Do we know if there is going to be a context menu key on the Pyra's keyboard?


Odd4Life

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The lack of that key is the one shared gripe I have with many, many laptop keyboards as well as the Pandora.  Without a mouse, I'm restricted to the touch pad/nubs, and many times it's noticeably slower to move the mouse cursor and right click something than it is to tab over to the element I would otherwise have to right click and press the context menu key.  In fact, I'd consider the context menu key more essential on laptops than on desktops, considering that a desktop will always have a mouse - you can't use it in the first place.  A laptop, on the other hand, won't necessarily have a mouse, and a context menu key makes navigating almost anything on the screen with the keyboard a lot quicker.  I realized this after the Pyra suggestions board was closed, though, so I don't know where exactly to put this other than the Pyra General Talk board.
 
As LEOXD stated, you might want to look in the keyboard layout thread. Many of us have come up with ideas to circumvent the shortcomings of a limited keyboard. Left nub is cursor movement while right mouse click is an easy right nub(center button) press away.

Another way to have a real context menu key(Super_R) is to put it as a secondary key on spacebar. You wouldn't even need to bother with the nubs that way. :)
 
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What Odd4Life is talking about is not a button that generates a right click wherever the mouse pointer is currently located, but a context menu key that generates a right click at the GUI element that currently has focus. On the Pandora, the Pandora button (the third one in the are with START and SELECT) sends this keycode, and I think it makes sense to keep it that way on the Pyra. Note however that on the default Pandora firmware, this keycode is intercepted and used for other things (killing stuff, clicking the start button, etc) to make it behave a bit like the Windows key on normal keyboards. I would propose to no longer do that on the Pyra.
 
What Odd4Life is talking about is not a button that generates a right click wherever the mouse pointer is currently located, but a context menu key that generates a right click at the GUI element that currently has focus. On the Pandora, the Pandora button (the third one in the are with START and SELECT) sends this keycode, and I think it makes sense to keep it that way on the Pyra. Note however that on the default Pandora firmware, this keycode is intercepted and used for other things (killing stuff, clicking the start button, etc) to make it behave a bit like the Windows key on normal keyboards. I would propose to no longer do that on the Pyra.
My understanding was the Pandora button is the left windows key but Odd4Life wants the application key which pulls up the same menu that right click does at least under Windows. So if we have a second key to do this, then there's no need to change what the Pandora button does for other things like kill processes or bring up the main menu.
 
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What Odd4Life is talking about is not a button that generates a right click wherever the mouse pointer is currently located, but a context menu key that generates a right click at the GUI element that currently has focus. On the Pandora, the Pandora button (the third one in the are with START and SELECT) sends this keycode, and I think it makes sense to keep it that way on the Pyra. Note however that on the default Pandora firmware, this keycode is intercepted and used for other things (killing stuff, clicking the start button, etc) to make it behave a bit like the Windows key on normal keyboards. I would propose to no longer do that on the Pyra.
My understanding was the Pandora button is the left windows key but Odd4Life wants the application key which pulls up the same menu that right click does at least under Windows. So if we have a second key to do this, then there's no need to change what the Pandora button does for other things like kill processes or bring up the main menu.
No, the Pandora button is the menu key, not the left windows key. In SuperZaxxon there are some hacks to make it behave a bit like what you might expect from a windows key though.

It could be an option to make the Pyra button correspond to the left windows key by default so it will behave more like the Pandora button on a default (non-hacked) Debian install, without needing ugly hacks like what we have on the Pandora.
 
It could be an option to make the Pyra button correspond to the left windows key by default so it will behave more like the Pandora button on a default (non-hacked) Debian install, without needing ugly hacks like what we have on the Pandora.
Ugly hacks? You mean they didn't just set the activation sequence for the xfce4-menu to whatever key the Pandora key sends?

-God Ginrai
 
I can think of at least a half dozen other keys I'd rather have than a dedicated context menu key. It just seems like something that could be done in a key combination or something.
 
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It could be an option to make the Pyra button correspond to the left windows key by default so it will behave more like the Pandora button on a default (non-hacked) Debian install, without needing ugly hacks like what we have on the Pandora.
Ugly hacks? You mean they didn't just set the activation sequence for the xfce4-menu to whatever key the Pandora key sends?

-God Ginrai
Take a look at /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh and /usr/pandora/scripts/op_xfcemenu.sh to see how it is done.

I can think of at least a half dozen other keys I'd rather have than a dedicated context menu key. It just seems like something that could be done in a key combination or something.
Sure, but it still does not hurt to have the key available somewhere -- you can map it to whatever you want.
 
What Odd4Life is talking about is not a button that generates a right click wherever the mouse pointer is currently located, but a context menu key that generates a right click at the GUI element that currently has focus. On the Pandora, the Pandora button (the third one in the are with START and SELECT) sends this keycode, and I think it makes sense to keep it that way on the Pyra. Note however that on the default Pandora firmware, this keycode is intercepted and used for other things (killing stuff, clicking the start button, etc) to make it behave a bit like the Windows key on normal keyboards. I would propose to no longer do that on the Pyra.
My understanding was the Pandora button is the left windows key but Odd4Life wants the application key which pulls up the same menu that right click does at least under Windows. So if we have a second key to do this, then there's no need to change what the Pandora button does for other things like kill processes or bring up the main menu.
No, the Pandora button is the menu key, not the left windows key. In SuperZaxxon there are some hacks to make it behave a bit like what you might expect from a windows key though.

It could be an option to make the Pyra button correspond to the left windows key by default so it will behave more like the Pandora button on a default (non-hacked) Debian install, without needing ugly hacks like what we have on the Pandora.
Thank you for the info. I like the idea of making it hackless, to correspond to the left Windows key.

I can think of at least a half dozen other keys I'd rather have than a dedicated context menu key. It just seems like something that could be done in a key combination or something.
Could you make a short list of these keys?

It could be an option to make the Pyra button correspond to the left windows key by default so it will behave more like the Pandora button on a default (non-hacked) Debian install, without needing ugly hacks like what we have on the Pandora.
Ugly hacks? You mean they didn't just set the activation sequence for the xfce4-menu to whatever key the Pandora key sends?

-God Ginrai
Take a look at /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh and /usr/pandora/scripts/op_xfcemenu.sh to see how it is done.

I can think of at least a half dozen other keys I'd rather have than a dedicated context menu key. It just seems like something that could be done in a key combination or something.
Sure, but it still does not hurt to have the key available somewhere -- you can map it to whatever you want.
A backup for the right mouse button.
 
TrashyMG, on 31 Mar 2014 - 09:43 AM, said: I can think of at least a half dozen other keys I'd rather have than a dedicated context menu key. It just seems like something that could be done in a key combination or something. Could you make a short list of these keys?

Well I guess it's not a full half-dozen... So since old DOS/Windows/Amiga emulation is one of the Pandora's strong suit.. however it does lack a few keys used a bit..


- Print Screen/SysRq key: Not sure how much the SysRq is used anymore.. but the Print Screen key is used a bit even today.. almost all Linux Desktops use this for making screenshots of the desktop.


- Pause/Break key : Used to Pause or quit the program on many old games.

- Scroll Lock: this is for sure isn't one of the top priorities it can be omitted, but amazingly was used in some older programs / dumb Terminal use.


I feel like if we could get these in at least as a combo keys It would be a good step in making the keyboard as useful as a full keyboard. And maybe good future proofing..
 
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