Expected behavior for Alt-z and Alt-c in Rack on different OS's?

StochasticTelegraph · April 29, 2025, 6:14am

I’m adding two small editable text fields (NAME and MATH1) to Venn. (Don’t worry overmuch about what those mean, that’s not germane to my question). In the main Venn circle-editing window, simple keys allow you to move and edit the circles. “z” moves focus to the previous circle, and “c” moves to the next one.

Here’s what they look like (on the left side) in my dev build (not released yet):

I’d like to allow the user to move between circles while editing text in these new text fields; I’ve found it annoying to have to click back to the circles window just to move to the next circle. But “c” and “z” clearly can’t perform that function, since you might be just typing those into the NAME or MATH1 fields. So I currently have it so that, while in those contexts, Alt-z and Alt-c iterate through the circles.

In Windows (my development and VCV Rack platform), Alt-z and Alt-c have no special meaning in Rack. But I don’t have Mac and Linux environments easily available. Yes, I understand that Mac doesn’t have an Alt key; so for Mac my question is about Option-z and Option-c.

So, that’s a lot of preamble to me asking; in those OS’s, would overriding Alt-z and Alt-c surprise the user, in that some “normal” behavior of those keys is now just changing circles?

mahlen

andreya.ek.frisk · April 29, 2025, 1:37pm

On my mac keyboard, opt+z and opt+c just type ÷ and ç respectively. The exact symbols may vary depending on the exact keyboard (qwerty+scandinavian letters in my case), but I don’t think those combinations ever had any system wide functions besides typing. Nothing to worry about I think.

pachde · April 29, 2025, 2:23pm

I suggest using TAB and SHIFT+TAB as your navigation keys. That’s the natural thing across systems.

andreya.ek.frisk · April 29, 2025, 4:56pm

That’s a very good point.

StochasticTelegraph · April 29, 2025, 5:33pm

I’ve added TAB and SHIFT-TAB for this purpose in all three editors, and they do work nicely. I’ll keep the C and Z in the circle editor, because the “WASD” mode of editing really favors using those as well.

Thanks for the idea, @pachde!

@andreya.ek.frisk, good to know; those aren’t particularly vital characters from either NAME or MATH1, so far as I can see. Though I suppose someone might want to have “ç” in the name of a CIrcle…hmmm, maybe I’ll get rid of the ALT- keystrokes, since when editing those fields, you’re not really in WASD mode anymore.

Squinky · April 29, 2025, 7:11pm

Seq++ uses a JSON file to map the keyboard to actions, and has a few pages of documentation on that:

github.com/kockie69/SquinkyVCV-main

docs/sq-kbd.md

master

# User Keyboard mapping

Any of the keyboard assignments in Seq++ may be changed by the user. Anything is possible from just changing a few keys, to completely changing every aspect of the keyboard interface.

## Basic concepts

A KeyMapping describes how keys should be handled. One of the most important things in a KayMapping is an array of KeyBindings.

A KeyBinding relates a specific key on the keyboard to an action to be performed.

The data for a KeyMapping is stored in a JSON file. JSON files are probably familiar to VCV users already, as much of the VCV Rack configuration is already stored in JSON files.

The data format for Seq++ KeyMapping files is modeled after the analogous feature in the Visual Studio Code editor.

Seq++ defines the default keyboard mapping in a file called *seq_default_keys.json* which is located in the SquinkyLabs/res folder. This file is not user editable, but it is a good example of how to write a KeyMapping file that implements an entire user interface.

You may create an override file in the VCV Rack folder. This file must be called *seq_user_keys.json*

Here is the built-in [seq_default_keys.json](../res/seq_default_keys.json)

This file has been truncated. show original