Re: Japanese keyboard auto-detection

[Takuma Murakami <murakami at ipl dot t dot u-tokyo dot ac dot jp>]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 11:45:18 +0900
Kensuke Matsuzaki <zakki@peppermint.jp> wrote:

> As far as I tested, when I press Eisu_toggle key, I receive
> WM_KEYDOWN VK_DBE_ALPHANUMRIC. But I never receive WM_KEYUP
> until I press Katakana key, even if I release Eisu_toggle key.
> Also if I release Katakana key, I never receive WM_KEYUP.

Thanks to your observation I have noticed that I should
separate the problems on Japanese keyboards.  One is
the odd window messages, the other is the XKB layout.
I have no idea for the first one so I have worked on the
Eisu key on XKB layouts.

I have made an option 'eisu' for XKB.  It makes the Eisu
key act as Eisu_toggle when pressed without shift keys
and as Caps_Lock when pressed with shift keys.  I prefer
it because it is consistent with the Windows behaviour
as well as the physical imprints on Japanese keyboards.
However, it might confuse other users, especially those
come from UNIX.  So it should be considered whether
it suits the default of Japanese keyboards.

The attached are 'eisu' XKB symbol file (should be
placed in /etc/X11/xkb/symbols/ ) and the patch for
/etc/X11/xkb/rules/xfree86 .  After installing those,
setxkbmap -v 10 jp -option eisu
will bring out the eisu behaviour.

I hope this eisu option be the default for Japanese
keyboards in Cygwin if other Japanese users agree.

Takuma Murakami (murakami@ipl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp)

Attachment: eisu
Description: Binary data

Attachment: rules.xfree86.patch
Description: Binary data