International Menus Help
Name:International Menus
Version:1.0
Last update:2019-02-18 17:51:22



This package defines default menu shortcuts for non-U.S. keyboards.

Introduction

By default, Alpha assumes that your keyboard layout is U.S.. If you are using a different keyboard layout some default keyboard shortcuts for various menu commands need to be adjusted. For example, when using a U.S. keyboard Command-/ (⌘/) is mapped to Open Windows ↣ Zoom. When using a Swiss keyboard, "/" is Shift-7 so ⌘/ is meaningless and won't invoke the desired command.
This International Menus feature (which is always turned on and can never be turned off) will automatically adjust some of these problematic shortcuts to use those tailored for the current keyboard layout. For instance, in the previous example, the menu shortcut for the Open Windows ↣ Zoom menu item will be replaced by ⌘- (command and dash) instead of ⌘/ (command and slash) if you declare a Swiss keyboard. Other menu items will have their shortcut adapted similarly (see below).
Select Alpha ↣ Preferences ↣ Global Prefs ↣ International to adjust your Keyboard preference, letting Alpha know which keyboard layout you're using. Click here to open the International Preferences panel.
In a future version, Alpha will hopefully be able to get the default value for this preference directly from the OS.

Which menu items are affected?

The International Menus feature changes the following items:
Text ↣ Shift Left
Text ↣ Shift Left Space
Text ↣ Shift Right
Text ↣ Shift Right Space
Text ↣ Twiddle
Text ↣ Twiddle Words
Search ↣ Return to Bookmark
Search ↣ Go To ↣ Go To Line…
Search ↣ The Pin ↣ Hilite To Pin
Window ↣ Zoom
Window ↣ Choose A Window…
Shrink Window ↣ Default
Depending on which keyboard layout you use, some of the shortcuts for these commands may not be changed, or no shortcuts may be defined for the command. You can always assign your own personalized shortcuts to these (and to any other commands) by selecting Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Keyboard Shortcuts ↣ Menu Shortcuts. Click here to open the Menu-Shortcuts Preferences panel
User-defined shortcuts will always take precedence over those that are defined by this feature.

Teaching Alpha new keyboard layouts

This is an advanced topic, and it might not be of much help if you're new to either Tcl or AlphaTcl. This section assumes that you have read the Help file section Changing Alpha's behavior.
If you're not using a western keyboard or if you encounter any problems, reading the following section might help to clarify things and could help you to fix the problem.
To define a new keyboard layout, add a line like this to your prefs.tcl file: 
set "keyboards(U.S.)" [list \
  {§1234567890-=[];'\`,./} \
  {±!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"|~<>?} \
  [list s '\['] \
  [list s '\]'] \
  ]
The first two lines tell Alpha how to map using the Shift key. Shift maps each item in the upper string into the corresponding item in the lower string.
The third and fourth lines define the keyboard shortcuts for the left and right braces, in this example to Shift-[ and Shift-].
See the file alphaDefinitions.tcl for examples of keyboard layout definitions, and the source for this package (internationalMenus.tcl) for more examples.
If you define an array entry keyboards(my-country), then you can just select that in the international prefs dialog, and Alpha will set the flags correctly. You can then send that keyboard array entry to the AlphaTcl-Users mailing list for inclusion in a future version of Alpha.
If a package wishes to be told when the keyboard changes, it can do that by registering with the removekeyboard or keyboard hooks like this: 
# tell me when we switch to a "Swiss German" keyboard
hook::register keyboard keys::swiss "Swiss German"
# tell me when we disable a keyboard
hook::register removekeyboard my_disable_proc
# tell me when we enable a keyboard
hook::register keyboard my_enable_proc
In this way a clever package could remove the need for restarting Alpha by unbinding and then rebinding all necessary items.
If you need help defining a new keyboard layout, send a question to one of the mailing lists described in the Readme file.

Known problems

Please report any problem or bug you encounter to Alpha's Bug Tracker.

License and Disclaimer

Copyright (c) 1998-2019, the Alpha Community.
All rights reserved.
The International Menus package is free software and distributed under the terms of the new BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ALPHA COMMUNITY BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.