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### Topic

#### non-QWERTY/international keyboards

[edit: this feature is enabled for everyone -- clicking the link below will not do anything]
International Glitches:
If you use a keyboard that isn't a standard US QWERTY style, e.g. Dvorak or German QWERTZ, and you've been frustrated, try this link for the game:
www.glitch.com/game/?SWF_al...
Note: This link will ONLY affect what key we think you pressed on your keyboard. Absolutely nothing else will be different.
The major drawback of this feature is that the movement keys WASD on QWERTY (ZQSD on AZERTY, ,AOE on Dvorak) will not necessarily be in the same place, and mostly unusable because they're spread around the keyboard. For those keyboard layouts, the arrow keys are the only easy movement option. This problem is unavoidable -- but the rest of the game is more consistent.
What do you think: Is this better, should we make it the default?

Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink

### Replies

- Fix one problem, and then possibly make another one?
  Hm...
  Posted 5 months ago by Volkov | Permalink
- Hmm so I have a french keyboard layout
  I didn't really get what's supposed to change here?
  I still can't move with ZQSD indeed
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Yes, I've been frustrated but it has nothing to do with my keyboard or mouse.
  Posted 5 months ago by Sir Lovealot | Permalink
- Lemo, ZQSD will not work, as I said in the post. The benefit is that other keys like C for camera should work in their native position on your keyboard. And you can use the arrow keys otherwise.
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- Well, as far as I'm concerned, the camera used to work just fine with the C key already
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Please tell me you did not spend more than 2 nanoseconds on whatever this is.
  Posted 5 months ago by Miss Bobbit | Permalink
- Lemo, on AZERTY the C key is in the same place. How about trying the Z key to open your player menu -- the Z key is in a different place on QWERTY and AZERTY.
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- @Miss Bobbit, not to be overly critical, but what sort of keyboard do you utilize? And if it is, in fact, a foreign language keyboard or another kind that has a non-QWERTY configuration, I am forced to wonder why you wouldn't want, even some significant amount of, time spent making your playing experience more uniform and easy to understand?
  As long as it works well, though I can't verify that as I have a QWERTY, I applaud the change :) It sounds very beneficial to some folks :)
  Posted 5 months ago by Liza Throttlebottom | Permalink
- Well "Z" opens the player menu in both modes really...
  I don't think the keycode changes in flash depending on your layout?
  In the "Q+P" console I see Z-90 for both
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Lemo: Both modes meaning with the link I gave you and in the normal game, or by changing your keyboard layout in your operating system? Z is below the 2 in AZERTY and near the SHIFT key in QWERTY.
  Since you know about key codes, I am actually mapping the key code that the game sees before the game sees it -- so Q+P shows you what letter the game thinks is being pressed. Key codes are position on the keyboard, not letters; so on different keyboards they may be different letters. The key code does not change across Flash installations, but the letter on that key might.
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- Liza, I like the vast majority of western computer users I use qwerty. Yes I am sure that someday we would all be better off with dvorak or esperanto or whatever, but for now, I would really appreciate it if TS focused on the basics of the game and features that would benefit the majority of current players.
  Posted 5 months ago by Miss Bobbit | Permalink
- There are whole countries (and yes, "western" ones) where some other keyboard arrangement is just as prevalent as qwerty is in the US. This was not done just for the sake of people using their own pet favorite keyboards. (I wonder how hard it would be to even get a qwerty keyboard in France.)
  Posted 5 months ago by Fnibbit | Permalink
- Yeah I mean the link vs the normal game, not changing my keyboard layout here.
  I dunno, Z is still 90 on this page for example for me
  Seems to be different for special characters though
  Now the "hotkey help" panel doesn't work anymore with "/" (or "?" either)
  And in the Q+P it's different... 191,16 for default, and 186,16 for alt_keyboard
  How about some Hotkey Options Panel?
  Sounds more simple, supports ZQSD, and everyone can choose what they like...
  PS: Sorry can't test more for now gotta go!
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- I don't think TS implements things for the sake of doing so, if they did,we'd be running some crappy HTML5 app.
  I like to think that it's considerate of them to implement this feature for those with non-QWERTY keyboards.
  You can tell TS isn't wasting time, e.g. Sparkle Powder on new years, instead of working on a new toy (that will be dispersed, come launch).
  Posted 5 months ago by Rook | Permalink
- Sorry, I honestly did not realize that Glitch was playable in languages other than English. My intention was to suggest that improvements should focus on the benefit to current players. However if Glitch is being played in a multitude of other languages then of course it makes sense to accommodate other keyboard layouts. I am curious, how do I select other languages in Glitch? It would be fun to see how it looks in other languages!
  Posted 5 months ago by Miss Bobbit | Permalink
- Miss Bobbit, Glitch is played by many people who know English in addition to other languages. Glitch is only available in English, but that doesn't mean all English speakers use the same keyboard layout. There are also people who don't know English but can still enjoy Glitch.
  Posted 5 months ago by TomC | Permalink
- Or, in other words, you can't play glitch in French but you can play glitch in France.
  Posted 5 months ago by Fnibbit | Permalink
- Oh I love it! Finally I'm able to zoom in again! I've never been able to find the "-" equivalent on my German QWERTZ keyboard. WASD is working for me just fine, and so does the "Z"/player menu.
  So yes, I think this is much better. Thank you, Jono! :D
