1xvkbd(1) General Commands Manual xvkbd(1)
2
6 xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system
7
10 xvkbd is a virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System
11 which provides facility to enter characters onto other clients (soft‐
12 wares) by clicking on a keyboard displayed on the screen. This may be
13 used for systems without a hardware keyboard such as kiosk terminals or
14 handheld devices. This program also has facility to send characters
15 specified as the command line option to another client.
16 The standard keyboard layout is based on the traditional US layout, but
18 some other keyboard layout (see "Screen Shot") are also supported. The
19 default window size may be too large for systems with small screen, but
20 it can be configured to use smaller space (220x90 pixels, for example).
21 For details, see also "Screen Shot" and "How to Customize xvkbd" below,
22 and resouce files in the distribution.
23 xvkbd version 2.1 and later support word completion, which may make it
25 easier to enter long words with xvkbd.
26 IMPORTANT NOTE: When invoking xvkbd from display managers such as XDM,
28 GDM, etc., always use xvkbd with -secure option or you will have seri‐
29 ous security risk.
30
33 xvkbd will work on X11R5 or X11R6. It is tested on redhat Linux and
34 Solaris, and it will work also on most UNIX-like systems.
35 This program uses Xaw (use of Xaw3d is recommended) and no special
37 library is required.
38
41 Input Keys
42 When xvkbd is started, the image of a keyboard will be displayed on the
43 screen. Clicking any key on the xvkbd window will send the character
44 to the focused window as if the key had been actually typed with the
45 hardware keyboard.
46 If you want to input upper-case alphabets or other characters on the
48 upper position on the keyboard, you should click the key after select‐
49 ing Shift by clicking it, or click the key with mouse button 3 (maybe
50 right button) or mouse button 4. In the similar manner, if you want to
51 input Controled characters, you should click the key after clicking
52 Control, or click the key with mouse button 2 (maybe middle button).
53 Alt and Meta can be used in the similar manner with Control, but there
54 are no shortcuts with mouse buttons.
55 ``Quick Modifiers''
58 xvkbd 2.5 and later support another way to input characters with modi‐
59 fiers such as Shift, Control, AltGr, etc., which may be useful espe‐
60 cially for machines with touch panels such as PDAs - we would call it
61 "Quick Modifiers".
62 Quick Modifiers can be enabled/disabled by the ``Enable "Quick Modi‐
64 fiers?'' entry on the property panel. If Quick Modifiers is enabled,
65 it will be activated by pressing a key on the xvkbd window, move the
66 pointer outside of the key, and then release the mouse button or equiv‐
67 alent.
68 The direction of the pointer motion will select the modifier:
70 up - Shift
72 right - AltGr
73 right-up - Shift AltGr
74 left - Control
75 left-up - Shift Control
76 down - Meta
77 left-down - Alt
78 Setting Input Focus
82 If you are using a window manager and clients where you can set input
83 focus by clicking mouse button on the window (and you don't have to
84 keep pointer in the window after that), you can simply set input focus
85 in the normal way and then click keys on the xvkbd window - the charac‐
86 ter will be sent to the selected position.
87 If you are using a window manager or clients where you must keep the
89 pointer in the input field to input from the keyboard, or if the input
90 focus is switched to the xvkbd window when you clicked on the key on
91 the xvkbd window, you must make xvkbd to set input focus explicitly by
92 clicking the Focus button on the xvkbd window and then click on the
93 input field. This input focus can be cleared by clicking Focus button
94 with mouse button 3, or simply clicking Focus button twice.
95 Word Completion
98 Choosing ``Word Completion...'' in the main menu will popup the Word
99 Completion panel.
100 When you entered characters by clicked keys on the xvkbd window as
102 usual while the Word Completion panel open, words started with the
103 characters will be listed in the panel, and you can enter the remaining
104 characters of the selected word by clicking one of the words in the
105 list.
106 The dictionary (list of words) file is /usr/share/dict/words by
108 default, but it can be changed by -dict option or xvkbd.dictFile
109 resouce, or on the Property panel.
110 Main Menu
113 Pressing the ``xvkbd'' logo on the main keyboard (placed near left-bot‐
114 tom corner in the default configuration) will popup the main menu.
115 The menu contains following items:
117 About...
119 Show short description of this program.
120 Manual...
122 Launch manual page reader.
123 Keypad...
125 Open the Keypad panel.
126 Sun Function Keys...
128 Open the Sun Function Keys panel.
129 Dead Keys...
131 Open the Dead Keys panel which can be used to enter Latin charac‐
132 ters with accent symbol in double stroke.
