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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 8 Other
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kbdredef.zip
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README.ENG
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1996-03-10
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Keyboard Redefiner 2.00 for OS/2
(c) Ferenc Pal, 1996.
Introduction:
──────────────
KBDREDEF redefines the standard 101/102 keyboard to a customizable
layout. The keyboard will be redefined in the PM sessions, OS2 and DOS
fullscreen and windowed sessions at the same time. In other words, the
keyboard will be redefined in every session except WIN-OS/2 sessions.
KBDREDEF runs under OS/2 Warp 3. It's possible to run under OS/2 2.x,
but I didn't test it.
KBDREDEF may be invoked from either an OS/2 command line or as program
object on the desktop. Invoking the program without any options will
load the default layout file (which is the KBDREDEF.KBD file), and
redefine the keyboard. The original keyboard layout (which is active
when you started KBDREDEF) will be saved, and you can switch by a
"hotkey" between two layouts.
You can define your own keyboard layout as you like to use it with the
built-in Layout Editor. You can define so much layouts as much you want.
Different layouts will be saved in different files, which have a .KBD
extension.
I included some example keyboard layout in the release archive:
KBDREDEF.KBD - This is my own Hungarian keyboard layout. OS/2
includes Hungarian support, but I don't like that.
DVORAK.KBD - Standard ANSI Dvorak keyboard layout.
DVORAKLH.KBD - Left Hand Dvorak keyboard layout.
DVORAKRH.KBD - Right Hand Dvorak keyboard layout.
US.KBD - This is the standard US keyboard layout. It doesn't
matter, but I think it will be useful for starting
to define your own keyboard layout.
You can define up to four characters at one key in the keyboard:
1. Normal - this character is your lower character
2. Upper - this character is normal upper character, when SHIFT
or CAPSLOCK is active.
3. AltLower - this character appears when you press the key with
ALT.
4. AltUpper - this character appears when you press the key with
ALT+SHIFT or ALT+CTRL. You can define in Layout
Editor which method you want to use.
The following sheet may help you to understand the above:
┌────┐
Upper -->│É : │<-- AltUpper (with ALT+SHIFT or ALT+CTRL)
Lower -->│é ; │<-- AltLower (with ALT)
└────┘
To switch between redefined layout and the original layout, press the
SWITCHKEY in the PM screen group. The SwitchKey is Ctrl+Alt+F12 by
default but you can redefine this in the Layout Editor.
Switching by SWITCHKEY is disabled in full screen mode. You can also
switch between layouts with the /Toggle command line parameter. When
you switch between layouts, you will hear a short beep from computer.
Usage:
──────
KBDREDEF.EXE [options] | [kbdfile]
If you start KBDREDEF.EXE without any parameter, it will load the default
layout file which is the KBDREDEF.KBD, and redefine the keyboard. You
can also specify a filename with a new layout. This is very useful, if
you are using more than one layout, and you want to switch to another
layout.
When you started the KBDREDEF.EXE once, it will be "resident" until you
unload it with the /Kill parameter.
You needn't unload KBDREDEF if you want to load another layout file.
For example:
KBDREDEF.EXE
loads the KBDREDEF.KBD (default), and redefines the keyboard.
KBDREDEF.EXE DVORAK.KBD
loads the DVORAK.KBD layout, and redefines the keyboard for Dvorak.
Command line parameters are:
/Kill - Unloads KBDREDEF and restores original
keyboard layout.
/View - Shows the current active layout. This option only
works when KBDREDEF is active.
This option will show you the loaded layout.
/Edit [kbdfile] - Activies the Layout Editor. If you specify
a filename, then load the starting layout
from that file.
With this option you can make different layouts.
/Status - Display status information about KBDREDEF.
/Toggle - Toggle between new and original layout.
/Help - Shows an online help.
Layout Editor:
───────────────
You can start the Layout Editor with the /Edit option as command line
parameter.
You can specify a file after /Edit option, and you will edit that file.
If you don't specify any filename, the Layout Editor will load the
KBDREDEF.KBD file.
My advices are for defining your own keyboard layout:
1. Make a copy from US.KBD and rename it anything what you want, for
example MYLAYOUT.KBD.
2. Start the Layout Editor with this file:
KBDREDEF.EXE /Edit MYLAYOUT.KBD
3. Define your keyboard layout. Read the bottom lines how you can
define the keys.
4. Select the key combination what you want to use as SwitchKey by
pressing F1. Default SwitchKey is Ctrl+Alt+F12.
5. Select the AltUpper key by pressing F2. You can switch between
Alt+Ctrl or Alt+Shift. Default AltUpper key is Alt+Shift. This
is comfortable but some programs use this combination its own
function and it doesn't work with that programs. For this reason,
you can use Alt+Ctrl instead.
6. Exit from Layout Editor by ESC and save the changes.
With the above steps you created your own keyboard layout. You start the
KBDREDEF with MYLAYOUT.KBD file as parameter, and try it:
KBDREDEF.EXE MYLAYOUT.KBD
Or you can rename the MYLAYOUT.KBD to KBDREDEF.KBD, and you can start
KBDREDEF without any file as parameter, because the KBDREDEF.KBD the
default layout which will be loaded by KBDREDEF.
The Layout Editor is an ugly one. I'm sorry ;)
But I believe, you don't need to use it many times.
Notes:
───────
1. You can use OS/2's any keyboard layout, and you can switch between
the orginal layout and the redefined layout. That's the original
layout, which was active when you started the KBDREDEF.
2. If you change the layout with OS/2's KEYB.COM while the KBDREDEF is
active, the KBDREDEF will handle this action, and will switch its
state to "Not Redefined". At this time you will hear a short beep
from computer, it's same beep what you hear when you're switching
between layouts. From this point you can switch between this
layout and the redefined layout.
After all:
───────────
First, I hope you will find this utility useful at your everyday work.
This program was a hard work, indeed. The sources are very little, about
2000 lines, but the OS/2 API's and programming informations are not fully
documented to help me in developing KBDREDEF.
I used as information the VisualAge C++, DevCon 9 and all information
what I found at my BBS, but these informations didn't help me enough. I
needed to debug some part of OS/2 to let me able to do my utility. For
example, I lost a week, because I didn't know how I can make my DLL
"resident", when I want to quit from EXE. But when I got the hang of
this trick, I did my work with much more enthusiasm.
So, I don't want to make my program to shareware or commercial product.
It's absolutly free. But if you find this utility useful at your everday
work, please send me about 10 USD if you have, for let me see that my
work wasn't useless.
Thank you very much.
Pal, Ferenc Vertigo OS/2 BBS
Miskolc,
Irinyi J. ut 13. 2/1 Fidonet: 2:370/25
3534 OS2NET: 81:436/1
HUNGARY E-mail: gofpal@gold.uni-miskolc.hu