Re: [LINUX5250] Keyboard mapping and screen size

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, Brian Hill wrote:

> I have a few questions about tn5250:
>
> (I'm running Red Hat 7.2 if it makes any difference)
>
> 1.  When I start a session (by typing "tn5250 myAS400") it only occupies a
> small portion of the screen.  My monitor is set to 1024 x 768 and the
> session seems to be defaulting to 640 x 480.  How do I make it use the
> entire screen?

I assume you're running it in X11?   In that case, you don't want to run
it as "tn5250", but rather as "xt5250".

If you're running it in "console mode" (plain text VGA) then it should
already take up the entire screen!

To make it larger in xt5250, tell the emulator to use a larger font by
setting font_80 and font_132 keywords to the font you want to use.  This
was just discussed on this mailing list this week -- check the archives
http://archive.midrange.com


> 2.  I would really like to re-map some of the keys, for instance I like my
> "Enter" key to be Field Exit and I like my "Backspace" key to be the same as
> Cursor Left.  I've tried modifying the us5250.map file but the changes don't
> have any effect.  How do I change the keyboard mapping to suit my fickle
> tastes?

If you run the emulator as "xt5250" then you can change the keyboard map
by editing /usr/local/share/tn5250/XTerm

If you run it from console mode under RedHat you would change the
us5250.map, and then run loadkeys to activate it.  But that has no affect
on your terminal in X.

>
> The second question leads me into another one.  I would really like to make
> a simple graphical program that would allow users to re-map the keyboard,
> much like the way Client Access does it.  It looks like all I would have to
> do is write a program (probably in Java since tn5250 is cross-platform) that
> would generate a file like us5250.map.

The problem with that is that the code would have to be completely
different for every environment you write it for.   us5250.map is console
mode on Linux systems only.  the 5250keys script & the us.5250.kbd file
serve the same purpose on FreeBSD.  For xt5250, you'd change the
/usr/local/etc/XTerm file.  In the GTK terminal and the Windows terminal
the keyboard maps are hardcoded and would have to be done yet another way.

And I don't even know about the other unixes!

Unless you rewrote the emulator itself in Java, it would not make the
project any more cross-platform.  A few considerations:

      1) I don't know about RedHat, but none of the other operating
           systems that I use tn5250 on ship with a JVM.  (Well,
           unless you count OS/400)   And, since we distribute our
           project in source code, you'd need not only a JVM but a
           full JDK to compile it.

      2) A graphical screen in Java would not run in Linux or FreeBSD
           unless you also installed X.  However, the tn5250 program
           works without X, so there'd be people who can use tn5250
           who would not be able to use the keyboard mapper.

      3) Since the rest of the project is written in C, writing the
           mapper in Java would not make it any more cross-platform.
           Anyone who can use the emulator can already compile/run
           C programs.

> Assuming that tn5250 can be made to read a file like us5250.map, how can
> I find out what values are valid to put in there?  Where can I find out
> exactly how this file is structured?

tn5250 does not read the us5250.map.  It doesn't even know that it exists.
All of the keyboard mapping is currently done by the operating system, or
by hardcoded values.

A keyboard mapping program would be great!  In fact, it's been on my to-do
list for some time. :)  But it's a complicated issue.  Please make sure
you understand what needs to be done before jumping into it.

Thanks!