133 Word Completion...
135 Open the Word Completion panel.
136 Change Keyboard Layout...
138 Open a popup window to change the keyboard layout. In the default
139 configuration, Default (US), Belgian, Danish, French, German, Ice‐
140 landic, Italian, Japanese (JIS-X-6002), Japanese (JIS-X-6004),
141 Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish,
142 Swiss/German, United Kingdom and Latin-1 are available.
143 Edit Function Keys...
145 Open a popup window to edit string assigned to function keys. See
146 also "Assigning Text to Function Keys".
147 Show Keypad?
149 Toggle show/hide of the keypad on the main window.
150 Show Function Keys?
152 Toggle show/hide of the function keys on the main window.
153 Property...
155 Popup the Property panel.
156 Connect to Remote Display...
158 Open a panel to specify the name of a remote display to be con‐
159 nected, so that following key events will be sent to windows on the
160 remote display.
161 Revert to Local Display
163 Disconnect from the remote display so that following key events
164 will be sent to windows on the local display.
165 Property Panel
168 Enable "Quick Modifiers"?
169 Toggle enable/disable of the Quick Modifiers feature.
170 Lock Shift?
172 Toggle locking/momentary of Shift keys.
173 Lock AltGr?
175 Toggle locking/momentary of AltGr key.
176 Lock Control, Alt and Meta?
178 Toggle locking/momentary of Control, Alt and Meta keys.
179 Always on Top?
181 If this entry is set ON, xvkbd attempts to keep the xvkbd window
182 always on the top of the display (i.e. not to be hidden by other
183 windows). This feature is experimental, and care should be taken
184 as this feature can cause problem in some situations.
185 Behave as Toolbar Window?
187 xvkbd attempts to be a toolbar window when it is used with some
188 kind of window managers such as Matchbox window manager.
189 Use XTEST Extension?
191 XTEST extension will be used if this entry is checked. If this
192 entry is set inactive, the X server does not support XTEST exten‐
193 sion.
194 Jump Pointer?
196 If this entry is set ON, xvkbd will temporary jump the pointer to
197 the focused window, if XTEST extension is to be used to simulate
198 keyboard events.
199 Key-Click Sound
201 Set on/off and duration of key-click sound.
202 Automatic Click
204 Set on/off of the automatic click feature and the delay before
205 automatic click is activated. If this feature is set, xvkbd will
206 work as if left mouse button is clicked when mouse pointer is moved
207 on a button and stays long enough. You may want to set Jump
208 Pointer? to OFF to avoid auto-repeating.
209 Completion Dictionary
211 Set the filename to be used for word completion. This setting take
212 precedence over the `xvkbd.dictFile' resource and the -dict option.
213 Options
216 xvkbd accept following command line options, in addition to general
217 options such as `-display'.
218 -version
220 Display version information and exit.
221 -xsendevent
223 Make xvkbd to use XSendEvent() to simulate keyboard events, as it
224 was in xvkbd version 1.0. xvkbd version 1.1 and later will try to
225 use XTEST extension instead in the default configuration.
226 If XTEST extension is not supported by the X server, xvkbd will
227 automatically switch to this mode.
228 Resource `xvkbd.xtest: false' has the same function.
229 -no-sync
231 Normally, xvkbd attempts to synchronize with the destinating client
232 step by step. This can cause problem when the client (or the X
233 server) responded too slow. In such situation, maybe this -no-sync
234 can solve the problem.
235 Resource `xvkbd.noSync: true' has the same function.
236 -no-jump-pointer
238 Make xvkbd not to jump the pointer when sending events. In the
239 default, xvkbd will temporary jump the pointer to the focused win‐
240 dow, if input focus is set explicitly via Focus button, and XTEST
241 extension is to be used to simulate keyboard events.
242 Resource `xvkbd.jumpPointer: false' has the same function.
243 -no-back-pointer
245 Make xvkbd not to jump the pointer back to the original position
246 after events has been sent. Maybe this can be useful when using
247 xvkbd to move the pointer position.
248 Resource `xvkbd.jumpPointerBack: false' has the same function.
249 -modal
251 Make labels on keys in the xvkbd window to be set independently for
252 each of four shift states, not shifted, Shift, AltGr and Shift-
253 AltGr. This is useful when you want to make the xvkbd window very
254 small.
255 See also "Customizing Keyboard Layout" and resouce files in the
256 distribution.
