Re: [PATCH] ACPI: thinkpad-acpi: add thinkpad keys to input.h

[Matthew Garrett <mjg59@srcf.ucam.org>]

On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 09:57:11AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:

> I really don't like KEY_FN_F1..KEY_FN_BACKSPACE either. What are they
> supposed to do? Just being an unique value to be mapped onto something
> useful? But why not use that useful keycode to begin with?

We've already got KEY_PROG* - is this not the sort of situation they're 
for? (ie, keys that aren't mapped to a specific purpose but would be 
potentially useful to userspace at the per-user level)

> I'd rather leave the keys unmapped and rely on initsripts (possibly
> with help from distributions vendors) to load proper keymap then add
> something that must be retranslated over and over again.

Changing the keymap is a privileged operation, so sending /some/ sort of 
keycode by default would probably be good.

> Well, what kind of functions you would like them to have? You, as a
> maintainer, can chose defaults. Since you (well, not you, the driver)
> provide a way for a user to adjust keymap there should be no problem
> even if someone does not like the values you chose. Having sensible
> defaults is a good thing, otherwise many people will not even know
> that they have these "separate" keys.

Some of the Thinkpad keys send events even without there being any 
label, so I don't think there's a sane default other than leaving it up 
to the user. On the other hand, I'm not especially keen on sending 
literals like "FN_BACKSPACE" - it's hugely special-cased.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59@srcf.ucam.org