[kline@thought.org: keyboard click driver:: User-side.]

[Gary Kline]

Note: i meant to include the hacker wizards in this post to the 
-questions group from 20 mins ago.  Here 'tis::

Guys, 

I have been interested in having a FreeBSD version of the SunOS
"click" utility for decades.  --I first discovered that my Sun 3/80
let the keys sound a brief click sound, much softer than ye-olden
IBM Selectrics, around 1988-9.  I do need the audio feedback.

The folks in the wizard sector at Ubuntu turned me onto a python
script of about 30 pages of code called "keymon.py" written by a
Scott Kirkwood.  The present keymon displays certain graphics when
certain keys are hit.  Scott does think that his script can include
the click sound that I have.  My program is in C, it opens the
/dev/dsp and output a click via click.h.

I am learning python and find it pretty straightforward.  I think
using Scott's keyboard program with mine can allow me to do just
what I want.  On the user-side, have clicky keys  where necessary.  
This feedback would help folks using the severely cheep keyboards
that are on the notebook class as well as even cheaper laptops for
children whose keyboards are nothing put cardboard wrapped in
plastic.  Typing on a _real_ keyboard can be satisfactory.  But when
you try it on one of these crappy types, forget it.  Just doing
several random tests, my fingers do not connect with more than
60-65% of the keys on my EEE-900A.

bEcause my shoulder is partly out of socket i can only type so much, so
the more people who can check out keymon.py and let me know if it is
worth porting to FBSD, the better.


 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
           Journey Toward the Dawn, E-Book: http://www.thought.org
          The 7.98a release of Jottings: http://jottings.thought.org