Allow entry of characters not on the keyboard

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I saw the note about remapping something to control-a, but what about just
to a control key instead?  There's a fair amount of other control keys I
end up needing and it would be great to have access to that.

Thanks!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by interest...@gmail.com on 7 Oct 2008 at 6:59

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whoops, menat to make an enhancement not a defect, sorry :)

Original comment by interest...@gmail.com on 7 Oct 2008 at 7:00

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This is a high priority item. SSH users pretty much need to use CTRL and other
characters daily. This should be apply to other keys such as ESC and items not
represented on the keypad of the phone.

Ideally a subsection of the screen will slide up and allow the user to enter the
control characters until it is not needed at which time it can be hidden.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 22 Oct 2008 at 9:31

• Changed title: Allow entry of characters not on the keyboard
• Added labels: Component-UI, Priority-Critical, Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium, Type-Defect

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Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 23 Oct 2008 at 3:16

• Changed state: Accepted

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A real control key is quite useful.  Maybe the keyboard menu key is usurpable.

Original comment by Leigh.Kl...@gmail.com on 23 Oct 2008 at 4:15

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I added back in using center DPAD click sending control and double DPAD click 
sending
escape. This should satisfy most of the complaints right now.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 23 Oct 2008 at 5:44

• Changed state: Started

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Alt would be helpful for things such as irssi, unless I am missing a way to 
pass alt
to the terminal.

Original comment by Eric.Sch...@gmail.com on 24 Oct 2008 at 6:34

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You need the alt key for the keyboard symbols, don't you?

After thinking more about what I wrote in the new features comments, here's 
what I'm
thinking (support all 4 of these, as different methods of accomplishing the 
same end
goal):

1) You can already use menu as a modifier of sorts, in that (in the web browser)
closing a window is "menu+c", just like it's "apple+w" on a mac.  I think having
_some_ menu key combinations mapped to control keys would be useful.  menu+c =
control-c probably being the most important, but perhaps also menu+u for 
control-u,
and menu+w for control-w ... this would just be for supporting the really common
control sequences.

2) Have a menu item entry, in the main menu (not in the "more" extended menu) 
for
"Send Escape", which will immediately send control-[

3) Have a menu item entry (not sure if it needs to be in the main menu or not) 
for
"Control", where the next character typed will be a control character

(you could do something like #3 for PC "alt" as well ... as opposed to the 
phone's
symbol based alt key)

4) In the extended menu, have a "ascii" item, which would pop-up a dialog box.  
This
would allow you to somehow specify a given key.  One way: you have a selector 
box,
and it has a list of key names, octal/hex/decimal values that match they key 
name,
and maybe the equivalent control key.  And maybe you could also just enter a 
value,
click a radio button that says "this is an octal or hex or decimal ascii code". 
 I
would suggest that it allow both methods (type in a value, choose a value from a
selection list), because the type-in is probably faster if you already know 
which one
you want (EOF is decimal 4), but the selector wont require you to remember every
possible ascii value.

Original comment by johnk...@gmail.com on 27 Oct 2008 at 12:54

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Targeting this for Release 1.3

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 31 Oct 2008 at 9:43

• Added labels: Milestone-Release1.3

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ALT combinations are simulated in other clients by sending ESC + character. I'm 
not
sure we need to be able to send that letter combination directly, but I'm not 
opposed
to it being configurable.

Anyway, I don't have a device to work on this, so it probably won't be done for 
1.3.
I'll move it one release back to 1.4 for now.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 3 Nov 2008 at 4:03

• Added labels: Milestone-Release1.4
• Removed labels: Milestone-Release1.3

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I'd like to add my encouragement for at least an Alt functionality. Irssi is 
quite difficult to navigate without 
it. Thank you for the great application.

Original comment by xdeadco...@gmail.com on 29 Nov 2008 at 3:41

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for those that find this issue seeking the current solution, as of 12Dec2008 
the jog
ball is used to shift keyboard modifier state - tap once for the next key to be
control-shifted and twice for the next key to be meta shifted.

