One downside of the virtual keyboard is that it takes over the physical keyboard, so that typing is in the language of the virtual keyboard. This is often an advantage, but I usually want to mix Hebrew and English text. So I modified the program to track the Caps Lock key: if the caps lock key is depressed, then the physical keyboard types in the virtual language; if not (the usual state) the physical keyboard remains at its default. I'm using the new code in the Young Israel Hebrew Keyboard (now renamed the Bililite Hebrew Keyboard).

The big disadvantage is that the Caps Lock key is now disabled as a caps lock key. This is generally a good thing, but the standard Israeli keyboard uses it to insert nikud (the vowel markings that are placed over and under the consonants). So my keyboard can't insert nikud, which is not a problem for my usual uses, and the page is set to change to the original code with the query string ?keyboard=original.

The code was some minor changes in virtualkeyboard.js:

And a new button sprite image to reflect the new use of the Caps Lock key (this is in the css folder, in the desired theme; it's the button_set.png image): Modified Keyboard.

One Comment

  1. Connie Wiolowan says:

    there’s no VK’s hotkey for disabling its intercepting from the physical keyboard, perhaps we should add some toggler to the VK’s image. (Besides “help” and “setup” icons, this is what I insist to be utilized by Ilya for ages :) )

    But you really can define caps and shift-caps “panes” for a keyboard layout, see how I utilized it for the Lakhota keyboard:
    {code:’LA’
    ,name:’Lakhota Standard’
    ,normal:’`1234567890-=\\?weštyuiop[]asd?gh?kl;\’zž?vbnm,./’
    ,shift:{0:’~!@#$%^&*()_+|’,24:'{}’,32:’?’,35:’:”‘,44:’?’}
    ,caps:{14:’qwertyuiop[]asdfghjkl;\’zxcvbnm,./’}
    ,shift_caps:{14:’QWERTYUIOP{}ASDFGHJKL:”ZXCVBNM?’}

    }

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