NAME
xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system
DESCRIPTION
xvkbd is a virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System
which provides facility to enter characters onto other clients
(softwares) by clicking on a keyboard displayed on the screen. This
may be used for systems without a hardware keyboard such as kiosk
terminals or handheld devices. This program also has facility to send
characters specified as the command line option to another client.
The standard keyboard layout is based on the traditional US layout, but
some other keyboard layout (see "Screen Shot") are also supported. The
default window size may be too large for systems with small screen, but
it can be configured to use smaller space (220x90 pixels, for example).
For details, see also "Screen Shot" and "How to Customize xvkbd" below,
and resouce files in the distribution.
xvkbd version 2.1 and later support word completion, which may make it
easier to enter long words with xvkbd.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When invoking xvkbd from display managers such as XDM,
GDM, etc., always use xvkbd with -secure option or you will have
serious security risk.
Environment
xvkbd will work on X11R5 or X11R6. It is tested on redhat Linux and
Solaris, and it will work also on most UNIX-like systems.
This program uses Xaw (use of Xaw3d is recommended) and no special
library is required.
Operation
Input Keys
When xvkbd is started, the image of a keyboard will be displayed on the
screen. Clicking any key on the xvkbd window will send the character
to the focused window as if the key had been actually typed with the
hardware keyboard.
If you want to input upper-case alphabets or other characters on the
upper position on the keyboard, you should click the key after
selecting Shift by clicking it, or click the key with mouse button 3
(maybe right button) or mouse button 4. In the similar manner, if you
want to input Controled characters, you should click the key after
clicking Control, or click the key with mouse button 2 (maybe middle
button). Alt and Meta can be used in the similar manner with Control,
but there are no shortcuts with mouse buttons.
‘‘Quick Modifiers’’
xvkbd 2.5 and later support another way to input characters with
modifiers such as Shift, Control, AltGr, etc., which may be useful
especially for machines with touch panels such as PDAs - we would call
it "Quick Modifiers".
Quick Modifiers can be enabled/disabled by the ‘‘Enable "Quick
Modifiers?’’ entry on the property panel. If Quick Modifiers is
enabled, it will be activated by pressing a key on the xvkbd window,
move the pointer outside of the key, and then release the mouse button
or equivalent.
The direction of the pointer motion will select the modifier:
up - Shift
right - AltGr
right-up - Shift AltGr
left - Control
left-up - Shift Control
down - Meta
left-down - Alt
Setting Input Focus
If you are using a window manager and clients where you can set input
focus by clicking mouse button on the window (and you don’t have to
keep pointer in the window after that), you can simply set input focus
in the normal way and then click keys on the xvkbd window - the
character will be sent to the selected position.
If you are using a window manager or clients where you must keep the
pointer in the input field to input from the keyboard, or if the input
focus is switched to the xvkbd window when you clicked on the key on
the xvkbd window, you must make xvkbd to set input focus explicitly by
clicking the Focus button on the xvkbd window and then click on the
input field. This input focus can be cleared by clicking Focus button
with mouse button 3, or simply clicking Focus button twice.
Word Completion
Choosing ‘‘Word Completion...’’ in the main menu will popup the Word
Completion panel.
When you entered characters by clicked keys on the xvkbd window as
usual while the Word Completion panel open, words started with the
characters will be listed in the panel, and you can enter the remaining
characters of the selected word by clicking one of the words in the
list.
The dictionary (list of words) file is /usr/share/dict/words by
default, but it can be changed by -dict option or xvkbd.dictFile
resouce.
Main Menu
Pressing the ‘‘xvkbd’’ logo on the main keyboard (placed near left-
bottom corner in the default configuration) will popup the main menu.
The menu contains following items:
About...
Show short description of this program.
Manual...
Launch manual page reader.
Keypad...
Open the Keypad panel.
Sun Function Keys...
Open the Sun Function Keys panel.
Dead Keys...
Open the Dead Keys panel which can be used to enter Latin
characters with accent symbol in double stroke.
Word Completion...
Open the Word Completion panel.
Change Keyboard Layout...
Open a popup window to change the keyboard layout. In the default
configuration, Default (US), Belgian, Danish, French, German,
Icelandic, Italian, Japanese (JIS-X-6002), Japanese (JIS-X-6004),
Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish,
Swiss/German, United Kingdom and Latin-1 are available.
