\b0 Keyboard is an app designed for modifying keymaps or defining your own keymaps from scratch.\
\b .keymapping files\
\b0 First, a few notes about .keymapping files and
\i keymaps
\i0 . Keymapping files are actually "fat", containing one or more
\i keymaps
\i0 within them. A keymap is a mapping between keycodes for a particular keyboard and the effect that that particular key is supposed to have. So each keymap is specific to the layout and keycodes that are generated by a particular keyboard type. All of the keymapping files that NeXT ships are fat for the three basic keyboard interfaces that we support: NeXT's original keyboard, ADB keyboards, and PC (ACE) keyboards.\
\b Keyboard subtypes\
\b0 Within a given keyboard interface, there may be several subtypes. For example, the PC keyboard has a 101 key layout (USA and Japan), a 102 key layout (Europe), a 105 key layout (Japan) and a 106 key layout (Japan). While these are nearly identical, and are in fact supersets/subsets of each other with regard to the keycodes they generate, the locations of the keys vary, and some define more keycodes than others. For this reason, you may want to make your keymapping files more specific for a keyboard subtype.\
\b Editing an existing keymapping file\
\b0 To open a keymapping file, simply use the menu item Document->Open and select the file you want to edit. A window will open that shows a picture of a keyboard. \
In the top left of the window is a browser with a list of all of the keymaps that are in this particular keymapping file. When editing, you are only editing one keymap at a time, the one that is highlighted in the browser.
\i Note that when you make a change in one keymap, it is not also made in other keymaps!
\i0 Under the browser are two buttons: remove and add. This allows you to add and remove keymaps from the keymapping file. When you add a keymap, it will do a best guess translation from other keymaps in the file.\
In the upper right is the keycap inspector. This inspector is where you'll be looking at and modifying the attributes of individual keys. When you click on a key on the keyboard picture, it will hilight and the inspector will tell you information about it. It shows what kind of key is it (character, modifier, special, sequence, dead) in the popup in the upper right hand corner, and based on that shows specific information about it. For characters, it shows the character that is generated, whether it is an alphabetic key (whether it uses the shifted character when caps lock is down), and what character set its character is from (ascii, symbol or function). It also has a text field with the hexadecimal value of the character code that it generates. For modifiers and special keys, there is a list of radio buttons that allow you to select which modifier or special key it generates. By changing any of these popups, radio buttons, switches and text fields, you can change any of the attributes for a given key.\
If a key is a character key, it can actually generate several different characters. When modifier keys are used in conjuction with character keys, different keys are generated. These modifiers are shift, alpha lock, alternate and control. For example, when you hold down shift and press a key that normally generates 'a', it may now generate 'A'. Each combination of these keys can generate a different character code. So key, alt-key, shift-key and alt-shift-key can all generate different characters.\
In the left side of the inspector is a list of switches that represent the character modifiers. When you enable these switches, the keycaps change to display the characters that are generated when that combination of modifiers is being held down. So for example, if you click on the shift and alternate switches, the keyboard changes to reflect the keys that would be generated if you hold down the shift and alternate keys with this keymap. Likewise, when editing character keys, you are editing them with for the modifiers that are selected. So if you edit a (character) key while the shift and alternate switches are marked, you are modifying the alt-shift version of the key. The other characters for that key are untouched.\
Rather than having to know the hex codes for the characters you want to use and type them into the text field, Keyboard has a Character Code Palette that contains all of the character codes. To use the palette, simply drag the character you want on to the key (on the picture of the keyboard) that you want to edit. As before, the modifier switches that are selected affect which part of the key you are modifying.\
\b Creating a new keymap\
\b0 Most likely, you won't want to use this option as it will be more work than starting from an existing keymapping file and editing it for your needs. When you use the Document->New menu item, it copies the keymapping that's being used currently out of memory and into an empty keymapping document. As a result, you'll only have one keymap in your document (the one for your machine). Editing a new keyboard is the same as editing a previously existing one.\
\b How to use keymaps once you've created them
\b0 \
Put the .keymapping file into your ~/Library/Keyboards when you've finished editing it. Then restart Preferences and go to the Localization module in Preferences (the flags icon) and your new keymapping file will show up in the list of keymaps. Just select your keymapping to use it. It will then be your default keymapping each time you login.\
Key sequences\
\b0 Key sequences are a little more complicated than your other keyboard types. Basically, this feature allows you to assign multiple characters to a single key. For example, you could create a key sequnce with the word "NEXTSTEP" and bind it to the F2 key on your keyboard. \
The best way to think of sequences is that you create a list of sequences for a given keymap. This list of sequences isn't tied to anything. It's as if you just created a new list of characters which, once created, could be assigned to one or more keys. So in the implementation, the creation and editing of sequences is separated from the linking of sequences to specific keys.\
To edit the sequences for your keymap, click on the "Sequence List" button in the keymapping window. This will create a sequences window. From here, you can add, remove and edit sequences. None of the changes that you make in the sequences window are actually made in the keymap until you click on the "Set" button. You can back out your changes at any time by clicking on the "Cancel" button. To add a new sequence, you click on the "Add" button. This will add a new sequence to the list of sequences in the top of the window, and display the selected sequence (your new sequence) in the key matrix at the bottom of the window. The key matrix contains all of the keys that make up your sequence. The key that is selected (depressed) is where your keystrokes will go. If the last (dimmed) key in the sequence is selected, new characters will be added to the end of the sequence. If another key is selected, the character will be overwritten, and the next key will be selected. When you click on the "Set" button, all of the changes that you've made to the list of sequences is applied to the keymap and can now be assigned to individual keys.\
To use one of the sequences, simple select the key you wish to assign a sequence to, and select sequence in the key type popup list. This will present you with a list of all of the sequences you've created for this keymap. The one that is selected is the sequence that's assigned to the key.\
\b Bugs and missing features\
\b0 \
There are several bugs and missing features in this version of Keyboard.\
\i Missing Features\
\i0\fi-680\li680
Keyboard.app doesn't automatically apply changes made in one keyboard type to the other keyboards in your keymapping file.\
\fi0\li0 \
\i Bugs
\i0 \
\fi-680\li680
Sometimes the automatic translation of the keymap from one keyboard type to another isn't very good.\
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