257 Resource `xvkbd.modalKeytop: true' has the same function.
258 -geometry [widthxheight][+xoff+yoff]
260 Set window geometry (size and position).
261 You can use form like -geometry 400x130 to specify the window size,
262 -geometry +100+100 to specify the window position from left/top
263 edge of the screen, and -geometry 400x130+100+100 to specify both
264 the size and the position. You can specify position from
265 right/bottom edge of the screen by using - instead of +, but please
266 note that you must take account of size of the window border. (If
267 you specify `-geometry -0-0', the window will not fit in the
268 screen.)
269 This can be set by xvkbd.windowGeometry resource (note that it is
270 not xvkbd.geometry), too.
271 -no-repeat
273 Do not auto-repeat even if key is depressed long time.
274 If auto-repeat is enabled (this is the default), time before start
275 auto-repeat can be set as `xvkbd*Repeater.initialDelay: 600', and
276 period of repeat can be set as `xvkbd*Repeater.minimumDelay: 100'
277 (unit of there parameters are milli-seconds).
278 Resource `xvkbd.autoRepeat: false' has the same function.
279 -no-functionkey
281 Do not display function keys.
282 Resource `xvkbd.functionkey: false' has the same function.
283 -no-keypad
285 Do not display keypad.
286 Resource `xvkbd.keypad: false' has the same function.
287 -compact
289 Do not display function keys nor keypad.
290 Resource `xvkbd.compact: true' has the same function.
291 -keypad
293 Display only keypad. This option will be ignored if `-no-keypad'
294 or `-compact' is specified.
295 Resource `xvkbd.keypadOnly: true' has the same function.
296 -text string
298 Send the string to the focused window (see also `-window' option).
299 If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and
300 terminate soon after sending the string.
301 The string can contain:
302 - \r - Return
304 - \t - Tab
306 - \b - Backspace
308 - \e - Escape
310 - \d - Delete
312 - \S - Shift (modify the next character; please note that modify
314 with ``\S'' will be ignored in many cases. For example,
315 ``a\Cb\ScD\CE'' will be interpreted as a, Control-b, c, Shift-D,
316 and Control-Shift-E.)
317 - \C - Control (modify the next character)
319 - \A - Alt (modify the next character)
321 - \M - Meta (modify the next character)
323 - \[keysym] - the keysym keysym (e.g., \[Left])
325 - \Ddigit - delay digit * 100 ms
327 - \xvalue - move mouse pointer (use "+" or "-" for relative motion)
329 - \yvalue - move mouse pointer (use "+" or "-" for relative motion)
331 - \mdigit - simulate click of the specified mouse button
333 -file filename
335 Send the contents of the specified file to the focused window (see
336 also `-window' option). If ``-'' was specified as the filename,
337 string to be sent will be read from the standard input (stdin).
338 If this option is specified, xvkbd will not open its window and
339 terminate soon after sending the string.
340 -delay value
342 Put value ms of delay for evey characters when sending characters
343 with -text or -file. Maybe this is useful when problem arises when
344 characters are entered too fast.
345 -window window
347 Specify the ID (hexadecimal value leaded with `0x', or decimal
348 value), the name (instance name or class name) of the window, or
349 the title of the window to set input focus. It is possible to use
350 wildcard characters `*' and `?' to match the window name or the
351 window title.
352 If this is not specified, xvkbd will use input focus under control
353 of the window manager, unless focus is specified explicitly via
354 Focus button. Even if this option is specified, you can set input
355 focus to other windows using Focus button, or clear the input
356 focus.
357 If there are two or more windows which have the name specified with
358 this option, the window which was found first will be selected.
359 -widget widget-name
361 Specify the name of the widget to set the input focus. To use this
362 feature, the client must support Editres protocol. In general,
363 this option will be used with `-window' option.
364 If you want to set input focus to the widget foo.bar.zot, you can
365 write zot, bar.zot or foo.bar.zot as widget-name. To avoid confu‐
366 sion, the widget-name should match with a single widget of the
367 client.
368 For example,
369 xvkbd -window xarchie -widget searchText -text "\Ca\Ckabc\r"
371 will enter the string ``abc'' to the ``Search Term'' field of a
373 xarchie window.
374 -true-keypad
376 If this option is specified, xvkbd will attempt to use keysyms such
377 as XK_KP_1 instead of XK_1.
