Database Users

Ctrl Key - Does it exist or how?

Has anybody worked out if the keyboard has a Ctrl key or a function that works like Ctrl , handy when quitting apps eg Ctrl Q.
Or editing.
I couldnt find it when I used the device.
Cheers

That's very strange because I have it on my MDA II's touchscreen keyboard. Are you talking about the touchscreen keyboard that you have to pop up by pressing the up arrow in the lower right-hand corner in the Messages app for instance?
I wonder whether this feature would also be ROM-dependent.

i meant the hard keyboard not sip. its on sip but when i used the universal i couldnt see it.

Yes I am interested in the Ctrl button on the universal as well, I owned a XDAIIs and found the keyboard on that didn't have the Ctrl key either so you can't do CUT/COPY or paste unless there is another way. I cut and paste heaps so the keyboard was useless to me on the XDAIIs.
Any one know if there is another way to do this on the Universal Keyboard.

what a wind up this is, cant believe they missed the ctrl button off the proper keyboard.

The keyboard has Cut/copy/paste function, so I am happy.
Jasjar is the most awesome PPC Phone yet.

there is a screen tap key (a bit like the right mouse click key on a full computer) this brings up the menu option, with copy and cut in it !! then you can just pres the relevant letter on the keyboard, thus having the same effect (ie press a function key then C or T or V).
PS its Fn [Space] key

cool... i wondered what that key did! that is useful!

[ctrl] is used for more things than copy+paste.
I use my Exec to communicate with *NIX servers using Pocket PuTTY. [ctrl] is kind of essential.

Agree, using putty is a nightmare without a ctrl key. Is there any way of mapping another key to do the same function

Question about Wizard keyboard

Does it has ESC key ?
I hate ppc "virtual" keyboard (default, RESCO, ...) because they cant send ESC key. This is important when you are using "vi" on PocketPutty application.
Or anyone know any virtual keyboard that has ESC key ?
Thanks

From the pictures and the I-mate K-JAM manual it doesnt appear to. Stop using VI, its terrible ;p

no it does not have a esc key

dvoraksip in the SDK does send escape keys (most complete keyboard I've seen, sends ctrl, alt, win key, has backspace and delete etc). But it helps if you can type using dvorak!
You could write a program to send custom keystrokes. I wrote a program once upon a time to send any keycode to current app, and this could be assigned to a hardware key etc. But it's a bit of a waste of a hardware key.
V

Escape key?
Maybe, but I am not sure about Escape key defined in Unicode:
http://ae.inc.ru/
AEKMap - AE Keyboard Mapper for Windows Mobile
J.

thereaperman said:
no it does not have a esc key
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nor a CTRL key. So a bit limited for terminal applications then!
You can get ^ and [ by using the Sym modifier on the Space key on H and K.
Dunno if that can be persuaded to send the CTRL-[ escape sequence though.

Vijay555 - how to set a right SHIFT key?

Hi Vijay, I try your keypress utility on my Universal. However, have problems setting a "shift" key on the videocall hard botton. I changed the value to 16 according to the keylist. Any advice on this? Thanks.

stanip: this should be moved to the VJKeyPress thread...
VJKeypress can be used to simulate a key press, but for shift, it's like on your pc, just pressing shift and releasing. It won't do anything. I imagine what you want to do is simulate pressing and holding shift, to make CAPITALS. It doesn't do that.
I did make a set of programs to do this, pressing and holding shift, ctrl and alt, but I didn't release them because Tom Hiro's PQz came along and is an amazingly useful program. Try Tom's PQz, and if you get really stuck I'll see about releasing my app. Mine works usefully on non Universals as well, eg Magician (my main phone), but there are issues with the way the Operating System responds to having these keys held down, so it wasn't worth finishing off at the time.
V

Vijay, PQz is a great tool but I failed to find any feature to set a "shift" key for capital letters... Have been looking for this as I use Word quite often. The right shift key will save me the thumb stretch reaching out to the other side. Thanks.

stanip: it might be worth asking Tom to add any features you want, he's actively updating it seems!
I will look into the Shift key issue again, but I'm a bit busy on a few other projects. It might happen soon if I can get it out.
V

Vijay, already suggested to Tom... believe he is prioritizing it. Initially thought the keypress could solve this one faster.
It would be great if yours could help with this request.

Remapping CTRL to HW keyboard using AEKmap or any other good solution?

I want to remap the ctrl button to the HW keyboard. I did some searcing on it and found PQzII, but thats not the best solution in my opinion.
Is it possible to map it using AEKmap? I dont know if Im missing something on how it works or what, but I could not get it work with it...
Smarter ones please help...

have not yet managed to do that with AEKmap. Event talked to the programmer. Seems to be a problem with some eT9 files. you can try one of the T9 remover CABs he posts in the AEK FAQ. no luck yet here...something seems to already catch the keyboard input.

