Unit Keymap
Return to Unit Reference
Description
Keymaps
Keymaps define the translation of a keyboard scan code (the SCAN_CODE_* values) to a key code value (the KEY_CODE_* values) and provide the ability to handle different keyboard layouts in different countries and regions.
The keyboard scan codes are based on the values in Section 10 of the Universal Serial Bus HID Usage Tables v1.12 and are the actual values returned by the keyboard when a key is pressed.
The key code values are based on the Unicode standard with each key code mapped to the code point for that character.
This allows almost infinite flexibility in the way keyboard scan codes are mapped to actual characters and avoids the need to make unreliable assumptions about ASCII characters and upper or lower case handling.
Since the output of the keyboard is a stream of TKeyboardData structures containing both the scan code and the key code then higher level functions can retranslate the data in any way required.
Caps Keys
Caps keys account for the set of keys which are affected by Caps Lock in any given keyboard layout.
In some layouts only the alphabetic keys are affected, in other layouts some or all of the numeric and punctuation keys are also affected.
The caps keys data for any keyboard layout allows defining ranges of keys that are affected by the Caps Lock state.
Dead Keys
Dead keys account for the set of keys which behave as dead keys in any given keyboard layout.
On pressing a deadkey it will be recognized by the keyboard as such and stored until the next key press occurs. If the next keypress is one of the resolves for the pressed dead key then theoutput character will be the key code value of the resolve not for the key itself.
If the next keypress after a dead key is not one of the resolves that the dead key and the pressed key will both be output to the keyboard buffer.
Setting the default keymap for the system
Additional keymaps are provided as units which can be included in a program and will auto load themselves if included.
All keymap units are configured to check for both the environment variable KEYMAP_DEFAULT and the global configuration variable KEYMAP_DEFAULT to determine if either of them is set to the name of that keymap. If either is set to the keymap name then that keymap will also set itself as the default during system startup.
The environment variable KEYMAP_DEFAULT can be set by adding KEYMAP_DEFAULT=XX (where XX is the name of the keymap, eg DE for Keymap_DE) to the command line of the application (dependant onthe system, for a Raspberry Pi use the cmdline.txt file on the SD card).
The global configuration variable KEYMAP_DEFAULT can be set in code by including the GlobalConfig unit in a program and setting the variable during startup.
At any time after startup the default keymap can be changed by call the KeymapSetDefault function.
Constants
To be documented
Type definitions
To be documented
Public variables
To be documented
Function declarations
To be documented
Return to Unit Reference
