deskthority

I give a Cherry G84-4100 to a friend. Now he ask me how to do copy, cut and paste with the keyboard.
He miss the apple ?command key?
Is it even possible? Maybe someone with knowledge or a mac and this keyboard could help me.
Thank you.

The GUI of MacOS is based on X11.

- Just mark something with your mouse (by holding button 1).
- Cut is also performed by hitting Back Space.
- Paste is done by button 2 (center button) of the mouse.

I'm also quite sure there is a way to map keys to Cut, Copy and Paste.

The X11 mode in Mac OS X, that most people have never seen and I can't advise they try it, is based on X11. Aqua, the place everyone lives, is not.

So: go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifiers and swap around Control and Command. That should fix it.

Output from xev of a Matias keyboard:
Left Command key:
KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x1200001,
root 0x2c7, subw 0x0, time 1709087, (-581,858), root:(383,878),
state 0x40, keycode 133 (keysym 0xffeb, Super_L), same_screen YES,
XKeysymToKeycode returns keycode: 66
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

Right Command Key:
KeyRelease event, serial 33, synthetic NO, window 0x1200001,
root 0x2c7, subw 0x0, time 1757268, (-98,538), root:(866,558),
state 0x40, keycode 134 (keysym 0xffec, Super_R), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

Maybe this helps.

Seems (as always) I'm a bit behind the times.
X11 and the disturbing trend of Apple removing functionality from OS X


I always thought the X in Mac OS X refers to X11.

No, the release before the first "Mac OS X" was called "System 9".
Mac OS X's windowing system is a continuation of the one used in NextStep for Jobs' old NeXT computer. It has always been a compositing windowing system that stores the pixels of each window in "backing store", whereas X11 is based on a model where the app is told to redraw regions of its windows when needed. Most modern toolkits apps on X11 use a backing store anyway. Compiz and Wayland are compositing windowing systems that do it the MacOS X/NextStep way: Compiz on top of X11, and Wayland being incompatible, without a lot of the old cruft.

Ah, Compiz. I preferred the old name: Beryl. Squiggly, wobbly window resize effects were a real surprise when I first tried it in one of my Linux adventures.

Wayland sounded good when I read some long story about it on Ars Technica. Any of the leading distros using it yet?

Thanks for all the tips. Swapping Control and Command works fine.

How could my friend make the @ sign? (i hope this is the last question)

Shift+2

Depends on the system language and layout. He can find his own answers by using the Keyboard Viewer as described here:

http://superuser.com/questions/538964/w ... r-mac-os-x

Press shift and it shows you where every such character lives. Same for Alt/Option and other mods too. Great way to find everything.

alt + L should do the @

remap command to capslock and everything is fine...

Command is so vital on the Mac I insist it's at my thumbs, both sides of the space bar. Control is much less important. It can seize back the spot Caps Lock stole from it in the first place!

Muirium wrote:Command is so vital on the Mac I insist it's at my thumbs, both sides of the space bar. Control is much less important. It can seize back the spot Caps Lock stole from it in the first place!

The voice on your shoulder whispers, "HHKB Pro 2...."

The HHKB, just like my XT, has it in the original place. The Control / Caps Lock switcheroo was IBM's doing shortly after. Why would such a dangerous key ever live right there?

Muirium wrote:The HHKB, just like my XT, has it in the original place. The Control / Caps Lock switcheroo was IBM's doing shortly after. Why would such a dangerous key ever live right there?

The answer to such enduring questions is lost in the mists of Antiquity (a small town in upstate New York). At least the early versions of Caps Lock keys were stepped. They should have included 13 little steps, like a tiny gallows.