We need a real solution for this, its a huge handicap that there is no ctrl button. I have the TP too and I really want this to be fixed on the X1...

We need a fixxxxx.... This is beyond me that TP is the only device with CTRL... Insane...

well i dont think its that important. just use the touchscreen for copy and paste.

Cause I hate to have no CTRL key too, I've just made a remapping for Italian layout (I think it is usable with any layout cause it uses character code, layout independent) who makes you do CTRL+ANY_ALPHABETIC_CHARACTER by typing WIN+ANY_ALPHABETIC_CHARACTER (i.e. CTRL+C by typing WIN+C)
You can do any CTRL+ shortcut, from CTRL+A to CTRL+Z, cause some programs use more shortcuts than others, so I remapped all for any use you like or you need
You need the activated version (commercial one)
You need to type WIN and any key at the same time or type and keep typing WIN before the other key, I say that cause sometimes it seems that the program ignore your typing, train yourself and you'll find the right way to use it

thanks, but it doesnt work on mine
tried it with multikeyhook, still the same.
it just pauses the X1 for a second when i press any WIN+ combo

Just wondering why you think using PQII isn't a good way to map CTRL?
I'm currently using it and having no issues. Its memory footprint is quite small too.

PC-like keyboard mapping for hardware USB keyboards

WARNING: This is a work in progress, but I want to get my partially working config out there for someone like me who desperately wants this to work.
Edit 1: In retrospect, titling it "better keyboard support" was a bad idea, this has nothing to do with the "betterkeyboard" app.
I purchased the apad/gpad case with the integrated USB keyboard from witglobal here:
http://witglobal.com/goods-1846-10+inch+Apad+keypad++Leather+Case+for+10inch+flytouch+ZT-180+X10+A8+infotmic+Tablet+PC+-+Free+Shipping.html
However, there are issues with the control and escape keys, particularly in connectbot. Since I got the keyboard so I could connect to Linux machines, missing those two keys is pretty ugly. I know you can tap the touchscreen to get ctrl and esc, but that's really slow, I'd like to use the hard key.
So far, I have discovered that there are several things getting in the way of the key working. First is the keyboard mapping files. There are no native key mapping for 'esc' and the default key mapping for the 'esc' key is "BACK". This is fine for many uses, but not for mine. Secondly, it looks like there is a very small set of "custom" keys available in the keymappings.h file. Since there are no "USER1" etc keys, it will take a rebuild of the keyboard code with added entries to make it work better.
This is an attempt to fix control and esc functionality with a USB keyboard. It consists of a kcm file and a kl file to replace the current ones. I am doing my work on VEGAn beta5, but I suspect any ROM will benefit from these files.
To install these files, do the following:
MAKE BACKUP
adb pull /system/usr/keychars/usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin.orig
adb pull /system/usr/keylayout/usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl.orig
Install mod
adb remount
adb push usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kcm.bin /system/usr/keychars
adb push usb_keyboard_102_en_us.kl /system/usr/keylayout
Unplug and replug your USB keyboard
Once this is done, the following changes are made:
Ctrl is mapped to DPAD_CENTER
Esc is mapped to DPAD_CENTER
To use it, go to connectbot, log in, and hit esc or ctrl once for ctrl, and hit esc or ctrl 2x for escape.
Current Issues:
Shift , generates a ;, not a < in Connectbot, but works correctly in other places
Shift . generates a :, not a > in Connectbot, but works correctly in other places
Insert does not work
Del generates a backspace
] and } keys generate the character + a beep

howdy
I'm a long time betterkeyboard user too. So this mod allows a USB keyboard to use the hardware spell checking option like I can on my droid one?
you might want to send a note to the devs about inccluding this by default. They added the ability to change key height pretty quickly when a few folk sasked.
Sent from my GTablet using Tapatalk

sharpfork said:
howdy
I'm a long time betterkeyboard user too. So this mod allows a USB keyboard to use the hardware spell checking option like I can on my droid one?
you might want to send a note to the devs about inccluding this by default. They added the ability to change key height pretty quickly when a few folk sasked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is to enable escape and control keys in Connectbot (and possibly others eventually). If you don't use connectbot or a terminal emulator on the gtab, it most likely will be useless to you.
The intent, eventually, is to make a hardware USB keyboard work identically to how it works on a PC (control/alt/esc/etc send the correct keycodes)

Thanks, this helps a lot
As an Emacs user, not having ESC doesn't bother me much.
Ctrl key now works, but only in a way that you tap it once than tap another key, instead of conventional way of pressing a key while ctrl key is pressed.
Is there anyway to fix that? Thank you.

Thanks for doing this work, I too was upset that after buying a USB keyboard it was useless for SSH. Have you made any progress on the issues listed at the end of your post since posting this in Jan? Hope you found a solution and could share it with us!