378 Resource `xvkbd.keypadKeysym: true' has the same function.
379 -dict filename
381 Specify the default dictionary (list of words) file to be used for
382 word completion. The `Completion Dictionary' filename set on the
383 Property panel takes precedence over this.
384 Resource `xvkbd.dictFile: filename' has the same function.
385 See also ``Making your own completion dictionary''.
386 -minimizable
388 Make xvkbd window can be minimized (iconified) even if no window
389 manager is in use. When this feature is enabled, small triangle
390 will be displayed at left ot the xvkbd main menu, and xvkbd window
391 will be minimized when the triangle is clicked.
392 Resource `xvkbd.minimizable: true' has the same function.
393 -secure
395 Disable invocation of external commands, including user assigned
396 command and the online manual reader. Connection to another dis‐
397 plays would also be disabled. This option may be useful when xvkbd
398 is to be run with some kind of privileges.
399 Resource `xvkbd.secure: true' has the same function.
400 -nonexitable
402 Disable termination of the xvkbd program. This option may be use‐
403 ful when xvkbd is to be run automatically for systems with no key‐
404 boards and users should not terminate the xvkbd.
405 Resource `xvkbd.nonexitable: true' has the same function.
406 -xdm
408 Same as -secure -nonexitable. When xvkbd is to be run for login
409 screen, it would be suggested to use this option.
410 -modifiers modifiers
412 Normally, xvkbd will activate modifiers (control, shift, etc.)
413 only while sending characters. If modifiers were specified with
414 this option, the specified modifiers will be activated while corre‐
415 sponding key on the xvkbd window is in active. For example, you
416 can specify -modifiers shift,control,meta,alt to apply this for
417 those four modifiers. Maybe this can be useful when attempting to
418 decorate the mouse operations with the modifiers. Please note that
419 the modifiers will also be applied when attempting to click on the
420 xvkbd window and which can prevent the correct operation in some
421 situations.
422 Resource `xvkbd.positiveModifiers: modifiers...' has the same func‐
423 tion.
424 -debug
426 Make xvkbd to output debug information. It also disable keyboard
427 width adjustment, to help adjusting key size when making keyboard
428 layout file.
429 <!--
430 -version
432 Output version information and exit. -->
433
436 Default (US)
437 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-normal.gif
438 Belgian
440 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-belgian.gif
441 Danish
443 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-danish.gif
444 French
446 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-french.gif
447 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-french2.gif
448 German
450 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-german.gif
451 Icelandic
453 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-icelandic.gif
454 Italian
456 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-italian.gif
457 Japanese (JIS-X-6002)
459 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-jisx6002.gif
460 Japanese (JIS-X-6004)
462 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-jisx6004.gif
463 Norwegian
465 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-norwegian.gif
466 Portuguese
468 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-portuguese.gif
469 Spanish
471 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-spanish.gif
472 Swedish
474 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-swedish.gif
475 Swiss/German
477 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-swissgerman.gif
478 United Kingdom
480 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-uk.gif
481 Latin-1
483 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-latin1.gif
484 Small Keyboard (maybe suitable for PDAs)
486 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-small.gif
487 Hebrew
489 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-hebrew.gif
490 Greek
492 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-greek.gif
493 Turkish
495 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-turkish.gif
496 Slovene
498 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-slovene.gif
499 Korean
501 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-korean.gif
502 Russian (Cyrillic)
504 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-russian.gif
505
508 Latest Official Release
509 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-3.2.tar.gz
510 - source of version 3.2 (2010-03-14)
511 previous release
513 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-3.1.tar.gz
514 - source of version 3.1 (2010-01-17)
515 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-3.0.tar.gz
516 - source of version 3.0 (2008-05-05)
517 xvkbd is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
519
522 o untar the source in a directory, and move to the directory
523 o If you wish to use genuine Xaw insead of Xaw3d, edit Imakefile and
525 remove (or comment-out) `#define XAW3D'.
526 When you are installing xvkbd (for example) in very old systems,
527 you may also want to remove `#define XTEST' and `#define I18N' to
528 disable XTEST and internationalization facility respectively.
529 o Run xmkmf; make install install.man
531
534 How to Customize xvkbd
535 Some degree of customization of xvkbd is possible by setting resources.
536 Some resources are already described above, and resources to customiz‐
537 ing keyboard layout are described below.
538 To set resources, you can:
540 o put them in your $HOME/.Xdefaults file, or
542 o load them via xrdb(1), or
544 o set the filename to the $XENVIRONMENT environment variable, or
546 o put them in application default directory as `XVkbd-suffix' and set
548 resource ``xvkbd.customization: -suffix'', or
549 o put them in application default directory as XVkbd.
