Would some keyboard code samples be helpful?

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/03/22 03:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/03/22/557606.aspx

There are a lot of times that I am talking about conceptual topics that do not really require heavy code samples. I'll write code for specific cases to show certain kinds of output, but won't really bother with using them for the conceptual issues.

But when I look at topics like He's dead [keys], Jim, where I talk about generic mechanisms to perform certain kinds of operations, and especially when other people are asking the same questions, I wonder later whether providing samples would help with the explanations.

So, do people think (for example) building up a sample to interrogate a keyboard layout would be a useful way to show how to deal with the issues involved?

And of course if the wider question about whether such samples might be useful is also on the table.... so even if you don't care about the keyboard stuff, would it be useful in other cases?

hmmm code.

I like reading through code, just to pick up on stuff I may not have seen before - even if I'm not particularly interested in what its solving.

That probably doesn't help much does it?

bg

Hi bg,

Well, there will be some fairly unique things in there, by the time I am done (since as a problem it starts simply but there are some very unclearly documented details!).

So maybe your opinion is helpful here. :-)

Michael,
In the past, you've often pointed out how people go about using wrong techniques for various activities. Code that you provide (even for conceptual articles) would be a nice reminder to us of how to go about doing things correctly.

I, for one, would appreciate code (or pseudo-code) listings - if it doesn't tax you too much.

Hi Phylyp,

Taxing? No.... I just want to make sure they enhance understanding rather than confuse whatever the actual topic is. :-)

Hello Michael,
yes samples would be very much appreciated. I had to find my path through this jungle while creating a software keyboard for touch screen applications.

It's not the documentation is not there. It's the intermangled way different parts and API's of windows come together. (keyboard layouts, fonts, IME's, text services framework etc.)

And there is really no good way to get the caption of some special keys of some international keyboards (Japan for example) programatically. So there is always special casing involved (I hate those)

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