Edit Function Keys...
Open a popup window to edit string assigned to function keys. See
also "Assigning Text to Function Keys".
Show Keypad?
Toggle show/hide of the keypad on the main window.
Show Function Keys?
Toggle show/hide of the function keys on the main window.
Property...
Popup the Property panel.
Connect to Remote Display...
Open a panel to specify the name of a remote display to be
connected, so that following key events will be sent to windows on
the remote display.
Revert to Local Display
Disconnect from the remote display so that following key events
will be sent to windows on the local display.
Property Panel
Enable "Quick Modifiers"?
Toggle enable/disable of the Quick Modifiers feature.
Lock Shift?
Toggle locking/momentary of Shift keys.
Lock AltGr?
Toggle locking/momentary of AltGr key.
Lock Control, Alt and Meta?
Toggle locking/momentary of Control, Alt and Meta keys.
Always on Top?
If this entry is set ON, xvkbd attempts to keep the xvkbd window
always on the top of the display (i.e. not to be hidden by other
windows). This feature is experimental, and care should be taken
as this feature can cause problem in some situations.
Use XTEST Extension?
XTEST extension will be used if this entry is checked. If this
entry is set inactive, the X server does not support XTEST
extension.
Jump Pointer?
If this entry is set ON, xvkbd will temporary jump the pointer to
the focused window, if XTEST extension is to be used to simulate
keyboard events.
Key-Click Sound
Set on/off and duration of key-click sound.
Automatic Click
Set on/off of the automatic click feature and the delay before
automatic click is activated. If this feature is set, xvkbd will
work as if left mouse button is clicked when mouse pointer is moved
on a button and stays long enough. You may want to set Jump
Pointer? to OFF to avoid auto-repeating.
Options
xvkbd accept following command line options, in addition to general
options such as ‘-display’.
-xsendevent
Make xvkbd to use XSendEvent() to simulate keyboard events, as it
was in xvkbd version 1.0. xvkbd version 1.1 and later will try to
use XTEST extension instead in the default configuration.
If XTEST extension is not supported by the X server, xvkbd will
automatically switch to this mode.
Resource ‘xvkbd.xtest: false’ has the same function.
-no-sync
Normally, xvkbd attempts to synchronize with the destinating client
step by step. This can cause problem when the client (or the X
server) responded too slow. In such situation, maybe this -no-sync
can solve the problem.
Resource ‘xvkbd.noSync: true’ has the same function.
-no-jump-pointer
Make xvkbd not to jump the pointer when sending events. In the
default, xvkbd will temporary jump the pointer to the focused
window, if input focus is set explicitly via Focus button, and
XTEST extension is to be used to simulate keyboard events.
Resource ‘xvkbd.jumpPointer: false’ has the same function.
-no-back-pointer
Make xvkbd not to jump the pointer back to the original position
after events has been sent. Maybe this can be useful when using
xvkbd to move the pointer position.
Resource ‘xvkbd.jumpPointerBack: false’ has the same function.
-modal
Make labels on keys in the xvkbd window to be set independently for
each of four shift states, not shifted, Shift, AltGr and Shift-
AltGr. This is useful when you want to make the xvkbd window very
small.
See also "Customizing Keyboard Layout" and resouce files in the
distribution.
Resource ‘xvkbd.modalKeytop: true’ has the same function.
-geometry [widthxheight][+xoff+yoff]
Set window geometry (size and position).
You can use form like -geometry 400x130 to specify the window size,
-geometry +100+100 to specify the window position from left/top
edge of the screen, and -geometry 400x130+100+100 to specify both
the size and the position. You can specify position from
right/bottom edge of the screen by using - instead of +, but please
note that you must take account of size of the window border. (If
you specify ‘-geometry -0-0’, the window will not fit in the
screen.)
This can be set by xvkbd.windowGeometry resource (note that it is
not xvkbd.geometry), too.
-no-repeat
Do not auto-repeat even if key is depressed long time.
If auto-repeat is enabled (this is the default), time before start
auto-repeat can be set as ‘xvkbd*Repeater.initialDelay: 600’, and
period of repeat can be set as ‘xvkbd*Repeater.minimumDelay: 100’
(unit of there parameters are milli-seconds).