551 Here, application default directory can be either of:
553 o directories specified with $XUSERFILESEACHPATH, $XAPPLRESDIR or
555 else $HOME environment variable
556 o system's application default directory specified with $XFILESEACH‐
558 PATH environment variable, or else the directory specified when
559 compiling the X (e.g., /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults)
560 When the application default file is to be stored in the system's
562 application default directory, the file must contain ``#include "XVkbd-
563 common"'' near top of the file.
564 xvkbd is distributed with some application default files, and they will
566 be installed in the system's application default directory.
567 Making Window Small
570 Size (and position) of xvkbd window can be set by `xvkbd.windowGeome‐
571 try' resource. When making window small, you may need to choose the
572 smaller font, too.
573 xvkbd.windowGeometry: 220x90
575 xvkbd.compact: true
576 xvkbd*Font: 6x12
577 You may also want to set:
580 xvkbd.modalKeytop: true
582 to display only the labels for the current shift state, instead of try‐
584 ing to always display all of them in the small keytop.
585 See also XVkbd-small.ad in the xvkbd distribution.
587 Removing Unwanted Keys
590 Keys on xvkbd window can be removed by setting its width to 1.
591 To remove Compose key and make Shift key larger, you can write:
593 xvkbd*Multi_key.width: 1
595 xvkbd*Shift_R.width: 75
596 To remove right Alt and Meta key, you can write:
599 xvkbd*Alt_R.width: 1
601 xvkbd*Meta_R.width: 1
602 Customizing Keyboard Layout
606 Layout of keys on the xvkbd window can be customized with following
607 resources:
608 xvkbd.NormalKeys
610 list of keys available when neighter of Shift and AltGr are
611 selected
612 xvkbd.ShiftKeys
614 list of keys available when Shift is selected
615 xvkbd.AltgrKeys
617 list of keys available when AltGr is selected
618 xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeys
620 list of keys available when both AltGr and Shift are selected
621 xvkbd.KeyLabels
623 list of labels displayed on the keys
624 xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels
626 list of labels displayed on the keys
627 when neither of Shift and AltGr are selected.
628 xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels
630 list of labels displayed on the keys
631 when Shift is selected
632 xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels
634 list of labels displayed on the keys
635 when AltGr is selected
636 xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLabels
638 list of labels displayed on the keys
639 when both AltGr and Shift are selected
640 Four resources to set labels on the keys (xvkbd.NormalKeyLabels,
642 xvkbd.ShiftKeyLabels, xvkbd.AltgrKeyLabels and xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeyLa‐
643 bels) will be used instead of xvkbd.KeyLabels when xvkbd.modalKeytop
644 resoruce is set true.
645 In all of those resources, each keys are separated by spaces, and rows
647 of keys are terminated with ` \n\' (note that `\n' must have space
648 before it). Please refer XVkbd-german.ad and XVkbd-latin1.ad in the
649 xvkbd distribution for more about these resources.
650 XVkbd-german and XVkbd-latin1 will be installed in the system's appli‐
652 cation default directory, and setting the resource ``xvkbd.customiza‐
653 tion: -german'' will make xvkbd to use the German layout. For another
654 method to activate those settings, please refer "How to Customize
655 xvkbd" above.
656 Assigning Text to Function Keys
659 Text can be assigned to each function keys (and, actually, to most
660 other keys). If text is assigned to the function key, clicking on the
661 key will send the assigned text instead of the function key itself.
662 When pointer is on a key where text is assigned, the text will be dis‐
663 played near the key.
664 The setting will be read from a text file which contains text for each
666 function keys as:
667 F1 text for F1
669 F2 text for F2
670 s:F1 text for Shift-F1
671 c:F1 text for Control-F1
672 m:F1 text for Meta-F1
673 a:F1 text for Alt-F1
674 ...
675 `s:', `c:', `m:' and `a:' before the keys name indicates four modifiers
678 (Shift, Control, Meta and Alt) respectively.
679 If the first character of the assigned string is `!', the string will
681 be used as command to be executed when the key is clicked. To assign
682 string starting with `!' or `\', put `\' before the string.
683 The file is $HOME/.xvkbd in default, and it can be changed by setting
685 the filename with xvkbd.keyFile resource.
686 For F1 to F12 with or without Shift modifier, it is possible to edit
688 the assigned string on a panel popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in
689 the main menu.
