mapping different chars to qwerty keyboard

[moep 2]

Hello,

I want to buy a pro1 and I saw during the ordering process that the QWERTZ keyboard is sold out.  I contacted the support and they told me, the delay is because of COVID-19.

Right now I don't want to wait anymore. So my question is, if it's possible at LineageOS to map some german special characters to a different button (for example ä to a or ß to s)? If yes, what's the best way to solve it?

Regards

moep

[tdm 2,322]

Keyboard mapping is fine with kcm files. You can map characters in both stock and lineage. Find the people that use FinQwerty, they can probably tell you more.

 

[Wheeljack 212]

I don't think ordering QWERTY instead of QWERTZ will get you a Pro1 any sooner.

[Slion 1,200]

9 hours ago, Wheeljack said:

I don't think ordering QWERTY instead of QWERTZ will get you a Pro1 any sooner.

Same opinion, so why would they stop taking QWERTZ order?
I guess I can kiss my AZERTY goodbye 🤣

Edited July 27, 2020 by Slion

[Slion 1,200]

@tdm does FinQwerty and the likes even work as intended on LOS since the keyboard driver was changed and the keyboard was set to ALPHA?

Stock qwerty provides things like Alt + U for umlaut dead key I believe. FxQwerty provides possibly more of such international characters though the current version is geared more toward French than German it does give you ß with Alt + S.

[tdm 2,322]

18 minutes ago, Slion said:

@tdm does FinQwerty and the likes even work as intended on LOS since the keyboard driver was changed and the keyboard was set to ALPHA?

Stock qwerty provides things like Alt + U for umlaut dead key I believe. FxQwerty provides possibly more of such international characters though the current version is geared more toward French than German it does give you ß with Alt + S.

 

I don't know, I don't use a keyboard mapper because the keyboard works as it should in lineage.

 

My impression is that most people use a keyboard mapper on the stock pro1 only because it is so broken. But that could be off.

 

[Hook 2,945]

3 minutes ago, tdm said:

 

I don't know, I don't use a keyboard mapper because the keyboard works as it should in lineage.

 

My impression is that most people use a keyboard mapper on the stock pro1 only because it is so broken. But that could be off.

 

As someone who could not have been happy on stock without FinQwerty, I confirm @tdm's assessment.  FinQwerty isn't needed on Lineage, at least if you are using U.S. QWERTY.  Can't speak for other layouts.

I can't say if FinQwerty would work on Lineage.  Never tried either.

[FlyingAntero 869]

2 hours ago, Hook said:

I can't say if FinQwerty would work on Lineage.  Never tried either.

FinQwerty does not work on Lineage OS since the driver is working differently. The developer of the app would have to re-create the layouts to make it work on LOS also. Special characters are not working since you can not use button combinations for "upper characters" at all.

See more from here:

 

[Slion 1,200]

4 hours ago, tdm said:

My impression is that most people use a keyboard mapper on the stock pro1 only because it is so broken. But that could be off.

I would not call it broken, I would call it basic. I also understand why FxTec did not push too hard to improve it knowing they can't please everyone and developers can publish their own layout anyway. I merely use a custom layout to extend the existing basic functionalities.

Since I have a bunch of apps out there making use of keyboard shortcuts I was just trying to understand the differences between LOS and stock having never used LOS myself.

Now I think I do understand:

• Changes in the driver means scan codes are different meaning custom layouts are not compatible.
• Function key is not present meaning any app making use of it is broken on LOS.

That sounds like a lot of trouble for an app developer 😕
Now I understand that being able to develop your own driver gave you the opportunity to improve things a lot over stock, obviously making your users happy. It's just too bad it comes at the cost of incompatibility with stock from an app developer perspective.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Slion

[Craig 1,435]

2 hours ago, Slion said:

Function key is not present meaning any app making use of it is broken on LOS.

Technically we could program our own custom keycode, so if there is some combination LOS can't make by default, we could define it ourselves, if there were such an app.

(I realize you actually made such an app, but if stock fixes/changes slant arrow behavior or you want to make it work for lineage, I doubt it'd take long to update.)

For customization, there's another dumb thing stock did regarding slant arrows btw.   Although in hardware they are separate (unlike the two shift keys for example), they assigned them in software to the same keycode!     Before TDM made his custom solution, he had said his method would allow us to remap, etc, and my biggest concern at the time was making sure the two slant arrows didnt end up the same code again, cuz I wanna be able to remap the right one indepdendantly (to our missing slash key).

[FlyingAntero 869]

2 hours ago, Craig said:

Technically we could program our own custom keycode, so if there is some combination LOS can't make by default, we could define it ourselves, if there were such an app.

(I realize you actually made such an app, but if stock fixes/changes slant arrow behavior or you want to make it work for lineage, I doubt it'd take long to update.)

