[ltp] How to remap Alt-R into Super (for Compiz)?

[Richard Neill]

Dear Marius,

Thanks very much. That's very helpful.
> 
>>I've always found this confusing. Can anyone point me to an explanation 
>>of the difference between  Super, Hyper, Compose, Meta, Alt, Alt_Gr, 
>>Mod1, Mod4?
> 
> Some of these are historic: MIT lisp machines had keyboards with
> Control, Meta, Hyper and Super modifiers (and three shift keys):
> 
>   [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard

Where can I get one? Would be nice - although not until everything does 
Unicode by default! Most of the applications still think in ASCII. (or, 
if lucky, Latin-1 = 256 chars).

> 
> Some PC keyboards have two Alt keys, some have Alt and AltGr.  AltGr is
> used as another Shift key on many non-US layouts, so that alphabetical
> keys have three levels instead of two.
> 

Yes. My British Keyboard on the TP uses Alt_Gr this way. I can get:
  - some meta characters eg µ (mu) and º (degree sign)
  - accented characters such as é (e-acute): Alt-Gr and ;'#[] and vowel

> Compose is not a modifier key.  X window system has the notion of
> composing characters.  For example, you can press Compose, O, C and get
> ©, the copyright symbol.  I think Sun keyboards have a physical key
> labeled "Compose".  They also have both Alt and Meta (with a little
> Diamond symbol).

I think that, in this sense, Compose is slightly redundant wrt Alt_Gr.
KDE offers to use the "Menu" key as compose if you ask it to.

> 
> Mod1 through Mod4 are not labels you can find on real keyboards.  Since
> the real keyboards have different modifier keys, the X window system
> reserves four names (mod1 through mod4) and lets you assign arbitrary
> meanings for them.  Mod1 is usually mapped to Alt or Meta, Mod2 to Num
> Lock.  Mod4 is usually free, so it is a natural choice for extra
> modifier keys.  Some programs figure out what each of the ModX bits mean
> by looking at the symbols mapped to them, some just assume Alt/Meta will
> be Mod1.
> 
> I find it convenient to have an extra modifier (Super).  Ctrl and Alt
> key sequences are often used by application programs, and this leaves
> Super for the window manager (switching between workspaces) and shortcuts
> for launching programs.

So on many keyboards, Super = the Windows key.
Thus Super is used just for special shortcuts, and doesn't result in a 
character itself.

(Of course, Thinkpads don't have Windows keys!)

> 
> 
>>My understanding so far is that "Meta" is another name for "Alt", and 
>>that Alt_Gr is for special characters, but that's the limit of my 
>>understanding. Google isn't much help either.
> 
> Old keyboards had Meta, but not Alt.  New keyboards have Alt, but not
> Meta.  Old Unix programs that are still widely used (e.g. Emacs) treat
> Alt as if it were Meta.
> 

So, roughly, Meta = Emacs-speak for Alt.


What does "Hyper" do?
Is there any sane way to get Greek characters on the keyboard?
I suppose even if there were, it would mess up everything that expects 
txt files to be ASCII.


Richard