Typing < on Linux Mint with Italian Keyboard

[pamoroso]

This is a followup to the discussion in the September 11, 2024 external meeting about my inability to type <, both in Medley Online and VNC, on my Linux Mint PC with an Italian keyboard. When I press the < key nothing happens in Medley.

According to xev these are the events pressing the < key generates:

KeyPress event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
    root 0x5cf, subw 0x0, time 1419311, (91,50), root:(156,853),
    state 0x0, keycode 94 (keysym 0x3c, less), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3c) "<"
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3c) "<"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 38, synthetic NO, window 0x3200001,
    root 0x5cf, subw 0x0, time 1419375, (91,50), root:(156,853),
    state 0x0, keycode 94 (keysym 0x3c, less), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (3c) "<"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

[nbriggs]

I would guess that there's no mapping because in the default read tables < is expected to be shift+, not a separate physical key.

[fghalasz]

Hmmm. In that case, it looks like the + key on Paolo's keyboard should have the same problem. On US keyboard + is a shifted key. Looks like on Paolo's keyboard, + is a non-shifted key.

Paolo?

[pamoroso]

Typing + by pressing the corresponding unshifted key works as expected on my Italian keyboard, both in VNC Medley and Medley Online. And I can type all the other characters, shifted and unshifted (except of course for accented letters).

[pamoroso]

The 5th round of TEdit changes added support for Meta key combinations to move the caret backward (< or ,) or forward (> or .) one character.

As expected, pressing Meta-< in TEdit on my Linux PC with Italian keyboard does nothing as reported in this issue. But, interestingly, pressing Meta-, doesn't do anything either. With the same keyboard typing , in TEdit works fine and doesn't even require Shift. Meta-> and Meta-. work too.

It's a weird coincidence that Maiko and/or Medley seem blind to keychords that move the caret left on non English keyboards.

[pamoroso]

This is the information xev shows about the , keypress on my Italian keyboard:

KeyPress event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001,
    root 0x5cf, subw 0x4200002, time 39556239, (45,22), root:(110,825),
    state 0x0, keycode 59 (keysym 0x2c, comma), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2c) ","
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2c) ","
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001,
    root 0x5cf, subw 0x4200002, time 39556351, (45,22), root:(110,825),
    state 0x0, keycode 59 (keysym 0x2c, comma), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (2c) ","
    XFilterEvent returns: False

[pamoroso]

A good workaround for me is to remap keypad 0 to < unshifted and 0 shifted in my init file with (KEYACTION 'KEYPAD0 '((60 49 NOLOCKSHIFT) . IGNORE)).