Modifying keyboard SYM key behavior? []{}\|~`

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In my opinion, the one shortcoming of the otherwise excellent Droid 4 keyboard is the SYM key. Having an on-screen popup is just plain silly; I really wish they'd added alternate symbols to the letter keys of the keyboard and let us simply press SYM+[key] to produce a symbol. I'm guessing this was deemed to be too confusing and/or ugly, but it would have been a heck of a lot more functional.

The problem is especially apparent in terminal emulator programs. Only Better Terminal Emulator Pro seems to deal with the SYM key appropriately. Terminal IDE, Jack Palevich's emulator (the one which comes standard with most ROMs), and ConnectBot can't deal with it.

The only critical missing symbol characters are:

[ ] { } \ | ~ `

I'd love to assign the curly braces and brackets to SYM+O, P, K, and L. Backslash and pipe would probably go on I and J. And then the tilde and back-single-quote could go on Q and W.

Any suggestions on how I might go about doing this / what level it will need to be done at? E.g., are there keyboard configuration files, or is this going to require a modified kernel?

My only complaint, and it is minor...is:

You used to be able to press ALT + Backspace on previous QWERTY androids and it would clear the entire line of text. I haven't figured out how to do this on the Droid 4. Shift + Backspace doesn't do it.

Originally Posted by Code3VW

My only complaint, and it is minor...is:

You used to be able to press ALT + Backspace on previous QWERTY androids and it would clear the entire line of text. I haven't figured out how to do this on the Droid 4. Shift + Backspace doesn't do it.

Yep, likewise with use ALT+arrow keys for home/end (horizontal and vertical). This was extremely useful functionality, I really want it back.

Just received the following from new XDA user "moah909" (who can't post here yet)...wanted to repost it here:

Originally Posted by moah909

I was trying to do the exact same thing as you with adding <> etc. I figured out how to do it but because I am a new member I can't post on the dev thread. Follow this guide but remap a62 to ALT_LEFT on the omap-keypad.kl key layout file http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695936 (I had to download File Expert and use the system remount read write functionality with it because adb remount wasnt working). After doing that I had to go in with File Expert and change the permissions of the omap-keypad.kl (long hold and press permissions) to Owner - Read Write, Group - Read, Other - Read. That should remap the SYM key to the alt key. Next pull the file /system/usr/keychar/omap-keypad.kcm.bin to a computer. Then follow this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=504710 to change the keys you want.(I used notepad ++ and changed the stuff in between the nulls to the keys I wanted. You need to change the second and 5th character to the character you want. Then transfer the file back and make the permissions correct and restart! Hopefully this wasn't too unclear, I was in a rush to write it, Ill be making a better guide with pictures etc later, and ill post it in the General Forum. If you post this id like it if you noted me :P

Originally Posted by moah909

I forgot to mention MAKE A BACKUP OF THE FILES BEFORE EDITING THEM

Thanks again!

Haven't tried it yet but will give it a shot soon.

+1

It would be awesome to enable some keyboard hacks on the Droid 4. So is the hack to change the "sym" to the "alt" key working for people? Has anybody found any references for physical keyboard hacks on other forums that might work for our Droid 4?

Check out the eclipse rom thread. Xredjokerx remapped the sym key on there for better functionality. I don't know if the remap will work outside the rom but I don't see why not.

Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

Originally Posted by azrael293

Check out the eclipse rom thread. Xredjokerx remapped the sym key on there for better functionality. I don't know if the remap will work outside the rom but I don't see why not.

Sent from my DROID4 using XDA

Ok. I found it. If you click on the "paperclip" symbol of that thread, it will show as "xrjxMod.zip". I think the Mod also deletes Quickoffice apk and installs Wifi Tether. There should be no reason for this to not work on stock ROM, meaning not-deodexed, right? Or does it modify SystemUI or Frameworks in any way?

it doesn't touch the system framework.

it installs latest wifi tether
deletes quickoffice
replaces omap-keypad.kcm.bin in /system/usr/keychars and omap-keypad.kl in keylayout
sets correct permissions

Remapped SYM -> ALT_LEFT
ALT + O = {
ALT + P = }
ALT + K = [
ALT + L = ]
ALT + N = <
ALT + M = >
ALT + / = \
ALT + I = |
ALT + Q = ~

Please use it and let me know, I can also adjust it so that it is only the keyboard mod if people want it

Originally Posted by xredjokerx

it doesn't touch the system framework.

it installs latest wifi tether
deletes quickoffice
replaces omap-keypad.kcm.bin in /system/usr/keychars and omap-keypad.kl in keylayout
sets correct permissions

Remapped SYM -> ALT_LEFT
ALT + O = {
ALT + P = }
ALT + K = [
ALT + L = ]
ALT + N = <
ALT + M = >
ALT + / = \
ALT + I = |
ALT + Q = ~

Please use it and let me know, I can also adjust it so that it is only the keyboard mod if people want it

Thank you. Is the "keys.rar" folder that is posted under "eclipse ROM" the one that gets it back to stock?