690
693 Notes
694 o On XFree86, resolution switch with Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Plus and
695 Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Minus may be simulated. However, Ctrl + Alt +
696 Backspace will not be simulated.
697 o Shift is used to decide key to be sent and it will not used to set
699 modifier bit when sending the event. You can use xev command to
700 check what is actually sent.
701 o If Alt or Meta is not defined as modifier, the key can't be used as
703 modifier. You can use `xmodmap -pm' to check how modifiers are
704 defined.
705 o Num Lock (and maybe other modifiers) on the physical keyboard may
707 not work correctly when xvkbd is in use.
708 Additional Informations
711 FAQ - Possible Problems and Solutions
712 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/faq.html
713 Making your own completion dictionary
715 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/make-dic.html
716 Hints to use xvkbd -text
718 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/xvkbd-text.html
719 Note about how to send key events
721 http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/events.html
722
725 Version 0.1 (2000-05-13)
726 -
728 The first release, not announced anywhere.
730 Version 0.2 (2000-09-15)
732 - Compose key is added. In the environments where Compose key is
734 supported, some characters (mainly letters with accent symbol)
735 which can't be entered directly from keyboard can be entered
736 using dedicated key combinations.
737 - Make keyboard layout not to be disturbed when window size if
739 specified with -geometry option.
740 - Sample app-defaults file is added.
742 Version 0.3 (2000-10-05)
744 - -text option can now accept some modifiers (\S, \C, etc.) and any
746 keysyms (\[keysym]).
747 - In addition to the window ID, -window option can now accept win‐
749 dow name.
750 - New -widget option to specify the widget to set the input focus.
752 Version 1.0 (2000-11-03)
754 - Keyboard layout can be now configured with resources. See "Cus‐
756 tomizing Keyboard Layout" above, and XVkbd-german.ad in the dis‐
757 tribution.
758 - xvkbd can now send keys with Mode_switch (AltGr) modifier, which
760 enables those characters in the position to be entered.
761 - xvkbd now support AltGr key so that German (and some other) key‐
763 board layout can be used. See XVkbd-german.ad in the distribu‐
764 tion.
765 - XVkbd-german and XVkbd-latin1 are included in the distribution,
767 which modifies keyboard layout and put some non-ASCII keys on the
768 xvkbd window.
769 - CapsLock key is supported now.
771 Version 1.1 (2000-12-23)
773 - xvkbd can now use XTEST extension to simulate keyboard events.
775 It can still use XSendEvent(), as it was in the older release.
776 (thanks, Bjoern)
777 - Labels on keys can now be set independently for each of four
779 shift states, not shifted, Shift, AltGr and Shift-AltGr.
780 (thanks, Jim)
781 - -kterm option and xvkbd.kterm resource are removed.
783 Version 1.2 (2001-02-18)
785 - Focus button is now placed in the main keyboard, too, so that it
787 will be available also in compact mode. If you don't need it, it
788 can be removed by setting ``xvkbd*row5.Focus.width: 1''.
789 - Input focus set by Focus button can now be cleard by clicking
791 Focus button twice. Clicking Focus button with mouse button 3
792 will still clear the input focus, too.
793 - Text can now be assigned to function keys (and, actually, to most
795 other keys).
796 - It is now possible to assign keys modified with Shift, Control,
798 Alt and Meta on the main keyboard, by putting `s:', `c:', `a:'
799 and `m:' before those keysym name when customizing the keyboard
800 layout.
801 - xvkbd now ignores SIGINT and SIGQUIT so that it will not termi‐
803 nated accidently.
804 Version 1.3 (2001-03-19)
806 - New app-defaults file for Swiss-German layout, XVkbd-swissger‐
808 man.ad. (contributed from Marcel Portner)
809 - xvkbd now catches MappingNotify event and reload the new mapping.
811 This allows users to use xmodmap while xvkbd is running.
812 - NumLock key is supported now. (I'd removed Print, ScrLk and
814 Pause from keypad - somebody need them?)
815 Version 1.4 (2001-04-22)
817 - Auto-repeat didn't work when focus was set explicitly via Focus
819 button. It is now fixed.
820 - When required keysym was not defined in the keymap table, xvkbd
822 will now add it on-the-fly. This means that we don't have to add
823 them via xmodmap.
824 - Keypad panel can now be popped up from the main keyboard as a
826 separate window.
827 - Sun function keys is now supported. It can be popped up from the
829 main keyboard as a separate window.
830 - Manual page is now available.
