> it's not uncommon for germans to use US-ASCII keyboards (QWERTY).
> other use german keyboards (QWERTZ).
Yes -- lots of countries have multiple keyboard layouts. Even in the US with a
standard QWERTY layout, you can use a keyboard driver that implements it as
straight US or as US-International (UX) where there are dead-keys. In the US,
there are also the Dvorak, Dvorak Left-hand, Dvorak Right-hand, and Colemak
keyboard layouts that are at least somewhat common (common enough the Microsoft
and Aitor/Henrique made drivers for them, anyway).
In any case, the relationship between the keyboard layout and the Code Page is
still there and will NEVER go away.
> in both cases the codepage is 437 (BIOS default) or 858 (with €),
> but Y and Z are swapped.
The Code Page could be lots of other things as well -- including 850 (the
Primary Code Page that was originally used with GR). At least according to the
documentation, the FD-KEYB GR ill also work correctly with Code Pages 852, 853,
859, 30009, and 30020. I've never actually tested all those possibilities, nor
do I know what all the differences in the Code Pages are. But FD-KEYB will
work correctly with several different Code Pages.
> what you want is "GR" or "FR", which is not avaliable in a
> documented way.
So you made up your own GR mapping that is different than everybody else's
(there is a "Tom's custom GR keyboard layout")? I know it's possible to create
a totally custom keyboard layout like that, but that's not what you did.
Going back to the KEYB - Code Page relationship, I just ran a little "Euro
test" to see how MEKYB and FD-KEYB handle the Euro symbol with Code Pages 437,
850, and 858. At least in modern KEYB drivers, you are supposed to be able to
generate the Euro key using AltGr-E. Of course, Code Pages 437 and 850 don't
have the Euro symbol at all (they were both invented before the Euro symbol
even existed), but Code Page 858 does. With MKEYB GR loaded, you can't
generate a Euro symbol with AltGr-E no matter what Code Page is installed.
MKEYB simply assumes the Code Page is either 437 or 850 (I'm not sure which) so
it will NEVER generate a Euro with AltGr-E because it (incorrectly) doesn't
think it ever can.
FD-KEYB GR will generate a Euro if Code Page 858 is installed, but will not if
437 or 850 is installed. That is how it should work. And, if FD-KEYB GR is
installed first and then the Code Page is changed afterwards, it recognizes the
change as it should and generates Euro symbols when it can using AltGr-E. You
can also generate it with the Alt-NumPad method.
In addition, if you have a Euro symbol on the screen (such as one generated by
FD-KEYB GR, using Code Page 858, with the AltGr-E method), and then change the
Code Page to something else, the Euro symbol changes to something else. If you
change the Code Page to 850, the Euro symbol becomes a "dotless i". If you
change it to Code Page 437, the Euro symbol becomes one of the box-drawing
characters.
Code Pages and Keyboard layouts are completely intertwined with each other and
are not independent.
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