Resource ‘xvkbd.autoRepeat: false’ has the same function.
-no-functionkey
Do not display function keys.
Resource ‘xvkbd.functionkey: false’ has the same function.
-no-keypad
Do not display keypad.
Resource ‘xvkbd.keypad: false’ has the same function.
-compact
Do not display function keys nor keypad.
Resource ‘xvkbd.compact: true’ has the same function.
-keypad
Display only keypad. This option will be ignored if ‘-no-keypad’
or ‘-compact’ is specified.
Resource ‘xvkbd.keypadOnly: true’ has the same function.
-text string
Send the string to the focused window (see also ‘-window’ option).
If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and
terminate soon after sending the string.
The string can contain:
- \r - Return
- \t - Tab
- \b - Backspace
- \e - Escape
- \d - Delete
- \S - Shift (modify the next character; please note that modify
with ‘‘\S’’ will be ignored in many cases. For example,
‘‘a\Cb\ScD\CE’’ will be interpreted as a, Control-b, c, Shift-D,
and Control-Shift-E.)
- \C - Control (modify the next character)
- \A - Alt (modify the next character)
- \M - Meta (modify the next character)
- \[keysym] - the keysym keysym (e.g., \[Left])
- \Ddigit - delay digit * 100 ms
- \xvalue - move mouse pointer (use "+" or "-" for relative motion)
- \yvalue - move mouse pointer (use "+" or "-" for relative motion)
- \mdigit - simulate click of the specified mouse button
-file filename
Send the contents of the specified file to the focused window (see
also ‘-window’ option). If ‘‘-’’ was specified as the filename,
string to be sent will be read from the standard input (stdin).
If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and
terminate soon after sending the string.
-delay value
Put value ms of delay for every character when sending characters
with -text or -file. Maybe this is useful when problem arises when
characters are entered too fast.
-window window
Specify the ID (hexadecimal value leaded with ‘0x’, or decimal
value) or name (instance name or class name) of the window to set
input focus. If this is not specified, xvkbd will use input focus
under control of the window manager, unless focus is specified
explicitly via Focus button. Even if this option is specified, you
can set input focus to other windows using Focus button, or clear
the input focus.
If there are two or more windows which have the name specified with
this option, the window which was found first will be selected.
-widget widget-name
Specify the name of the widget to set the input focus. To use this
feature, the client must support Editres protocol. In general,
this option will be used with ‘-window’ option.
If you want to set input focus to the widget foo.bar.zot, you can
write zot, bar.zot or foo.bar.zot as widget-name. To avoid
confusion, the widget-name should match with a single widget of the
client.
For example,
xvkbd -window xarchie -widget searchText -text "\Ca\Ckabc\r"
will enter the string ‘‘abc’’ to the ‘‘Search Term’’ field of a
xarchie window.
-true-keypad
If this option is specified, xvkbd will attempt to use keysyms such
as XK_KP_1 instead of XK_1.
Resource ‘xvkbd.keypadKeysym: true’ has the same function.
-dict filename
Specify the dictionary (list of words) file to be used for word
completion.
Resource ‘xvkbd.dictFile: filename’ has the same function.
See also ‘‘Making your own completion dictionary’’.
-minimizable
Make xvkbd window can be minimized (iconified) even if no window
manager is in use. When this feature is enabled, small triangle
will be displayed at left ot the xvkbd main menu, and xvkbd window
will be minimized when the triangle is clicked.
Resource ‘xvkbd.minimizable: true’ has the same function.
-secure
Disable invocation of external commands, including user assigned
command and the online manual reader. Connection to another
displays would also be disabled. This option may be useful when
xvkbd is to be run with some kind of privileges.
Resource ‘xvkbd.secure: true’ has the same function.
-nonexitable
Disable termination of the xvkbd program. This option may be
useful when xvkbd is to be run automatically for systems with no
keyboards and users should not terminate the xvkbd.
Resource ‘xvkbd.nonexitable: true’ has the same function.
-xdm
Same as -secure -nonexitable. When xvkbd is to be run for login
screen, it would be suggested to use this option.
