send "keyUp" / "rawKeyUp" ?

[Mike Bonner]

Just realized, if all you need to know (On linux) is the basic keyboard
information, you can likely do this..

put url "file:/etc/default/keyboard" into <whatevercontainer>
and then parse it. Mine contains
KBMODEL="pc105"
KBLAYOUT="us"
KBVARIANT=""
KBOPTIONS=""
BACKSPACE="guess"

On windows, if the system has powershell (uncertain as to versions?) you
might be able to get useful information

set the hideconsolewindows to true
set the shellcommand to "powershell"
get shell("(Get-Culture).keyboardLayoutID")

This will put a number into "it" in my case, 1033.
Looking at this page.. https://www.science.co.il/language/Locale-codes.php
shows that 1033 is en_us.

Alternatively, also with powershell

   set the hideconsolewindows to true
   set the shellcommand to "powershell"
   get shell("Get--WinUserLanguageList")

At which point IT contains something like..
*LanguageTag     : en-US*
*Autonym         : English (United States)*
*EnglishName     : English*
*LocalizedName   : English (United States)*
*ScriptName      : Latin script*
*InputMethodTips : {0409:00000409}*
*Spellchecking   : True*
*Handwriting     : False*

The number for InputMethodTips means qwerty us, and is in the registry key
(for me)
The registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload\1
contains the same 0409 number so perhaps queryRegister could be used to
grab that.

If the user is using a different preferred layout (overriding normal
mapping,) it might show in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Substitutes\1
For example, looking at the number 00010409 denotes 409 english us keyboard
layout overridden to be a dvorak layout.

After all this, i'm thinking that having the user do a nice keyboard
faceroll might still be the easiest solution.

On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 9:26 AM, Mike Bonner <bonnmike at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hmm.  On linux you might be able to use a shell command to get some info,
> though I don't know enough about theh output to be much help.
>
> the command xkbcom :0 - dumps a truckload of info, might be useful for
> your task.
> I'm guessing there is a way to do this on macos too but I don't currently
> have access to a mac.
> Unsure about how to go about it on windows.
>
> For example, on my system one of the first lines contains qwerty as part
> of the line.  The only issue with this, is that custom mapings are
> possible, though it looks like the aliases are part of the information.
>
> I've seen operating systems do the "press the key to the right of the left
> shift key.." sequence to determine base layout (which again, wouldn't cover
> every base if the user has changed the keyboard map, so you might need to
> have them press every key...  xkbcom might get around that if you can
> figure out enough to interpret the results)
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 8:22 AM, Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>
>> Either I did not explain things very well or you got hold of the wrong
>> end of the stick
>> (or, most probably a bit of both: probably the latter as a consequence of
>> the former).
>>
>> Imagine, if you will, I need to know what an end-user's standard keyboard
>> layout is.
>> Let's call our theoretical end-user Farhad, and Iranian who uses an
>> Iranian keyboard layout
>> (something I don't know), and let's call our me Richmond owing to a
>> slight lack of imagination
>> on my part; and I use a US English keyboard layout, which I know, but
>> isn't useful information
>> under the circumstances.
>>
>> Now if I click on the key that yields a rawKey of 113 I get a "q".
>>
>> If Farhad clicks on the key that yields a rawKey of 113 he gets a "ق
>>
>> And I am unable to type close-quotes there.
>>
>> So I should like to find a way to fake someone pressing down on a key on
>> their home-computer
>> to see what the keyUp result is.
>>
>> Now I realise I cannot SEND a command telling the key on the keyboard to
>> do
>> "a pianola" and depress itself (wouldn't that be fun?).
>>
>> It would, however, be groovy if one could work out Farhad's keys without
>> having him to
>> go "bash, bash" all the way along the rows of his keyboard.
>>
>> Richmond.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 25/2/2018 4:13 pm, Mike Bonner via use-livecode wrote:
>>
>>> A quick example placed in the card script.
>>>
>>> local sKeysPushed --keys kept in this variable for the example
>>>
>>> on rawkeydown pkey
>>>     if sKeysPushed is empty then
>>>        put pkey into sKeysPushed
>>>     else
>>>        put comma & pkey after sKeysPushed
>>>     end if
>>>
>>> -- You would want to remove this block of course, but for testing
>>> -- it lets you push the shift key to see whats been captured
>>>     if the shiftkey is down then
>>>        put sKeysPushed
>>>     end if
>>>
>>>     pass rawkeydown --pass the key
>>>
>>> end rawkeydown
>>>
>>> I know it was just pseudocode, but as far as I know you can't "send" a
>>> message to a key so..
>>> If you want to be able to click a button to send a rawkeydown (rather
>>> than
>>> just typing them) you could use something like:
>>>
>>> on mouseup
>>>       send "rawkeydown 110" to this card
>>> end mouseup
>>>
>>> or
>>> on mouseup
>>>       displatch "rawkeydown" with (any item of "119,240,43") --<list of
>>> random keys to send
>>> end mouseup
>>>
>>> Now.. If you need to track keypresses while NOT actively using your
>>> application, it requires a different method.  You'd need to use a
>>> different
>>> method.  You would need to use a send loop and check the keysdown and
>>> build
>>> up your keys list that way.  Using this method would be problematic
>>> though,
>>> for example.. A user holds a key down long enough for several loops to
>>> happen, so the keysdown would show the key multiple times.  Which might
>>> be
>>> appropriate if autorepeat is being used, but then you have no idea how
>>> many
>>> "repeats" there were because its based on the repeat rate.  It would be
>>> very difficult to have much accuracy using this method.  (easiest might
>>> be
>>> to check current keysdown against previous keysdown and only log if there
>>> is a difference, then use your own noggin to realize that litle is
>>> little)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 3:09 AM, Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode <
>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Erm . . .
>>>>
>>>> I want to set up a stack that will list an end-user's keyDowns by
>>>> sending
>>>> their system
>>>> a set of rawKeyUps . . .
>>>>
>>>> PseudoCode:
>>>>
>>>> in a button:
>>>>
>>>> on mouseUp
>>>>   send "rawKeyDown" to key 113
>>>> end mouseUp
>>>>
>>>> in the cardScript:
>>>>
>>>> on rawKeyDown XX
>>>>    get keyUp XX
>>>>    put XX somewhere useful
>>>> end rawKeyDown
>>>>
>>>> Richmond.
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