(i'm very very happy to discover this - emacs is my main operating environment, 
and
in my brief explorations the terminal emulator used by connectbot seems to be
flawless, so having these keys means i can fully use emacs in my remote 
sessions. 
thanks, developers!!)

Original comment by ken.manh...@gmail.com on 12 Dec 2008 at 7:25

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The ESC key is vital for anyone needing to use vi on the remote machine. 
Without it,
vi is useless (and you can't quit vi because you can't do ESC :q)

Original comment by rustyhow...@gmail.com on 20 Dec 2008 at 5:59

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Are you aware that a double press of the trackball sends ESC? This has been 
mentioned above.

i.e. Double Trackball, Alt h, and typing wq followed by enter to save + quit

Original comment by JaySha...@gmail.com on 20 Dec 2008 at 6:05

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the jogball ctrl modifier apparently does not apply to punctuation keys?  they 
should
not be excluded!  likewise, the space bar should controlify to ^@ (null)!

unlike all the other chars, 'z' is apparently exempt from the jogball ctrl 
modifier.
 (is something off by 1?)

ctrl-@ (one of the few punctuation chars modified by the ctrl modifier) is 
apparently
being translated to control-g??

all of these, of course, block us zealous emacs users at every turn.  not so 
good for
the way i have screen configured, as well (ctrl-\ as my escape char).

Original comment by ken.manh...@gmail.com on 22 Dec 2008 at 7:27

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To xdeadcodex & Eric.Schrombeck:
Irssi can be navigated quite well with ESC + windownr (doubletap on the 
jogball). So
that is no issue. And alt is not needed in this case.

Also I'm not really satisfied with the doubletap on the jogball for ESC. I use 
it
both in irssi and vim. The problem is that it is easy to unintentionally scroll 
in
some direction while pressing it. But the placement of the button is really 
convenient. 

Another issue is the speed of the jogball. I believe it is too slow in moving 
the
input-character. But I have found it to be slow in other apps also is it 
possible to
speed it up? If it were sped up the problem with the accidental input while 
pressing
ctrl or esc would be greater. So I don't really know what to do here.

Original comment by tommy.ne...@gmail.com on 10 Jan 2009 at 1:51

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Well I would also like to see support for non ASCII chars like diacritic etc. 

Original comment by killerf...@gmail.com on 31 Jan 2009 at 11:01

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i see that ^Z was fixed, and ^space - yay!  but alas, i'm still completely 
unable to
enter ^\ - am i missing something?  (i know the camera shortcut can be used to 
send
^A - could that be parameterized to send any key of our choice?  i could then 
use it
to send ^\.)

Original comment by ken.manh...@gmail.com on 19 Feb 2009 at 6:20

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You must be missing something. You can check it on a Linux command line by 
doing:

echo '<scrollball press><alt press>v<scrollball press><alt press>d' | od -t x1

Or even running some program like "cat" and doing <scrollball press><alt>d

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 19 Feb 2009 at 7:17

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in comment 18:

> You must be missing something. You can check it on a Linux command line by 
doing:
> echo '<scrollball press><alt press>v<scrollball press><alt press>d' | od -t x1

you're right, i was mistaken!

(did i also miss ^/ (ctrl-forward-slash)?  not really crucial for me, but 
noticed in
my floundering.)

thanks!!

Original comment by ken.manh...@gmail.com on 19 Feb 2009 at 7:45

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Some way to write the characters åäö (swedish characters a-ring, a-dots, 
o-dots)
would be really usefull. In the browser/messaging you can use the hold-a for a 
while
and then get a menu, then press å (a-ring) on the screen. That would be okey.

But there really should be some better way.. (I'm using SDK1.0 and ConnectBot
1.3(r204) currently btw)

Original comment by karl...@gmail.com on 6 May 2009 at 10:23

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I don't know if that fits here, but I'd like to be able to swap 'z' and 'y' for
playing nethack on a qwertz keyboard ('y' is 'move north-west' and is to the 
upper
left of the 'h' key which is 'move west' on a qwerty keyboard, so it's really
convenient to swap these two keys for this game).

