Steve Mading wrote:

> Is there a way that works regardless of whether it's console or X?
> Something a bit more low-level perhaps?
>
> (By the way, thanks for the info.)

Yes in theory, possibly in practice.

Many years ago my employer purchased some Key Tronic KB 3270 Plus
keyboards.
These keyboards are programmable. A MS-DOS program, supplied with
the keyboard (and available from Key Tonic's web site, I have
just now checked) was used to program the keys with any character
or character string one wished. In my employer's case, various
accented characters and commonly used typesetting commands were
stored onto the keys.
Subsequently, my employer was sold to another company who had a
different method of typesetting and threw out the existing
keyboards and computers. This is how I obtained them.

I thought I would use these keyboards with my, then new, Pentium
class computer running Windows 98.
Well, the keyboard works with the default key layout and the
MS-DOS program runs in a DOS window *but* the program did not
communicate with the keyboard

After a call to Key Tronic's technical support I learned that the
keyboard interface used on the motherboard had changed from that
which was used on 80386 motherboards and this is what prevented
the program from communicating with the keyboard. Worse, the new
style interface did not have a way for the computer to send data
to the keyboard.

Possibly this situation has changed again and perhaps a call to
Key Tronic or other keyboard manufacturer would be worthwhile.

And before you ask. No, you can't plug the keyboard into a 80386
machine, program the keyboard then disconnect it and plug it into
a Pentium machine. Well, you can, but the keyboard reverts to the
default layout when you disconnect it from the 80386.

Gord Torrie

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----