clicky driver

[Gary Kline]

On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 09:36:14AM +0000, Matthew Seaman wrote:
> Gary Kline wrote:
> 
> >	The short answer [Guess] is no, I dont think so.  If getting the
> >	keys to have an auditory feedback with beeps or shorter clicks were
> >	that easy, it would have been done after 15 years.  Even Linux
> >	lacks this--and I'd bet Minux too.  
> 
> Uh, it was done years ago.  Look at the xset(1) manual page -- there are
> options there to turn on key-click.  They've been there since before the
> millennium as I recall.  Most people find key-click intensely annoying (even
> more so if it's on someone else's machine) so it's turned off by default.



	Oh, yeah.  In the late 80's when I joined my Nth startup and worked
	with several fellow hackers in a large room, my Sun was the only
	one with the click turned on.  It drove my fellow programmers nuts,
	but that wasn't much I could do.  If there were a speaker jack on
	the 3/80 computers, I would have been willing to wear earphones...


> 
> As it's an X windows thing, it should be available on any OS where you can
> run an X server, so any Linux or FreeBSD.  Of course, you will need some 
> sort
> of speaker in the machine to generate the noises, but that can be very
> rudimentary.  If your machine can emit a beep, then it can probably do
> key click too.


	It beep--my old Dell, just extremely faint.  My hearing is still
	good--it's amazing I'm not out chasing cars.  But I've tried turing
	on the key click.   Zero.  This older computer was high end in 2003
	but I don't remember seeing a real speaker, so if it's some IC
	that's producing the 'beep', I'm outta luck.

	...I'm staring at xset.c; maybe the clues are in there.  Nothin in
	the README.  

	gary

	PS: HA: the click percent is set to the SERVER_DEFAULT.  (-1)
	    well, golly-gee-wilikers... .


> 
> 	Cheers,
> 
> 	Matthew
> 
> -- 
> Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
>                                                  Flat 3
> PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
>                                                  Kent, CT11 9PW
> 



-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
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