Original comment by tau...@gmail.com on 11 May 2009 at 11:57

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Another issue when using VI, trying to save a file using :wq!, whenever I enter 
the ! from the keyboard, it shows up as an unrecognised <F1>, not letting me 
save..

Original comment by chris.br...@gmail.com on 12 May 2009 at 2:41

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Chris,

ALT does numbers; not shift. Shift has been used to do the Fn keys.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 12 May 2009 at 3:21

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Why is the search button (with the little magnifying glass) not utilized?
It would be great to be able to have a few different options for Ctrl and 
Alt/Escape
in the settings.

Original comment by benvea...@gmail.com on 26 Aug 2009 at 11:07

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It would be really nice to be able to add diacritics to letters somehow.

Original comment by sami.hangaslammi on 28 Aug 2009 at 9:22

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A TAB key would be nice. the htc magic has no keyboard, so it's very time 
consuming
to type out long directory names.

Original comment by chris.no...@gmail.com on 9 Oct 2009 at 4:34

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Is there a way to send CTRL-Backslash  (^\)  ?  I prefer dtach to screen and 
dtach
uses this to disconnect.

Original comment by danstoner on 6 Nov 2009 at 9:22

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The Moto Droid physical keyboard lacks a | (pipe) key. Would there be a way to 
map
that to a key? Right now I have to switch to the virtual keyboard.

Original comment by Jon.Hal...@gmail.com on 8 Nov 2009 at 7:31

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Jon.Hall.7, you can get a | with ALT SHIFT , (comma). This also works on the 
Moto Cliq.

Original comment by douglaswth on 8 Nov 2009 at 7:40

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douglaswth, i think you mean ALT-SHIFT-A? ALT-SHIFT-comma gives me a " on my 
CLIQ. 

Original comment by sander.p...@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2009 at 2:28

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As mentioned on http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/wiki/DroidKeyboardSymbols by
imlas.akkuj, it's impossible to enter a dollar sign and [ ] brackets on the 
Motorola
Milestone (UK/EU version of the Droid). Entering national characters (Polish,
specifically) is also not possible, but the $ is a real bummer for shell work.

Original comment by tgr...@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2009 at 10:21

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I just found the keyboard mappings page on the wiki, and it addressed many of 
my 
concerns. I still think it would be neat to have the ability to add a menu item 
that brings 
up a specialized smorgasbord of oft-needed "special" keys / characters' though. 
Ideally, 
this could be configurable or even extensible for those with international 
needs that 
vary from those of us who are stateside...

Original comment by kevin.lo...@gmail.com on 18 Dec 2009 at 10:08

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Attached patch deadkeys.diff adds support for dead keys. For example to enter 
ä, type
umlaut+a (umlaut is shift-alt-u on Milestone).

Attached patch droidhacks.diff makes the Milestone euro sign key output $. This 
is
just a quick hack and probably should not be committed.

Original comment by vuo...@gmail.com on 19 Dec 2009 at 11:28

Attachments:

• deadkeys.diff
• droidhacks.diff

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Forgot to mention, regarding a more final solution for symbols on the 
Milestone: in
normal text entry widgets, alt-space pops up a symbol menu with $ [ ]. This 
would
probably be an adequate solution for the symbol problem.

A more involved and kind of nice solution would be to have the ability to have 
custom
layouts read from a file on the card. However, one might hope that Google will
eventually fix the current naive/broken hardware keyboard layout system.

Attached new droidhacks.diff also adds [ ] to shift-alt-0/9.

Original comment by vuo...@gmail.com on 19 Dec 2009 at 11:50

Attachments:

• droidhacks.diff

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Can anyone tell me what to do with the *.diff-files? I'm a Motorola Milestone 
(DE)
user and need to type "$", "[", "]" and so on.

Original comment by derp...@gmail.com on 6 Feb 2010 at 3:48

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Issue 267 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 12 Feb 2010 at 3:33

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Issue 252 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 12 Feb 2010 at 4:27

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>Some way to write the characters åäö (swedish characters a-ring, a-dots, 
o-dots)
>would be really usefull. In the browser/messaging you can use the hold-a for a 
while
>and then get a menu, then press å (a-ring) on the screen. That would be okey.