832 Version 1.5 (2001-10-08)
834 - Key events can now be sent to windows on a remote display (i.e.
836 windows on other X servers) - use "Connect to Remote Display..."
837 in the main menu to connect to remote display.
838 - Shift, Control, Alt and Meta can now be locked - use "Lock
840 Shift?" and "Lock Control, Alt and Meta?" in the main menu.
841 Those initial settings can be set by xvkbd.shiftLock and
842 xvkbd.modifiersLock resource.
843 - If the first keysym for a key is an alphabet and the second
845 keysym is NoSymbol, it is now interpreted as if the first keysym
846 is lowercase alphabet and the second keysym is uppercase alpha‐
847 bet. Keymap may be defined in this way in some systems including
848 Solaris, and older xvkbd may not work correctly in such situa‐
849 tion.
850 Version 1.6 (2001-11-10)
852 - New `-file' option to send characters in the specified file.
854 (thanks, Gregory)
855 - New entry `Use XTEST Extension?' is added to the main menu,
857 mainly to indicate the availability of the XTEST extension.
858 - xvkbd would crash when the window explicitly focused via Focus
860 button becomes was destroyed. This problem is now fixed.
861 Version 2.0 (2001-12-09)
863 - Keyboard layout (default, German, French, etc.) can now be
865 changed after xvkbd is invoked.
866 - Show/hide of the keypad and funcion keys on the main window can
868 now be toggled from the main menu.
869 - New app-defaults file for French layout, XVkbd-french.ad. (con‐
871 tributed from Jean-Pierre Demailly)
872 Version 2.1 (2002-01-27)
874 - When height of the xvkbd window is smaller than
876 XVkbd.modalThreshold, xvkbd will now automatically switch the
877 keytop as if -modal option was specified.
878 - \[keysym] in -text option would send wrong keys - this problem is
880 now fixed.
881 - Target distclean in the Imakefile is renamed to avoid the possi‐
883 ble confusion on some systems.
884 - Word completion is now supported.
886 Version 2.2 (2002-03-17)
888 - String assigned to function keys can now be edited on a panel
890 popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in the main menu.
891 - When ``-'' was specified as the filename parameter for -file
893 option, xvkbd will now read its standard input (stdin) to get the
894 string to be sent.
895 - In the previous release, less-portable setenv() function was used
897 instead of putenv() function, may cause compilation error on some
898 systems including Solaris.
899 Version 2.3 (2002-04-05)
901 - New "Dead Keys" panel added. Which can be used to enter Latin
903 characters with accent symbol in double stroke.
904 - More localized keyboard layout: Belgian, Danish, French, German,
906 Icelandic, Italian, Japanese (JIS-X-6004), Norwegian, Portuguese,
907 Spanish, Swedish, Swiss/German, United Kingdom and Latin-1.
908 - -keypad option would crash previous version of xvkbd - this prob‐
910 lem is now fixed.
911 Version 2.4 (2002-10-02)
913 - Command can now be assigned to function keys so that clicking on
915 the function key will execute the command instead of sending the
916 string to clients.
917 - Assigned string for F1 to F12 with Shift modifier can now be
919 edited on a panel popped up via "Edit Function Keys..." in the
920 main menu.
921 Version 2.5 (2002-10-12)
923 - Quick Modifier feature added - now, it is possible to enter char‐
925 acters with modifiers by pressing a key and then move the
926 pointer. (suggested by Niklas Rokaeus)
927 - ``Lock AltGr?'' entry is added in the main menu.
929 - Status of ``Lock Shift?'', ``Lock AltGr'', ``Lock Control, Alt
931 and Meta?'' will be recorded in $HOME/.xvkbd file and it will be
932 read when xvkbd is invoked next time.
933 Version 2.5a (2003-06-25)
935 - ``Fitaly'' layout is now supported - may be useful for PDAs.
937 Version 2.6 (2004-05-04)
939 - Code to adding keysyms which were not found in the keymap table
941 is revised. xvkbd now avoid to add keysyms in the shifted posi‐
942 tion of keys which already have a keysym defined in the non-
943 shifted position, and entries in the keymap table which is modi‐
944 fied keys will be redefined rather than redefining the entire
945 keymap table. This change is to avoid possible problem (AltGr
946 key could be effectively disabled) which may caused in some sys‐
947 tems where XGetKeyboardMapping() can produce incorrect map when
948 keys have more then two keysyms.
