Re: Some developement questions

[Filipp Gunbin <fgunbin@fastmail.fm>]

On 07/09/2018 09:18 +0200, hw wrote:

> Filipp Gunbin <fgunbin@fastmail.fm> writes:
>
> I've never used a Russian one.  That might make a nice collectors item
> :)

Believe me, there's really nothing special about it.  We usually switch
between English and Cyrillic layout.  All Cyrillic letters are put on
the keyboard directly, with no AltGr or anything like that.  If you
enable "russian-computer" input method in Emacs, you'll get the same as
we have on Russian keyboards.

>> You should have 2 Ctrl's and 2 Alt's (one of which could be AltGr) on a
>> German keyboard, so you should be in same situations as other users.
>
> AltGr is not an Alt key.  There is only *one* Alt key on German
> keyboards, and it's on the left side.
>
> They also have AltGr, and that is an entirely different modifier:
>
>
> keycode  64 = Alt_L Meta_L Alt_L Meta_L
> keycode  92 = ISO_Level3_Shift NoSymbol ISO_Level3_Shift
>
>
> These two keys do entirely different things.  A German keyboard is not
> usable for German when you turn AlGr into Alt.  An US keyboard is not
> usable for German because it is missing some important keys.
>
> IIRC, Alt is Mod4 and AltGr is Mod5.  Since they invented the additional
> useless keys, these keys have all become so small that the useless ones
> get in the way and it's difficult to hit what you want.  That's the only
> disadvantage of my current keyboard, otherwise it's even better than a
> Model M.  If it wasn't for that, I'd be using one of those.

Yes, I see from the article that you have that additional (third) level
of alteration, besides normal keys and shifted keys.

I see three German input methods in Emacs (`C-h I g e r TAB TAB'):
german, german-prefix, german-postfix.  Are they not enought for a
typical usage?  If not, then what do other German users here use?

As for Alt's, at least you have one normal Alt.  I have a similar
problem on Macbook, where we have two Command keys, and only one Ctrl.
I swapped them on OS level.  I also swapped resulting Ctrl with Alt, so
I have this: COMMAND CTRL ALT SPACE ALT CTRL without any fancy Emacs
settings.  Not all users actually use right Alt and Ctrl, but I do, so
it's important for me to have symmetric keys to the right of spacebar.

Filipp