[ Home
> xvkbd ]
xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system
[ English | Japanese ]
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 default configuration may be too large for systems with small screen,
but it can be configured
to use smaller space (240x120 pixels, for example).
The standard keyboard layout is based on the traditional US layout,
but it can be configured to use the different layout,
such as German layout.
GTKeyboard
provides similar facility and it is more powerful than xvkbd,
with its built-in text editor and some other facilities.
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.
xvkbd is distributed under terms of
GPL.
- untar the source in a directory,
and move to the directory
- If you wish to use genuine Xaw insead of Xaw3d,
edit Imakefile and remove (or comment-out) `#define XAW3D'.
- Run xmkmf; make install
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.
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 posision.
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.
xvkbd accept following command line options, in addition to
general options such as -display.
- -geometry
- Set window geometry.
This can be set by xvkbd.windowGeometry resource
(note that it is not xvkbd.geometry), too.
When you are attempting to set window position
with the distance from right/bottom of the screen,
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.)
- -no-repeat
- Do not auto-repeat even if key is depressed long time.
Resource xvkbd.autoRepeat: false has same function.
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).
- -no-functionkey
- Do not display function keys.
Resource xvkbd.functionkey: false has same function.
- -no-keypad
- Do not display keypad.
Resource xvkbd.keypad: false has same function.
- -compact
- Do not display function keys nor keypad.
Resource xvkbd.compact: true has same function.
- -keypad
- Display only keypad.
This option will be ignored
if -no-keypad or -compact is specified.
Resource xvkbd.keypadOnly: true has 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)
- \C - Control (modify the next character)
- \A - Alt (modify the next character)
- \M - Meta (modify the next character)
- \[keysym] - the keysym keysym
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.
- -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.
- -kterm
- If this option is specified,
xvkbd will switch input focus to the last child
if the window got new children after input focus had been set.
Probably, this is only useful when complex input method
(such as kinput2 for Japanese)
is activated in the terminal window (such as kterm).
Resource xvkbd.kterm: true has same function.
- -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 same function.
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:
- put them in your $HOME/.Xdfaults file, or
- load them via xrdb(1), or
- set the filename to the $XENVIRONMENT environment variable, or
- put them in application default directory as XVkbd-suffix
and set resource ``xvkbd.customization: -suffix'', or
- put them in application default directory as XVkbd.
Here, application default directory can be either of:
- directories specified with $XUSERFILESEACHPATH,
$XAPPLRESDIR or else $HOME environment variable
- 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 sample application default files,
and they will be installed in the system's application default directory.
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: 240x120
xvkbd.compact: true
xvkbd*Font: 6x12
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
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 not selected
- xvkbd.ShiftKeys
- list of keys available when Shift key is selected
- xvkbd.AltgrKeys
- list of keys available when AltGr key is selected
- xvkbd.ShiftAltgrKeys
- list of keys available when both AltGr and Shift are selected
- xvkbd.KeyLabels
- list of labels displayed on the keys
In those resources, each keys are separated by spaces,
and rows of keys are terminated with ` \n\'
(note that `\n' must have space before it).
For example, following are resources for German layout
(see screen shot),
extracted from XVkbd-german.ad in the xvkbd distribution:
xvkbd.NormalKeys: \
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 BackSpace \n\
Escape 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ? ` ^ # \n\
Tab q w e r t z u i o p \374 + Delete \n\
Control_L a s d f g h j k l \366 \344 Return \n\
Shift_L < y x c v b n m , . - Multi_key Shift_R \n\
Caps_Lock Alt_L Meta_L space Mode_switch Left Right Up Down
xvkbd.ShiftKeys: \
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 BackSpace \n\
Escape ! " \247 $ % & / ( ) = \337 ' \260 | \n\
Tab Q W E R T Z U I O P \334 * Delete \n\
Control_L A S D F G H J K L \326 \304 Return \n\
Shift_L > Y X C V B N M ; : _ Multi_key Shift_R \n\
Caps_Lock Alt_L Meta_L space Mode_switch Left Right Up Down
xvkbd.AltgrKeys: \
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 BackSpace \n\
Escape \271 \262 \263 \243 \254 \251 { [ ] } \\ ' ^ ' \n\
Tab @ w e r t z u i o p \374 ~ Delete \n\
Control_L a s d f g h j k l \366 \344 Return \n\
Shift_L | y x c v b n \265 , . - Multi_key Shift_R \n\
Caps_Lock Alt_L Meta_L space Mode_switch Left Right Up Down
xvkbd.KeyLabels: \
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 Backspace \n\
Esc !\n1\271 "\n2\262 \247\n3\263 $\n4\243 %\n5\254 &\n6\251 \
/\n7{ (\n8[ )\n9] =\n0} \337\n\?\\ '\n` \260\n^ |\n# \n\
Tab Q@ W E R T Z U I O P \334 *\n+~ Del \n\
Control A S D F G H J K L \326 \304 Return \n\
Shift >\n<| Y X C V B N M\265 ;\n, :\n. _\n- Com\npose Shift \n\
Caps\nLock Alt Meta space AltGr left right up down
xvkbd also contains XVkbd-latin1.ad
which carries most Latin-1 characters
(see screen shot).
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 Customized xvkbd above.
- On XFree86, resolution switch with
Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Plus and Ctrl + Alt + Keypad-Minus
may be simulated.
- 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.
- 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.
Some clients (applications) will not accept input from xvkbd.
- xterm (kterm)
-
To use with xterm or kterm,
you must set xterm.allowSendEvents resource
(kterm.allowSendEvents in kterm) to true,
or switch Allos SendEvents to ON via Main Options menu.
- XView-based clients
-
Normally, XView-based clients
(such as DeskSet tools in OpenWindows)
will not accept input from xvkbd.
You may avoid this restriction by invoking those clients with
-WS (or -defeateventsecurity) option,
like ``cmdtool -WS''.
- Other Clients
- There may be other clients which will not work with xvkbd.
The main cause is the client can be coded
so that it will ignore events from other clients.
- 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.
Please send 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://member.nifty.ne.jp/tsato/xvkbd/.
by Tom Sato,
2000-11-03
