboard such that instead of a single > > keypress with modifiers we need to process multiple key-press and > > key-release events when the user simply types on the keyboard. > > Thats why the events will be bound in special-event-map. Nobody will see > them, except for the code that handles them. We can of course > completely disable them with a variable. Even if no one sees them, bombarding the Emacs event queue with useless events will have its effect: Emacs will become more sluggish, some while-no-input loops will unexpectedly exit just because the user happened to touch the Shift key for some reason, etc. > > Physical keys also raise the issue of supporting input methods, > > keyboard layout switches, etc. > > I will define a list of keys: LeftShit, RightShift, LeftControl, etc. > The platform dependent code will decide which one was pressed. As events > will be invisible, I don't think we will interfere with input methods. I meant the non-modifier keys. When some OS feature redefines a key, low-level events will not know that, and will still consider the key labeled 'a' as 'a', even though I might have switched the keyboard to another language, where the key labeled 'a' actually produces a completely different character, say, 'ש'. > > However, on what systems and which Emacs configurations will it be > > possible to provide such a feature? > > I think all GUI systems can use this. So X (with or without any toolkit we support), PGTK, MS-Windows, and macOS -- all those let applications access low-level key events?