Greek keymap in MorphOS 2.4
  • Just looking around
    Frontier
    Posts: 6 from 2009/11/4
    From: Chios, Greece
    Hello,

    I am using MorphOS 2.4 (registered) on a Mac Mini.
    Everything is working well, except that the Greek keymap (Greek Keyboard with 101/104 keys) does not work at all; even when I select it from the Keyboard prefs applet, it keeps typing latin characters.

    I am using a standard USB PC 104 keys keyboard, but also tried a Mac USB keyboard with the same behaviour.

    Any ideas what might be wrong?

    Thank you very much in advance.
    --
    Frontier

    (MorphOS 2.4 - Mac Mini G4)
  • »06.11.09 - 07:23
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    koan
    Posts: 303 from 2005/11/21
    From: UK
    Do you have a Greek font ? And are you using it ?

    There is no "auto font selection mechanism" in MorphOS.

    Quote:

    it keeps typing latin characters


    Do you mean that it produces accented roman characters ?


    [ Edited by koan on 2009/11/6 6:55 ]
  • »06.11.09 - 07:55
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  • Just looking around
    Frontier
    Posts: 6 from 2009/11/4
    From: Chios, Greece
    Thanks koan for the answer.

    Yes, I am using a Greek font. In particular, I installed two Unicode TrueType fonts (Consolas for fixed font and Tahoma for system font) and used the included TrueType manager to install it (I've also selected the correct codepage ISO-8859-7 for Greek).

    No, I am not seeing accented characters, just latin ones. For example, after selecting the Greek keymap and trying to type the Greek leter 'alpha' (A on keyboard), I am not getting an accented character but a simple plain 'a'.

    I've also installed sbar_keymap v20.6 (http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public) and using it's character palette I can see the Greek characters after the latin ones (which means that my font does support Greek), but even if the keymap is swapped fine, I can't write in Greek.

    So far my MacMini MorphOS experience (since Tuesday) has been great but this issue is spoiling it because it is essential for me to write in Greek.

    Again, many thanks in advance.

    P.S: Is there any documentation available on how someone (with expert knowledge of C) can create a new MorphOS keymap? I suspect that the included 'pc104_gr' keymap does not either support Unicode or Greek keyboards at all.
    --
    Frontier

    (MorphOS 2.4 - Mac Mini G4)
  • »06.11.09 - 08:46
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    CountRaven
    Posts: 566 from 2007/12/11
    From: Greece
    This is an old utility for AmigaOS 3.x that does the switch between the keymaps.

    http://www.amirus.org.ru/files/kms_2.1.5.lha

    It worked for me BACK on the 1.4.5 days but have not re tested it until then.

    Try it.

    You can test it with the Greek keymap included in the 2.4 release or use an older Greek keymap that could be found here:

    http://www.amitrace.gr/files/MOS_Greek_Locale_0.1.zip

    Also a guide in Greek for the 1.4.5 versions can be found here:

    http://www.amitrace.gr/articles_show.php?arid=8

    The method described there basically works but it had many problems due to the old keymap maybe. It would probably work with the new keymap included in 2.4







    [ Edited by CountRaven on 2009/11/6 8:48 ]

    [ Edited by CountRaven on 2009/11/6 8:49 ]
  • »06.11.09 - 09:40
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  • Just looking around
    Frontier
    Posts: 6 from 2009/11/4
    From: Chios, Greece
    Thanks CountRaven for the answer.

    I've tried all these programs you mentioned; using the legacy MOS 1.4 keymap I managed to get Greek characters on some text boxes but mostly it shows accented characters (e.g in OWB). The problem - this is just a suspicion - relies to the legacy keymap not supporting Unicode (I think MOS 1.x did not provide Unicode support).

    It's a shame such a nice system does not work - regarding keymaps - as advertised. Why on earth they included a Greek PC 104 keymap that does not work with anything? :-?
    --
    Frontier

    (MorphOS 2.4 - Mac Mini G4)
  • »06.11.09 - 10:35
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  • MorphOS Developer
    jacadcaps
    Posts: 2971 from 2003/3/5
    From: Canada
    @Frontier

    The MorphOS keymaps themselves don't map keys to Unicode, they do provide a little bit of info on converting chars from the local codepage to UCS4 though, but this is mostly unused by applications.

