xmodmap: different keys have different keycode semantics?

[Nikolaus Rath]

Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer at who-t.net> writes:
>> After reading the website, I was able to translate most of my xmodmap
>> rules into a new xkb symbol file. However, I am facing problems in
>> setting up the modifiers.
[...]
>> How can I accomplish that? Is there some way to clean up the modifier
>> table (like with xmodmap)? And why isn't the above file working as I
>> expect? (The file is actually read in, because with xev I can see that the
>> keysym of <RALT> changes to Meta_R as desired).
>
> the rules have funny ways of combining themselves, so your best
> guess is to look at the output of xkbcomp -xkb :0 - and compare what
> it says. For example, an explicit NoSymbol is overwritten by a
> symbol pulled in from a different data set. I don't think there's a
> way of avoiding that.

Again a very good suggestion :-). I found the culprit. It is the
lines:

     key <ALT>  {	[ NoSymbol, Alt_L	]	};
     include "altwin(meta_alt)"
 
     key <META> {	[ NoSymbol, Meta_L	]	};
     modifier_map Mod1   { <META> };

in the X11 provided symbols/pc file. They seem to completely mess up
the distinction between alt and meta, and apparently there is also no
way to restore it short of changing the file itself.

Is there a reason why they're included there? Shouldn't this rather be
a separate option?


Best,

   -Nikolaus

-- 
 »Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a Banana.«

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