-modifiers modifiers
Normally, xvkbd will activate modifiers (control, shift, etc.)
only whille sending characters. If modifiers were specified with
this option, the specified modifiers will be activated while
corresponding key on the xvkbd window is in active. For example,
you can specify -modifiers shift,control,meta,alt to apply this for
those four modifiers. Maybe this can be useful when attempting to
decorate the mouse operations with the modifiers. Please note that
the modifiers will also be applied when attempting to click on the
xvkbd window and which can prevent the correct operation in some
situations.
Resource ‘xvkbd.positiveModifiers: modifiers...’ has the same
function.
Screen Shot
Default (US)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-normal.gif
Belgian
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-belgian.gif
Danish
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-danish.gif
French
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-french.gif
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-french2.gif
German
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-german.gif
Icelandic
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-icelandic.gif
Italian
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-italian.gif
Japanese (JIS-X-6002)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-jisx6002.gif
Japanese (JIS-X-6004)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-jisx6004.gif
Norwegian
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-norwegian.gif
Portuguese
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-portuguese.gif
Spanish
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-spanish.gif
Swedish
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-swedish.gif
Swiss/German
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-swissgerman.gif
United Kingdom
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-uk.gif
Latin-1
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-latin1.gif
Small Keyboard (maybe suitable for PDAs)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-small.gif
Hebrew
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-hebrew.gif
Greek
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-greek.gif
Turkish
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-turkish.gif
Slovene
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-slovene.gif
Korean
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-korean.gif
Russian (Cyrillic)
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-russian.gif
Download
Latest Official Release
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-3.0.tar.gz
- source of version 3.0 (2008-05-05)
previous release
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-2.9.tar.gz
- source of version 2.9 (2008-03-30)
xvkbd is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Install
o untar the source in a directory, and move to the directory
o If you wish to use genuine Xaw insead of Xaw3d, edit Imakefile and
remove (or comment-out) ‘#define XAW3D’.
When you are installing xvkbd (for example) in very old systems,
you may also want to remove ‘#define XTEST’ and ‘#define I18N’ to
disable XTEST and internationalization facility respectively.
o Run xmkmf; make install install.man
Customization
How to Customize xvkbd
Some degree of customization of xvkbd is possible by setting resources.
Some resources are already described above, and resources to
customizing keyboard layout are described below.
To set resources, you can:
o put them in your $HOME/.Xdefaults file, or
o load them via xrdb(1), or
o set the filename to the $XENVIRONMENT environment variable, or
o put them in application default directory as ‘XVkbd-suffix’ and set
resource ‘‘xvkbd.customization: -suffix’’, or
o put them in application default directory as XVkbd.
Here, application default directory can be either of:
o directories specified with $XUSERFILESEACHPATH, $XAPPLRESDIR or
else $HOME environment variable
o system’s application default directory specified with
$XFILESEACHPATH environment variable, or else the directory
specified when compiling the X (e.g., /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults)
When the application default file is to be stored in the system’s
application default directory, the file must contain ‘‘#include
"XVkbd-common"’’ near top of the file.
xvkbd is distributed with some application default files, and they will
be installed in the system’s application default directory.
Making Window Small
Size (and position) of xvkbd window can be set by
‘xvkbd.windowGeometry’ resource. When making window small, you may
need to choose the smaller font, too.
xvkbd.windowGeometry: 220x90
xvkbd.compact: true
xvkbd*Font: 6x12
You may also want to set:
xvkbd.modalKeytop: true
to display only the labels for the current shift state, instead of
trying to always display all of them in the small keytop.
See also XVkbd-small.ad in the xvkbd distribution.
Removing Unwanted Keys
Keys on xvkbd window can be removed by setting its width to 1.
To remove Compose key and make Shift key larger, you can write:
xvkbd*Multi_key.width: 1
xvkbd*Shift_R.width: 75
To remove right Alt and Meta key, you can write:
xvkbd*Alt_R.width: 1
xvkbd*Meta_R.width: 1
Customizing Keyboard Layout
Layout of keys on the xvkbd window can be customized with following
resources:
xvkbd.NormalKeys
list of keys available when neighter of Shift and AltGr are
selected
xvkbd.ShiftKeys
list of keys available when Shift is selected
xvkbd.AltgrKeys
list of keys available when AltGr is selected
xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeys
list of keys available when both AltGr and Shift are selected
xvkbd.KeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
when neither of Shift and AltGr are selected.
xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
when Shift is selected
xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
when AltGr is selected
xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLabels
list of labels displayed on the keys
when both AltGr and Shift are selected
Four resources to set labels on the keys (xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels,
xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels, xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels and
xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLabels) will be used instead of xvkbd.KeyLabels when
xvkbd.modalKeytop resoruce is set true.