    You mentioned you installed Greek fonts, did you also *pick* them in Font and MUI Preferences ? graphics.library doesn't offer font substitution, so just adding a Unicode font to the system doesn't automagically mean it's going to work everywhere. Remember the system and applications don't use Unicode (apart from some exceptions). We're working on a new text rendering library, but that's not going to happen soon.

    Quote:

    Why on earth they included a Greek PC 104 keymap that does not work with anything?


    The font was either taken from AROS or provided by some Greek user (don't remember which one was it). As nobody in the MorphOS Team speaks Greek we just had to assume what we got is correct.

    Quote:

    P.S: Is there any documentation available on how someone (with expert knowledge of C) can create a new MorphOS keymap? I suspect that the included 'pc104_gr' keymap does not either support Unicode or Greek keyboards at all.


    We don't have any docs ready, but if you're interested just contact me and I'll send you the required files to build the keyboard. Any help is always appreciated, especially since this is something we can't do ourselves.
  • »06.11.09 - 10:52
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    tokai
    Posts: 1289 from 2003/2/25
    From: binaryriot
    Improving the Greek keymap is beeing worked on already.


    And for switching between keymaps you should use Keymap.sbar which can you download from my homepage: http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public/

    No need to install some old stuff; use the real deal supporting all MorphOS features. :)
  • »06.11.09 - 11:36
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12075 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > for switching between keymaps you should use Keymap.sbar which can you
    > download from my homepage: http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public/

    I think he does already:

    "I've also installed sbar_keymap v20.6 (http://tokai.binaryriot.org/public) and using it's character palette I can see the Greek characters after the latin ones (which means that my font does support Greek), but even if the keymap is swapped fine, I can't write in Greek."
  • »06.11.09 - 11:51
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    koan
    Posts: 303 from 2005/11/21
    From: UK
    @jacadcaps

    Quote:

    We don't have any docs ready, but if you're interested just contact me and I'll send you the required files to build the keyboard.


    PM'd you. Please send me details.

    Thanks
  • »07.11.09 - 10:11
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    walkero
    Posts: 102 from 2006/3/1
    Today I was lucky to find tokai online, who had sometime to work with me on the keymap. Finally, I created a much better version of the Greek keymap, which I tried and works great. It also works with his keymap.sbar.

    It will be available on the next realease of the fine MorphOS.
  • »07.11.09 - 18:08
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  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    amigagr
    Posts: 35 from 2008/2/11
    From: Thessaloniki G...
    fair enough ;-)
    A3040/25 AmigaOS 3.9
    A1260BPPC AmigaOS 3.9/4.0
    Sam440ep AmigaOS 4.1.2
    PegasosII/G3 AmigaOS 4.1.2/Morphos 2.6/DEBIAN 5.0.4/SUSE 11.1
    MacMini/1.5 MorphOS 2.6/OSX 10.5.8

    If i am going to have bugs on my system,
    at least let me keep the latest version
  • »07.11.09 - 20:25
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  • Just looking around
    Frontier
    Posts: 6 from 2009/11/4
    From: Chios, Greece
    How about releasing it as a quickfix for the current release of MorphOS? :-)
    --
    Frontier

    (MorphOS 2.4 - Mac Mini G4)
  • »07.11.09 - 22:03
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    walkero
    Posts: 102 from 2006/3/1
    Unfortunately, it's not mine. it has to be included in the MOS package, so that everyone should have the same programs on their computer, and not different versions. It will be on the next release, so be patient.
  • »08.11.09 - 14:19
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  • Just looking around
    Frontier
    Posts: 6 from 2009/11/4
    From: Chios, Greece
    @walkero: Understood!

    MorphOS-team could release it as a hotfix to the current 2.4 release and still include it in the next one. This way we could have a win-win solution for everyone.

    @MorphOS-devs: can you release the *fixed* Greek keyboard now, without waiting for the next version (which could take months to arrive)?

    Thank you very much in advance.
    --
    Frontier

    (MorphOS 2.4 - Mac Mini G4)
  • »08.11.09 - 18:34
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    tokai
    Posts: 1289 from 2003/2/25
    From: binaryriot
    Currently, I'm waiting for walkero's feedback if the last keymap we made works properly. We certainly won't release anything at all if it isn't properly tested (that mistake was made with the greek keymap in the 2.4 release already; no need to repeat. ;-) )
  • »08.11.09 - 22:34
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