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    OSX Mavericks Fix for Colemak shift-o on JIS keyboards

    • Started by kfmfe04
    • 4 Replies:
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    • Registered: 25-Nov-2013
    • Posts: 8

    PROBLEM  When using out-of-the-box Colemak on a Apple JIS keyboard, the shift-o key results in + rather than O.

    FIX  Remap shift-o to O, but we lose the + key.  Since Colemak isn't well-defined for JIS, I've remapped the rest of the keys to be as close to ANSI Colemak as possible.  The link below has code and instructions for this fix.

    https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1775

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    What do you mean, lose the + key? The + symbol is on keycode 24 as always, no? Sorry if I'm not used to JIS keyboards.

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    DreymaR said:

    What do you mean, lose the + key? The + symbol is on keycode 24 as always, no? Sorry if I'm not used to JIS keyboards.

    Without thinking about Colemak at all, on an ANSI keyboard, you have one key with ;/: (I suppose keycode 24?)
    On an Apple JIS, I have a ;/+ key.

    Throw Colemak into the mix and it becomes non-obvious what an Apple JIS Colemak should really look like - I think it's this non-trivial ambiguity that caused the shift-o to map incorrectly.

    I am guessing whoever implemented Colemak for Apple didn't try it out on all the various keyboard variations (I'm sure there are LOTS) to ensure that there are no ambiguities.

    EDIT:  I can't find a picture of the layout on the web so I will take a photo myself and upload it here momentarily so you can see the issue more clearly.

    EDIT:  I couldn't get the img tag to work right so the link is below.

    http://imgur.com/2y9EwjA

    Last edited by kfmfe04 (26-Nov-2013 15:18:35)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    Ah, okay. But on the mappings you provided there's a + on shift-= as on an ANSI keyboard. That was your addition then?

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    DreymaR said:

    Ah, okay. But on the mappings you provided there's a + on shift-= as on an ANSI keyboard. That was your addition then?

    Great observation!  That was my mod, and actually, I changed more than that.

    Rather than get a partial-hybrid of a Colemak alphas + mostly JIS-symbols (could be very confusing),

    I decided to go for as much ANSI Colemak as possible on a physical JIS keyboard (what you observed) for the following reasons:

    1. I'm a touch-typist and the new keyboards I am buying are ANSI, but I want as much consistency between my keyboards as possible (a personal bias), even though some of them are physically JIS

    2. I'm not sure how to layout a (Colemak alphas + mostly JIS-symbols) setup - maybe Apple didn't, either.

    I'm not advocating that others go my route - in fact, with ukelele, each user can get whatever mapping they want!
    It is just what I came up with for my personal situation, and satisfies the most basic requirements that no keys (like shift-o or +) are missing!

    Last edited by kfmfe04 (26-Nov-2013 16:33:55)
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