Automatic defsrc generation kanata --defsrc

[mauricioprado00]

So my first "issue" is that I need to map all my keys, but there is no clear way to know the codes. I used the --debug option but for example it was logging Grave but not grv. It did read the value (41) . I see it is possible to navigate through the source code https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/parser/src/keys/mod.rs to find out the key names, however it is rather clumsy way to figure out each key.

I think this could be easily solved with a new flag for the commanline tool that works as follows:

kanata --defsrc  # generates a config file with the keyboard layout

then you get a message:

Press each key you want to map sequentially.

* start from top row, left to right one by one.
* when you reach the end of a row tap that last key 4 times
* when you finished press the last key 8 times

then you follow the instructions, the system will record only the key presses, and maybe emmit some kind of feedback like a count of keys and current row.

The system should simply do:

• "grab" the input keyboard, and acqire the input and "mute". so that key presses don't accidentally trigger anything that takes the focus out from the terminal window. like <meta> opening the linux/windows menu. ioctl(fd, EVIOCGRAB, 1) is what I mean for linux.
• record the key codes only for press not the release. (only EV_KEY where value is 1)
• keep counter for repeated key presses. if current one is != than previous then clear the counter.
• if counter reached 8 then finish "grabbing" and recording.
• process all recorded key codes.
  • create an empty array a to put the new "clean" array with values.
  • create an empty array e to track end of rows.
  • create a counter of repetitions r=0
  • create a variable for last character l = null
  • iterate recorded keycodes v holds current value. iterate only from 0 to len-8 (the last 8 ones are the exit)
    • if v != l && r>=4 then e[len(e)]=len(a)
    • if v == l then r++ otherwise r=0
    • if v != l then add a[len(a)] = v

at the end of that algorith there will be

• a an array of all key code values
• e an array of the indexes where each of the rows end

that should allow you to output to the console (or a file) the mapping to a defsrc.

[gerhard-h]

I like the feature idea.
But if I type ö the output will be ; (is this trivial?)
If the output is ö (I believe that is trivial as long as your terminal supports your language )
that can still be usefull if a `(deflocalkeys-? ö 186) section is included

[mauricioprado00]

ah yeah of course. if characters for key codes are not allowed to be on the deflayout directly or if there is no existing alias already for it, sure the layout the tool should do the deflocalkeys. That is a good tangent point, but the idea is remains unchanged. Tool logs key codes you press and you get as an output a config file with your keyboard layout without any hassle.