You're thanking me? Au contraire (you'll see momentarily how inappropriate this French is from the new me).

Something went wrong, but I don't know if it's worth my getting it right. The only thing that didn't look like what you said was that the decode_vkb.pl file downloaded as decode_vkb_pl.html. So I just changed the name. And then followed the rest of the directions.

But when I ran the perl file in Xterm I got some sort of error (sorry I don't recall what it said). The upshot was that it made the xml file, but it had 0 bytes. (Also, instead of using "en_US.vkb > en_US.xml" I used "fr_CA.vkb > fr_CA.xml" in this experiment.)

The reason I don't know if I'm going to continue on the project is that I've become British and now I have a "-" on my keyboard. I also find that I'm speaking more clearly.

But I had already become British by the time I tried the perl script, and the reason I continued anyway is that I thought maybe I could make a key-press that would output not a single character but a whole string of characters, thus creating a poor-man's TypeItIn (and here too), which I've been seeking.

But looking at the ReadMe for decode-vkb makes me think that this is probably not possible. What do you think?

Thank you!

Hmmm, intersting. I was wondering If I could make a mult-button. Like with the full screen keyboard, the ". , - ? ! @ & ; : / < >" key that toggles amongst responses. I'd like to do that with the / adding \ [ ] { } < >, and ; adding :, and ' adding " Then I also miss those extra keys on the stylus keyboard adding - to the + key.

That looks like it should be possible, just copy the code for the ". , - ? ! @ & ; : / < >" key. It would probably be a while before I attempt this (most likely after Diablo). With any luck diablo will make the issue mute... or I might get a USB keyboard first.

To Gerald; for scripts it might be a easier to port your typeitin.

Well, you may hold out for the USB (or BT) keyboard, but no luck with Diablo; it doesn't have the keyboards changed (that I know of). It should work that way, but may not. Generally speaking, when there is a spec and exactly one implementation, anything that's in the spec but not used in the default config may be presumed absent. (Half-kidding here; don't bet it works, but it might.)