pcjs/devices/pcx86/keyboard

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IBM PC Keyboard Devices

Keyboard Configuration Files

The easiest way for a machine to add a Keyboard component to its XML configuration file is to use one of the project's predefined configuration files, with the ref attribute; e.g.:

<keyboard ref="/devices/pcx86/keyboard/us83-buttons-minimal.xml"/>

The referenced XML file automatically defines the keyboard's hardware characteristics (eg, model) and any visual elements, such as buttons to simulate common keystrokes, or even complete "soft keyboard" layouts.

Here's what us83-buttons-minimal.xml currently looks like:

<keyboard id="keyboard" model="us83" pos="left" padleft="8px" padbottom="8px">
    <control type="button" binding="esc">ESC</control>
    <control type="button" binding="f1">F1</control>
    <control type="button" binding="f10">F10</control>
</keyboard>

The following IBM keyboard configuration files are currently available:

• us83-buttons-arrows.xml
• us83-buttons-functions.xml
• us83-buttons-minimal.xml
• us83-softkeys.xml
• us84-buttons-arrows.xml
• us84-buttons-functions.xml

8042 Keyboard Controller Internals

The following documents were obtained from halicery.com:

• 8042_INTERN.TXT
• 8042_1503033.TXT
• dasm42.c

Additional information (eg, undocumented 8042 commands) is also available from OS/2 Museum.