Hmmm, I hadn't considered this, but it does make sense, and, with a
huge caveat, it would be simple.
On my system, linux running with KDE, I'd just set up a keymapping
for a mythical language called abc, and then install it instead of
the real languages (like French or Ukranian) that KDE comes with.
Then the magic keys would switch me between abc and english.
What you say, you don't use linux or KDE? Ah yes, that's the problem.
Keymapping is dependent upon the OS and windowing system, and ain't
portable. But see if your OS supports multiple languages and if you
can set up your own.
On Sat, Nov 15, 2003 at 02:39:56PM -0500, Randall J Elzinga wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm curious to know if anyone has ever written keyboard drivers to remap
> the keys of a typical computer keyboard to something that would be more
> accommodating to entry of ABCs. For example, characters that are used most
> often can be mapped to keys in the home row, or the row above it.
>
> Let me explain what I mean further. Rather than the typical home row of a
> keyboard, asdfghjkl, we could have something like abcd~:efg|, the row above
> the home row could be ABCD[]EFG... or something like that. From a quick
> glance at a couple of abc tunes, this would seem to put the most commonly
> used keys in the most accessible positions on the keyboard (one must admit,
> the key for the pipe symbol, |, used for separating measures, is in a
> rather awkward position for a key that seems to be used the most often
> after the letters used for notes.) These may not be the best options (I
> haven't even considered the possibilities available to us by way of the
> SHIFT key), that's a different debate, but it is certainly an improvement
> over a qwerty layout.
>
> For those who might be concerned about writing up the header of the tune,
> where the current system works fine, it is possible to switch between
> keyboards by a click or two of the mouse or else by keyboard shortcuts (at
> least in the OSs that I've used), so one could easily use a normal layout
> for the header, and then switch in less than a second to an abc friendly
> layout for the tune section of an abc.
>
> There seems to be a significant contingent of tech savvy types within the
> abc using community who work on abc software. I really know nothing about
> writing keyboard drivers, but writing a keyboard driver seems to pale in
> comparison to writing something that can take a bunch of text and turn it
> into a postscript file containing conventional music notation or into a
> midi file, or vice versa.
>
> Does anybody here think this is a worthwhile idea? Or am I the only one
> who enters abc textwise?
>
> Randy.
>
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