For customization, there's another dumb thing stock did regarding slant arrows btw.   Although in hardware they are separate (unlike the two shift keys for example), they assigned them in software to the same keycode!     Before TDM made his custom solution, he had said his method would allow us to remap, etc, and my biggest concern at the time was making sure the two slant arrows didnt end up the same code again, cuz I wanna be able to remap the right one indepdendantly (to our missing slash key).

Where can I find the base kcm-file for LOS that I would be able to edit (QWERTZ)? FinQwerty layouts are available here:

- https://android.onse.fi/finqwerty/kcm/

I know how to edit those kcm-files but I don't how to create kcm-file from scratch for LOS. If there is kcm-file available I could create new one and add it with root. (I don't know how to add kcm-files without root).

[tdm 2,322]

2 hours ago, FlyingAntero said:

Where can I find the base kcm-file for LOS that I would be able to edit (QWERTZ)? FinQwerty layouts are available here:

- https://android.onse.fi/finqwerty/kcm/

I know how to edit those kcm-files but I don't how to create kcm-file from scratch for LOS. If there is kcm-file available I could create new one and add it with root. (I don't know how to add kcm-files without root).

 

The source is here.  It goes into /vendor/usr/idc on the device.  I intentionally named it after the device name so that you can override it easily.  See the search logic here.

 

[moep 2]

15 hours ago, Slion said:

Same opinion, so why would they stop taking QWERTZ order?

I guess I was a little vague. I'm pretty sure that a QWERTZ order will be accepted, but QWERTZ keyboards are not in stock and when they will be available again, the support could not tell me. So I assume, buying a QWERTY is faster, because it's in stock.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

10 minutes ago, moep said:

I guess I was a little vague. I'm pretty sure that a QWERTZ order will be accepted, but QWERTZ keyboards are not in stock and when they will be available again, the support could not tell me. So I assume, buying a QWERTY is faster, because it's in stock.

AFAIK not all pre-orders have been handled yet. So neither layout is in stock.

[Craig 1,435]

10 hours ago, moep said:

I guess I was a little vague. I'm pretty sure that a QWERTZ order will be accepted, but QWERTZ keyboards are not in stock and when they will be available again, the support could not tell me. So I assume, buying a QWERTY is faster, because it's in stock.

Yeah the assume part is the problem.  Ask them when QWERTY will be in stock again and I expect you will get the same non-answer.   Or maybe they'll have an estimate.  But I doubt they'll try to claim they're in stock cuz even their warnings about dont share emails don't completely stop the spread of information, and the people waiting almost a year would be in uproar 😉

Edited July 28, 2020 by Craig

[moep 2]

On 7/28/2020 at 4:57 AM, Craig said:

Yeah the assume part is the problem.  Ask them when QWERTY will be in stock again and I expect you will get the same non-answer.   Or maybe they'll have an estimate.  But I doubt they'll try to claim they're in stock cuz even their warnings about dont share emails don't completely stop the spread of information, and the people waiting almost a year would be in uproar 😉

Thank you for the pointer. I asked again at the support and got this answer
 

Unfortunately, we do not currently have an ETA on when the QWERTZ model might be back. We suggest joining our newsletter at https://mail.webfx.co/h/i/censored to be amongst the first hear when we have any changes to shipping or future updates.

Feel free to let us know if there's anything else we can help you with.

 

So it looks like that the QWERTY is faster available. Just not the QWERTZ version, or do you disagree?

[EskeRahn 5,427]

1 hour ago, moep said:

Thank you for the pointer. I asked again at the support and got this answer

Unfortunately, we do not currently have an ETA on when the QWERTZ model might be back. We suggest joining our newsletter at https://mail.webfx.co/h/i/censored to be amongst the first hear when we have any changes to shipping or future updates.

Feel free to let us know if there's anything else we can help you with.

So it looks like that the QWERTY is faster available. Just not the QWERTZ version, or do you disagree?

Indeed. I certainly dislike that "might" in their mail!!! To me the qwertZ is far superior also for typing English as the keys are where they are expected to be...
(It's hardly a secret that I'm not a fan of the shifted Qwerty, a non-shifted qwerty would have been much better and had worked internationally better too IMHO)

[VaZso 1,997]

8 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Indeed. I certainly dislike that "might" in their mail!!! To me the qwertZ is far superior also for typing English as the keys are where they are expected to be...
(It's hardly a secret that I'm not a fan of the shifted Qwerty, a non-shifted qwerty would have been much better and had worked internationally better too IMHO)

A big +1 from me.
If they decide to support only one layout, please support one non-shifted QWERTY instead.

That would make easier to support international layouts while it remains easy for everybody (no need to learn) and also should be available in the whole world including the USA.

[Craig 1,435]

9 hours ago, moep said:

So it looks like that the QWERTY is faster available. Just not the QWERTZ version, or do you disagree?

Agree.  QWERTY is faster available.  Just not quite "in-stock".  And recent developments have led me to believe they are no longer taking orders for qwertz at all anyway, so does seem to be significant difference.