949 - If Mode_switch is not defined in the modifier table but
951 ISO_Level3_Shift is defined, xvkbd now attempt to add Mode_switch
952 as the same modifier with ISO_Level3_Shift.
953 - Korean layout is now supported. Although Hangul characters will
955 be displayed on the keys, xvkbd will simply generate alphabet
956 characters when those keys are clicked. It is intented to be
957 used with "ami" or similar Hangul input program.
958 - URL of the xvkbd main page is now changes to http://home‐
960 page3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/.
961 Version 2.7 (2005-05-05)
963 - Yet another Japanese keyboard layout, JIS X 6002, is now sup‐
965 ported.
966 - It is now possible to minimize (iconify) the main window even if
968 no window manager is in use. This feature can be activated by
969 -minimizable option or xvkbd.minimizable resource.
970 - Experimental code to keep the xvkbd window always on the top of
972 the display. This feature can be activated by -always-on-top
973 option, xvkbd.alwaysOnTop resource or the "Always on Top?" entry
974 in the main menu. Care should be taken as this feature can cause
975 problem in some situations.
976 - -text option now support combinations of modifiers and a special
978 key. For example, -text '\C\A\d' can be used for Control-Alt-
979 Delete key combination.
980 - New options: -secure option (xvkbd.secure resource) which dis‐
982 ables invocation of external commands, -nonexitable option
983 (xvkbd.nonexitable resource) which inhibits termination of the
984 program, and -xdm option which is equivalent to -secure -nonex‐
985 itable and maybe useful when run xvkbd from a display manager.
986 Version 2.7a (2005-05-07)
988 - Fixed a problem that xvkbd could cause segmentation fault on
990 startup.
991 Version 2.8 (2006-09-10)
993 - ISO_Level3_Shift is now to be prefered over Mode_switch so that
995 AltGr can be used on relatively new systems where we must use
996 ISO_Level3_Shift instead of Mode_switch.
997 - Reference to the target bitmap is changed from
999 /usr/X11R6/include/X11/bitmaps/target to /usr/include/X11/bit‐
1000 maps/target.
1001 - New options: -no-back-pointer, -no-sync, -modifiers.
1003 Version 2.9 (2008-03-30)
1005 - Russian (Cyrillic) keyboard layout supported. (thanks, Victor)
1007 - New -delay option.
1009 - \D special sequence in -text can be used to put a delay in spe‐
1011 cific position.
1012 - -text can now simulate mouse operation via \x, \y and \m special
1014 sequences.
1015 Version 3.0 (2008-05-05)
1017 - New Property panel.
1019 - New automatic click feature.
1021 - Key-click sounds when key is pressed.
1023 Version 3.1 (2010-01-17)
1025 - Changed the default setting for automatic click to OFF, which was
1027 set ON in the previous release in error and caused confusion.
1028 - The keypad is now customizable, too (see XVkbd-strip.ad for the
1030 example).
1031 - Up to 25x25 keys can now be supported both for the main keyboard
1033 and the keypad.
1034 - Able to open the keypad panel when startup, by setting
1036 `xvkbd.keypad: false' and `xvkbd.keypadOnly: true'.
1037 - Fixed errors in some keyboard layout files (Korean, Slovene, UK).
1039 - A new sample layout file XVkbd-strip.ad.
1041 Version 3.2 (2010-03-14)
1043 - New option `Behave as Toolbar Window?' on the Property panel,
1045 which may make xvkbd works better with some kind of window man‐
1046 agers
1047 such as Matchbox window manager. (Thanks, Patrick)
1048 - `Always on Top' will work rather better with window managers
1050 which support extended window manager hint _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE.
1051 - -window option can now find window which have title match with
1053 the specified string.
1054 - -window option now accept wildcard characters
1056 `*' and `?'.
1057 - Word completion dictionary file to be used with `Word Comple‐
1059 tion...'
1060 can now be specified on the Property panel.
1061 - Only the words which have two or more characters will be appeared
1063 in the word completion list.
1064 - New -version option to display version information.
1066
1069 xvkbd was written by Tom Sato, and it is distributed under the terms of
1070 the GNU General Public License Version 2 or any later version.
1071 Please send any feedback (such as bug reports, requests or comments) to
1073 Tom Sato <VEF00200@nifty.ne.jp>.
1074 The latest version of this software and more information about it may
1076 be available at http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/. Release of
1077 the new version will be announced on the Freshmeat (http://fresh‐
1078 meat.net), and you can probably receive the announce via e-mail if you
1079 wish.
1080 2010-03-14 xvkbd(1)