In all of those resources, each keys are separated by spaces, and rows
of keys are terminated with ‘ \n\’ (note that ‘\n’ must have space
before it). Please refer XVkbd-german.ad and XVkbd-latin1.ad in the
xvkbd distribution for more about these resources.
XVkbd-german and XVkbd-latin1 will be installed in the system’s
application default directory, and setting the resource
‘‘xvkbd.customization: -german’’ will make xvkbd to use the German
layout. For another method to activate those settings, please refer
"How to Customize xvkbd" above.
Assigning Text to Function Keys
Text can be assigned to each function keys (and, actually, to most
other keys). If text is assigned to the function key, clicking on the
key will send the assigned text instead of the function key itself.
When pointer is on a key where text is assigned, the text will be
displayed near the key.
The setting will be read from a text file which contains text for each
function keys as:
F1 text for F1
F2 text for F2
s:F1 text for Shift-F1
c:F1 text for Control-F1
m:F1 text for Meta-F1
a:F1 text for Alt-F1
...
‘s:’, ‘c:’, ‘m:’ and ‘a:’ before the keys name indicates four modifiers
(Shift, Control, Meta and Alt) respectively.
If the first character of the assigned string is ‘!’, the string will
be used as command to be executed when the key is clicked. String
starting with ‘!’ can be assigned by putting ‘\’ before ‘!’.
The file is $HOME/.xvkbd in default, and it can be changed by setting
the filename with xvkbd.keyFile resource.
For F1 to F12 with or without Shift modifier, it is possible to edit
the assigned string on a panel popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in
the main menu.
Miscellaneous Informations
Notes
o On XFree86, resolution switch with Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Plus and
Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Minus may be simulated. However, Ctrl + Alt +
Backspace will not be simulated.
o Shift is used to decide key to be sent and it will not used to set
modifier bit when sending the event. You can use xev command to
check what is actually sent.
o If Alt or Meta is not defined as modifier, the key can’t be used as
modifier. You can use ‘xmodmap -pm’ to check how modifiers are
defined.
o Num Lock (and maybe other modifiers) on the physical keyboard may
not work correctly when xvkbd is in use.
Additional Informations
FAQ - Possible Problems and Solutions
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/faq.html
Making your own completion dictionary
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/make-dic.html
Note about how to send key events
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/events.html
Change Log
Version 0.1 (2000-05-13)
- The first release, not announced anywhere.
Version 0.2 (2000-09-15)
- Compose key is added. In the environments where Compose key is
supported, some characters (mainly letters with accent symbol)
which can’t be entered directly from keyboard can be entered
using dedicated key combinations.
- Make keyboard layout not to be disturbed when window size if
specified with -geometry option.
- Sample app-defaults file is added.
Version 0.3 (2000-10-05)
- -text option can now accept some modifiers (\S, \C, etc.) and any
keysyms (\[keysym]).
- In addition to the window ID, -window option can now accept
window name.
- New -widget option to specify the widget to set the input focus.
Version 1.0 (2000-11-03)
- Keyboard layout can be now configured with resources. See
"Customizing Keyboard Layout" above, and XVkbd-german.ad in the
distribution.
- xvkbd can now send keys with Mode_switch (AltGr) modifier, which
enables those characters in the position to be entered.
- xvkbd now support AltGr key so that German (and some other)
keyboard layout can be used. See XVkbd-german.ad in the
distribution.
- XVkbd-german and XVkbd-latin1 are included in the distribution,
which modifies keyboard layout and put some non-ASCII keys on the
xvkbd window.
- CapsLock key is supported now.
Version 1.1 (2000-12-23)
- xvkbd can now use XTEST extension to simulate keyboard events.
It can still use XSendEvent(), as it was in the older release.
(thanks, Bjoern)
- Labels on keys can now be set independently for each of four
shift states, not shifted, Shift, AltGr and Shift-AltGr.
