$keyboard

Return or set the current keyboard translation table.

$keyboard

$keyboard = Table

Example: $keyboard = "MSWINX"

Parameters

Parameters
Parameter	Data Type	Description
Table	String	Name of a keyboard translation table.

Return Values

Name of the keyboard table currently in use. The values returned by default for each GUI are shown in the following table:

Default values of $keyboard
GUI	Default value of $keyboard
Character mode	`USYSTERM`
Microsoft Windows	`MSWINX`

Use

Use in Form components.

Description

The $keyboard function can return or set the current keyboard translation table.

The keyboardSwitch trigger of the application shell can be used to assign a new value to the $keyboard function. This trigger is activated at any time in the application it receives a ^SWITCH_KEY request. The default value (if UKEYB or $keyboard have not been set) is determined by the GUI in use.

Switching Keyboard Layouts

The ProcScript in the example below switches between a keyboard layout with numeric keys, and a keyboard layout without numeric keys on a VT200 terminal. When VTNUM is in use, the 9 key means 9; when VT200 is in use, the 9 key means CLEAR. The VT200 table is the USYS standard layout.

trigger keyboardSwitch
if ($keyboard = "VTNUM")
   $keyboard = "VT200"
else
   $keyboard = "VTNUM"
endif
end; keyboardSwitch

Switching Keyboard Layouts for a Field

The following example switches to a keyboard with numeric keys for one field only. When the user enters a particular numeric field with NEXT_FIELD, the keyboard layout is switched to the alternate layout. When they leave the field with NEXT_FIELD, the default keyboard layout is restored:

;Field (of field before numeric field)
trigger next 
   $keyboard = "VTNUM" ; switch to VTNUM keyboard
end; 

;Field (of numeric field)
trigger: next  
   $keyboard = "VT200" ; switch to VT200 keyboard
end;