Zap spell, #enhance, others? 'kill' bluetooth keyboard input

[gurrhack]

(Copied from https://code.google.com/p/android-nethack-port/issues/detail?id=35)

Reported by hypercube314, Dec 23, 2013

Have recently (yesterday) started using a Logitech ('tablet keyboard') bluetooth keyboard with my ASUS TF101 tablet, have noticed that bringing up some game choice lists causes the keyboard to be ignored except with those lists (esc and cursor keys continue to work, but number keys and standard keys are silently 'ignored'). Dropping out of game 'area' (e.g. pressing then escaping from the 'settings' button or the application list button) 'reawakens' the keyboard.

The problem occurs with the spell list, and the # extended commands menu, though the latter seems to 'autofix' if using #adjust to rearrange inventory letters. It's a bit strange :-\ Same seems to hold for the Drop(many) command: escape out, and the keyboard stops, proceed to the inventory list and the keyboard keeps functioning.
[perhaps closing the inventory list 'cleans up' in a different way to closing other choice lists?]

Apologies for lack of 'bug report' format, and how vague this may be. [Happy to chat in email...]

Jan 23, 2014
#1 tekhedd

I haven't had most of the above problems, but I have different problems with my bluetooth keyboard. (Perixx PERIBOARD_8050L).

My problem is that it does not register control key combinations. So Ctrl-D does not kick doors, etc.

In ASCII mode, the > and < keys page up/down through inventory lists etc. I wish this also worked with the lists in this port, as Page Up and Page Dn are not hard keys on this keyboard.

When using spacebar to page through an inventory list, spacebar should also close the list when you are at the end, for consistency with the classic ascii style paging.

Jan 27, 2014
#3 tekhedd

I notice, testing the other Nethack port, that I have the same "control key does not work" problem with that app. That app supports a handful of key bindings, so it becomes playable with left-alt mapped to control. (But the pan/zoom/menu work is inferior). So perhaps it's an issue with the Perixx keyboard...one for which I have no workaround. (Oddly, I find this mostly a problem when I want to do Ctrl-P to see a notification I missed.)

[CJYate]

Hi,

This is an interesting issue, as I've just got the Tecknet mini keyboard and am struggling to get "Alt" key to work. it has some strange effects: e.g. the button that should be "Alt" + O gives me "Sit" command...

One thing that might help is for the # menu to allow free text entry, as when using NAO. So I could literally type "#untrap", if Alt-u isn't available. Additionally - I can't directly use "Ctrl" functions with this.

I appreciate this probably isn't a very common request, though it would be very nice for me and maybe others -- optionally disable all the funky keyboard assistance menus and treat the keyboard input as best as you can; as a normal terminal would....

Chris

[CJYate]

OK an update -- the tecknet keyboard works fairly well with Gurr on my phone, but not so well on my Galaxy Tab (P7510). Arrow keys are good but the rest of the keyboard, apart from escape and some others, doesn't seem to work at all.

The keyboard happily types a couple of different languages into the note-taking app, so it's not obviously a system issue.

[gurrhack]

I've only played with an emulated keyboard, years ago, and I couldn't even press Alt or Ctrl on the emulator. So I'm not surprised it works badly with a real device. I will take a proper look at this at some point so I appreciate you're adding info.

[CJYate]

Thanks -- as an update; the above issue I had ("Arrow keys are good but the rest of the keyboard, apart from escape and some others, doesn't seem to work at all.") appears to be intermittent, and might well be something to do with the OS.

I actually managed to get it all working well the other night (with exception of ctrl keys as discussed), but couldn't make it work the next day. It's almost as if there's some kind of exclusive access to the bluetooth keyboard for one app or the other (but I think this is a system issue and so unrelated here).