(thanks, Jim)
- -kterm option and xvkbd.kterm resource are removed.
Version 1.2 (2001-02-18)
- Focus button is now placed in the main keyboard, too, so that it
will be available also in compact mode. If you don’t need it, it
can be removed by setting ‘‘xvkbd*row5.Focus.width: 1’’.
- Input focus set by Focus button can now be cleard by clicking
Focus button twice. Clicking Focus button with mouse button 3
will still clear the input focus, too.
- Text can now be assigned to function keys (and, actually, to most
other keys).
- It is now possible to assign keys modified with Shift, Control,
Alt and Meta on the main keyboard, by putting ‘s:’, ‘c:’, ‘a:’
and ‘m:’ before those keysym name when customizing the keyboard
layout.
- xvkbd now ignores SIGINT and SIGQUIT so that it will not
terminated accidently.
Version 1.3 (2001-03-19)
- New app-defaults file for Swiss-German layout,
XVkbd-swissgerman.ad. (contributed from Marcel Portner)
- xvkbd now catches MappingNotify event and reload the new mapping.
This allows users to use xmodmap while xvkbd is running.
- NumLock key is supported now. (I’d removed Print, ScrLk and
Pause from keypad - somebody need them?)
Version 1.4 (2001-04-22)
- Auto-repeat didn’t work when focus was set explicitly via Focus
button. It is now fixed.
- When required keysym was not defined in the keymap table, xvkbd
will now add it on-the-fly. This means that we don’t have to add
them via xmodmap.
- Keypad panel can now be popped up from the main keyboard as a
separate window.
- Sun function keys is now supported. It can be popped up from the
main keyboard as a separate window.
- Manual page is now available.
Version 1.5 (2001-10-08)
- Key events can now be sent to windows on a remote display (i.e.
windows on other X servers) - use "Connect to Remote Display..."
in the main menu to connect to remote display.
- Shift, Control, Alt and Meta can now be locked - use "Lock
Shift?" and "Lock Control, Alt and Meta?" in the main menu.
Those initial settings can be set by xvkbd.shiftLock and
xvkbd.modifiersLock resource.
- If the first keysym for a key is an alphabet and the second
keysym is NoSymbol, it is now interpreted as if the first keysym
is lowercase alphabet and the second keysym is uppercase
alphabet. Keymap may be defined in this way in some systems
including Solaris, and older xvkbd may not work correctly in such
situation.
Version 1.6 (2001-11-10)
- New ‘-file’ option to send characters in the specified file.
(thanks, Gregory)
- New entry ‘Use XTEST Extension?’ is added to the main menu,
mainly to indicate the availability of the XTEST extension.
- xvkbd would crash when the window explicitly focused via Focus
button becomes was destroyed. This problem is now fixed.
Version 2.0 (2001-12-09)
- Keyboard layout (default, German, French, etc.) can now be
changed after xvkbd is invoked.
- Show/hide of the keypad and funcion keys on the main window can
now be toggled from the main menu.
- New app-defaults file for French layout, XVkbd-french.ad.
(contributed from Jean-Pierre Demailly)
Version 2.1 (2002-01-27)
- When height of the xvkbd window is smaller than
XVkbd.modalThreshold, xvkbd will now automatically switch the
keytop as if -modal option was specified.
- \[keysym] in -text option would send wrong keys - this problem is
now fixed.
- Target distclean in the Imakefile is renamed to avoid the
possible confusion on some systems.
- Word completion is now supported.
Version 2.2 (2002-03-17)
- String assigned to function keys can now be edited on a panel
popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in the main menu.
- When ‘‘-’’ was specified as the filename parameter for -file
option, xvkbd will now read its standard input (stdin) to get the
string to be sent.
- In the previous release, less-portable setenv() function was used
instead of putenv() function, may cause compilation error on some
systems including Solaris.
Version 2.3 (2002-04-05)
- New "Dead Keys" panel added. Which can be used to enter Latin
characters with accent symbol in double stroke.
- More localized keyboard layout: Belgian, Danish, French, German,
Icelandic, Italian, Japanese (JIS-X-6004), Norwegian, Portuguese,
Spanish, Swedish, Swiss/German, United Kingdom and Latin-1.
