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KoalaTerm Key Mapping

KoalaTerm provides a very powerful key mapping feature allowing you to map virtually any key on PC keyboard and combination with modifiers (CTRL, SHIFT and ALT) to VT standard keys, code sequences or KoalaTerm menu items.

Key Mapping Page Snapshot

How to Map a Key

Here are detailed step-by-step instructions on mapping a key (or key combination with modifiers):

1. Click on the key you want to map in the graphic keyboard(see the following illustration).



2. Select any modifiers (Ctrl, Shift, or Alt )by click on check boxes under the graphic keyboard.



3. The name of the key (or key combination) will be shown in the "Key Name" edit box. Make sure it's what you want.



4. Select mapping type and input mapping.

• If you want to clear previous mapping, choose "Not Mapped" option.
  
  
• If you want to map the key to a standard VT terminal key, choose "Map to VT Key" option, then click "Change" button to bring up a graphic VT keyboard (as Fig. 2) so you can select a VT key by clicking on that key.
  

• If you want to map the key to send a character sequence to the host, choose "Send Sequence" option, then type the sequence in the edit box. See "Sequence Syntax" for the syntax of KoalaTerm character sequence if you want to send any special character like "Control-C", "Carriage Return" or "Escape", etc.
  
  
• If you want to map the key to execute a KoalaTerm menu item, choose "Map to Menu" option, then select a menu item from the drop box.
  
  
• If you want to map the key to execute several KoalaScript statements, choose "Execute Script" option, then type script statements.
  
  
• If you want to map the key to execute a KoalaScript file, choose "Run Script File" option, then type script file path.

5. You must click "Set" button to finish the mapping. You can then repeat all the steps for mapping other keys.
   

Use Key Mapping Template

• Key mapping templates include preset key mappings and mappings from KoalaTerm Template Right now KoalaTerm provides following preset mapping templates.

  

• To use a key mapping template, select it from the "Use template" drop box. Warming: some of your previous key mapping may be overwritten by the template. Make sure your special mappings still exist by using the same procedure described above for mapping a key.

Sequence Syntax

KoalaTem only accepts displayable ASCII characters when you input a character sequence, so you need special ways to input special characters in the sequence, like "Control-C", "Carriage Return" or "Escape", etc. You have some different ways to input a special character:

• For any special characters, if you know the numeric code (most likely a ASCII code) for it, you can use that code to input the character. The format is "\xnn". Where "nn" is the two digit hexadecimal code. Each digit could be 0-9, A-F or a-f. You must provide two digits, including the prefix '0' for single digit codes. For example, the ASCII code for Control-C character is 3, so you can put a "\x03" (Note: double quote mark not included) in the sequence for a Control-C.

• For special characters which can be generated by pressing a letter key while holding the "Control" key, there is a simpler way to specify the special character, use format "^C", where "C" is the letter (must be uppercase). For example, again Control-C, can be represented simply by "^C".

• For certain special characters, a more easy-to-read way can be used. These include: "<ESC>" for "Escape", "<CR>" or "Carriage Return", "<LF>" for "Line Feed", and "<CSI>" for 8-bit form of "Escape [". Note: all letters are uppercase.

Important: to input literal "\", "<" and "^", put a "\" before them, i.e. "\\", "\<", "\^". Otherwise they may be treated as introducer of special characters

How Do I Know What Sequence I Should Map to

• Suppose you have a host running an application or operating system which requires special keys but can't get it from standard KoalaTerm settings, you need to use key mapping to map keys to those sequences the host or application is expecting. There are several ways to figure out what sequence you should map to:
  First, if you have document for your host or application, you can look at it and try to find the sequences for special keys.

• If you have some other terminal or terminal emulator working with your host application, you can use a little program running on the host to detect what sequence the terminal (or emulator) is sending to the host. The small program can be downloaded from here. You should compile this C language program on your host, and run it with one of the terminal (or emulator) which is generating the correct key codes.

• For Unix system, there is a "termcap" file indicating what kind of sequences expected for special keys. It's typicially located in "/etc" directory. It includes entries for different types of terminal. You need to find the the entry for the terminal type your application uses. You can check the "term" environment variable for terminal type currently being used. Some applications only support particular types of terminal. From manual page about "termcap", you can get format of this file.

Standard Code Sequences for VT Keys

Here is a list of code sequences for VT function keys:

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