From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "rgb" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Using as a modifier key? Date: 15 Apr 2005 09:57:12 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1113584232.446550.117230@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> References: <1113506746.840445.204070@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1113584351 31544 80.91.229.2 (15 Apr 2005 16:59:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 16:59:11 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 15 18:59:10 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DMU8z-00021C-2J for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:58:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DMUCW-0004XA-3o for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:01:52 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 28 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.74.20.73 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1113584263 7120 127.0.0.1 (15 Apr 2005 16:57:43 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 16:57:43 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: User-Agent: G2/0.2 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com; posting-host=198.74.20.73; posting-account=C7LM4w0AAAD23IRuMuUUJVCLQTuHhTK8 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:130165 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:25733 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:25733 > I'd love to have an extra modifier key that I can use together with > the full range of "normal" keys to bind new commands. > > Maybe this is not possible at all, maybe those keys are, > hardware-wise, special? > I'm no expert but I don't believe the key is any different than function keys, the arrow keys etc. , etc can all be mapped. It's a convenient prefix key which is why I use it for C-x & C-c. I'm pretty sure applications aren't normally notified when modifier-keys are pressed. They are only informed of the state of the modifier-flags-word when a non-modifier key is pressed. IOW when you press 'h' Emacs gets a message with one word showing the state of the modifier-flags and another showing the key that was pressed. This way the OS/keyboard-driver can implement handicap features like anti-bounce, sticky keys, virtual keyboards etc without applications needing to know they exist. Making a modifier would require fiddling with the driver. Try looking here for a loophole you can take advantage of if you're energetic about a way to do it. Otherwise you've got 8 unused prefix keys available thru it.... http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/default.mspx