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ghostty/src/apprt
Mitchell Hashimoto 53c2f915d8 gtk-ng: allow XKB remaps for non-writing-system keys (#8330)
Compromise solution to #7356

XKB is naughty. It's really really naughty. I don't understand why we
didn't just kill XKB with hammers during the Wayland migration and
change it for something much better. I don't understand why we're
content with what amounts to an OS-level software key remapper that
completely jumbles information about original physical key codes in
order to fake keyboard layouts, and not just let users who really want
to remap keys use some sort of evdev or udev-based mapper program.

In a sane system like macOS, the "c" key is always the "c" key, but it's
understood to produce the Unicode character "ц" when using a Russian
layout. XKB defies sanity, and just pretends that your "c" key is
actually a "ц" key instead, and so when you ask for the keybind "Ctrl+C"
it just shrugs in apathy (#7309). And so, we took matters into our own
hands and interpreted hardware keycodes ourselves.

But then, a *lot* of people have the ingrained muscle memory of swapping
Escape with Caps Lock so that it is easier to hit. We respect that. In a
sane system, they would use a remapper that actually makes the system
think you've hit the Escape key when in reality you've hit the Caps Lock
key, so in all intents and purposes to the OS and any app developer,
these two just have their wires swapped. But not on Linux. Somehow this
and the aforementioned case should be treated by the same key transform
algorithm, which is completely diabolical.

As a result, we have to settle for a compromise that truly satisfies
neither party — by allowing XKB remaps for keys that don't really change
depending on the layout.

The Linux input stack besets all hopes and aspirations.
2025-08-21 11:45:48 -07:00
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2025-07-19 14:03:48 -07:00
2025-07-27 13:27:03 -07:00
2025-07-23 15:47:44 -07:00