This is my wish too. I'm on a G1, and the "easiest" way to do this right now 
seems 
to be closing the hardware keyboard (to bring up the virtual keyboard icon), 
then 
selecting the character with the VK.
I peeked at the codebase, and the normal textview behavior ought to be imitable 
by 
handling long press events on keys and using an 
android.text.method.CharacterPickerDialog. Didn't actually try that (since this 
issue is labelled "Started" and I don't want to step on any toes), so I could 
be 
wrong.

Original comment by matias.w...@gmail.com on 16 Feb 2010 at 11:18

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I made a keyboard which can support most control key (From Ctrl-A to Ctrl-Z) 
and ESC 
key as well. The app is "Full Keyboard", you can search from market.
And I add a D-Pad function in my FullKeyboard which can simulate the 
Up/Down/Left/Right 
and Click for who didn't have arrow key.

I tried it on ConnectBot, it work fine for me when I using VI or rTorrent on 
screen.
If you have some other key need to add, let me know.
Let me see what I can.

Original comment by hailyli...@gmail.com on 8 Mar 2010 at 7:03

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I have an LG EVE which is a great android but when I try to use connectbot, I 
don't 
know how to do simple things like:

press escape
enter ctrl-c

I can't seem to figure out how to use vim since when I pressed :q, the colon 
seemed 
to put it in edit mode. Didn't know how to press escape to back out.

I guess I'll try the full keyboard app. If that works out then I guess 
connectbot is 
okay for EVE. If not, I guess I have to scrap it for now.

Original comment by Darcy.Wh...@gmail.com on 13 Mar 2010 at 4:58

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Everyone should check out Full Keyboard on Market to see if it helps them with 
hardware that seems to have 
made a design mistake.

Original comment by kenny@the-b.org on 13 Mar 2010 at 9:14

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Fully agree that a Ctrl key is MANDATORY ... BREAK would be nice.

Original comment by jwhiggi...@gmail.com on 3 Sep 2010 at 5:20

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I'd like to just mention that having a Break key would be nice, but i'd also 
like to be able to bind any other key I wish -- for example, I don't have a 
Pipe key on my MyTouch 3G Slide, and I can't pull it up from my phone's 
"Symbol" context menu.

Original comment by ghostfre...@gmail.com on 7 Sep 2010 at 8:23

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Vote for pipe key too. 
HTC desire keyboard misses it as well as some others.

Original comment by mrozents...@gmail.com on 5 Oct 2010 at 7:37

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I just got my G2 and am appalled to find that there is no pipe (|)!  There is a 
totally useless .com/www. button though, that currently sends I'm not sure what 
control char (displays as a square).  Would love it to send a pipe.

Original comment by jim.duc...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 4:34

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T-Mobile G2 has a very sparse "symbol" menu and I've found myself having to 
email myself messages with the required characters and copy them into the 
clipboard just to be able to enter passwords.

Original comment by fTn...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2010 at 4:43

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G2 is turning out to be on the disappointing side for 'power users'.
Missing (or long-press which CB doesn't seem to allow) vital keys: < > | [ ] { 
} \ `
Repurposable (IMO): 'Euro' (alt-x), www./.com, search, all three T-Mo quick 
apps keys (if grabbable), alt-space.

Would also be good to offer a 'sticky numbers' mode which doesn't also convert 
the period to a colon, to allow easier IP address entry. Though that may be a 
moot/reversed point once the IPv6 transition happens.

Original comment by tale...@gmail.com on 7 Oct 2010 at 3:22

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for the G2 vision (and probably many other devices) the on-screen keyboard 
provides the means to type all the special characters, as well as ctl- and 
alt-modified versions.

see the comments from sept 18 and oct 6, 2010 in the DroidKeyboardSymbols wiki 
page for details:

  http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/wiki/DroidKeyboardSymbols

(i use emacs under screen on remote hosts for a long-running emacs session, and 
use ctl-\ for my screen meta character, so having a workable solution is 
critical.  hopping to the on-screen keyboard at least provides an avenue, and 
may not be so bad.)

Original comment by ken.manh...@gmail.com on 7 Oct 2010 at 4:09