- -keypad option would crash previous version of xvkbd - this
problem is now fixed.
Version 2.4 (2002-10-02)
- Command can now be assigned to function keys so that clicking on
the function key will execute the command instead of sending the
string to clients.
- Assigned string for F1 to F12 with Shift modifier can now be
edited on a panel popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in the
main menu.
Version 2.5 (2002-10-12)
- Quick Modifier feature added - now, it is possible to enter
characters with modifiers by pressing a key and then move the
pointer. (suggested by Niklas Rokaeus)
- ‘‘Lock AltGr?’’ entry is added in the main menu.
- Status of ‘‘Lock Shift?’’, ‘‘Lock AltGr’’, ‘‘Lock Control, Alt
and Meta?’’ will be recorded in $HOME/.xvkbd file and it will be
read when xvkbd is invoked next time.
Version 2.5a (2003-06-25)
- ‘‘Fitaly’’ layout is now supported - may be useful for PDAs.
Version 2.6 (2004-05-04)
- Code to adding keysyms which were not found in the keymap table
is revised. xvkbd now avoid to add keysyms in the shifted
position of keys which already have a keysym defined in the non-
shifted position, and entries in the keymap table which is
modified keys will be redefined rather than redefining the entire
keymap table. This change is to avoid possible problem (AltGr
key could be effectively disabled) which may caused in some
systems where XGetKeyboardMapping() can produce incorrect map
when keys have more then two keysyms.
- If Mode_switch is not defined in the modifier table but
ISO_Level3_Shift is defined, xvkbd now attempt to add Mode_switch
as the same modifier with ISO_Level3_Shift.
- Korean layout is now supported. Although Hangul characters will
be displayed on the keys, xvkbd will simply generate alphabet
characters when those keys are clicked. It is intented to be
used with "ami" or similar Hangul input program.
- URL of the xvkbd main page is now changes to
http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/.
Version 2.7 (2005-05-05)
- Yet another Japanese keyboard layout, JIS X 6002, is now
supported.
- It is now possible to minimize (iconify) the main window even if
no window manager is in use. This feature can be activated by
-minimizable option or xvkbd.minimizable resource.
- Experimental code to keep the xvkbd window always on the top of
the display. This feature can be activated by -always-on-top
option, xvkbd.alwaysOnTop resource or the "Always on Top?" entry
in the main menu. Care should be taken as this feature can cause
problem in some situations.
- -text option now support combinations of modifiers and a special
key. For example, -text ’\C\A\d’ can be used for Control-Alt-
Delete key combination.
- New options: -secure option (xvkbd.secure resource) which
disables invocation of external commands, -nonexitable option
(xvkbd.nonexitable resource) which inhibits termination of the
program, and -xdm option which is equivalent to -secure
-nonexitable and maybe useful when run xvkbd from a display
manager.
Version 2.7a (2005-05-07)
- Fixed a problem that xvkbd could cause segmentation fault on
startup.
Version 2.8 (2006-09-10)
- ISO_Level3_Shift is now to be prefered over Mode_switch so that
AltGr can be used on relatively new systems where we must use
ISO_Level3_Shift instead of Mode_switch.
- Reference to the target bitmap is changed from
/usr/X11R6/include/X11/bitmaps/target to
/usr/include/X11/bitmaps/target.
- New options: -no-back-pointer, -no-sync, -modifiers.
Version 2.9 (2008-03-30)
- Russian (Cyrillic) keyboard layout supported. (thanks, Victor)
- New -delay option.
- \D special sequence in -text can be used to put a delay in
specific position.
- -text can now simulate mouse operation via \x, \y and \m special
sequences.
Version 3.0 (2008-05-05)
- New Property panel.
- New automatic click feature.
- Key-click sounds when key is pressed.
Author
xvkbd was written by Tom Sato, and it is distributed under the terms of
the GNU General Public License Version 2 or any later version.
Please send any feedback (such as bug reports, requests or comments) to
Tom Sato <VEF00200@nifty.ne.jp>.
The latest version of this software and more information about it may
be available at http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/. Release of
the new version will be announced on the Freshmeat
(http://freshmeat.net), and you can probably receive the announce via
e-mail if you wish.
2008-05-05 xvkbd(1)