  Posted 5 months ago by Lilleh | Permalink
- @Miss Bobbit--Just because TS isn't solving a problem you don't have doesn't mean they're not solving a problem.
  When people who live in francophone areas buy a computer the standard keyboard is AZERTY. They're not trying to be difficult as you assume.
  I've played glitch when visiting family in South America and had similar issues with "C" and nibbling. The standard Latin keyboard is QWERTY...but with some adjustments and the mapping of some rows is slightly different.
  Posted 5 months ago by M<3tra, obviously | Permalink
- When we had newbies, there were a lot of people we'd greet who either weren't native english speakers, or didn't speak it at all but understood enough to get by.
  Posted 5 months ago by shhexy corin | Permalink
- I use a dvorak key layout and I do like that the keys are now in the places that my fingers expect them to be. I never used WASD for movement; I always used the arrow keys.
  Posted 5 months ago by wakani | Permalink
- well I've only just figured out what QWERTY means....and I've been typing for the past 24 years :?
  Posted 5 months ago by ~Arabesque~ | Permalink
- I'm on qwertz and I can zoom! ZOOOOOOOOOOM ZOOOOOM ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM ZOOOOOOOOOM
  Posted 5 months ago by Electric Wizard | Permalink
- Yes! The magic Z key is working! And I don't have to press # to zoom out. Nice work!
  Edited to clarify: I'm using a QWERTZ keyboard as well.
  Posted 5 months ago by Candy Warhol | Permalink
- Thanks so much Jono for working on this!
  So far I'm using xmodmap to remap inventory search (the tilde not being above Tab, but AltGr+é) among other things but it's system-wide.
  As Lemo said, there's no change on my French AZERTY - the only difference is that the help window still works for me right now, via ? and / and they both are keycoded 191 with and without alt_keyboard.
  Posted 5 months ago by Lazy Cubimal | Permalink
- [applauds Miss Bobbitt for giving WordNerds a chance to use chauvinist in its original meaning, but refrains from doing so]
  Posted 5 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- I'm confused because I glitch in Dvorak and have never had issues with the game thinking I pressed a different key than I did. What is different between the new version and the original?
  Posted 5 months ago by >^.^< | Permalink
- @Lazy Cubimal Had no idea you were on that side of the planet, your camouflage skills impress me ;)
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Well, for me, this feature doesn't really change anything. I have a German (QWERTZ) keyboard, and the only key that doesn't work in the original layout (and not with the new link either) is the question mark. For some reason, my Z key does work in both versions, although I'm not quite sure why.
  Thank you very much for taking the time to look at this! This makes me (as someone whose native language is not English) feel rather more welcome than some of the comments to this post do.
  It's a bit sad - for all the good experiences one can make online when talking to people from other countries, one can really make about as many where one is made to feel that if one isn't a native English speaker, preferably of the US persuasion, one should just get out, and any time spent spent on accommodating one would be used more profitably for the "real" users who aren't summed up under "whatever".
  Lilleh, on my German keyboard with the default Glitch settings, the - key next to the right shift key (the one that makes the Bindestrich) works for zooming out. Isn't it working for you?
  Anyway, thanks again for working on this!
  Posted 5 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink
- Thanks for all the feedback. Does anyone have an OBJECTION to the functionality this introduces?
  Please explain your objection thoughtfully, in detail, with an example.
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- Thanks Jono for expanding the accessibility of the game to our non-US/Canadian friends!
  Posted 5 months ago by b3achy | Permalink
- I just tried it out again for a bit more testing, and I do have an objection: The workaround for the question mark issue I had originally discovered - using CTRL # to open the help menu - is not working with the alternative links. I've tried all sorts of other key combinations, and I haven't been able to get the help menu at all through key use. So for people with my keyboard setup, this might actually slightly reduce functionality.
  Posted 5 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink
- Not a Princess, what is your keyboard setup -- please explain in detail so I can reproduce your problem. Ctrl-# is not a keystroke I am familiar with.
  SHIFT+/ (i.e. the ? key) opens up the help menu.
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- She says she has a qwertz keyboard
  That's about the same thing I was talking about above, SHIFT+/ or the "?" key do not open that menu anymore on french/azerty keyboards either
  Posted 5 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- On my keyboard, the question mark is SHIFT + ß - ß being a German special character. This neither works for the help menu in the default game, nor in the link you gave. In the default game, I tried out all sorts of key combinations, and SHIFT + # (sorry, not CTRL, I had a little memory hickup there because in another game, that is a key combination I have to use as a workaround) was the one that brought up the help page. That workaround does not work under the new link, and I haven't found any other to replace it either.
  This is my keyboard layout.
  Posted 5 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink
- Not a Princess – No, the "-" key in the default version of Glitch does nothing for me except typing "-" in the Local Chat, even when I have no chat window selected. However, it works like a charm in this version. Just like the help menu btw. It can toggle it with either Shift+? or Shift+/, but I do have a slightly different keyboard layout than you (since I'm using a Mac, not a Windows layout).
  Posted 5 months ago by Lilleh | Permalink
- It turns out that on Windows, the ß key sends the same character code as when you press SHIFT-ß (? key) -- character 223 -- there is no way for me to differentiate the character without manually checking if the shift key is pressed. I have made this particular combination work.
  However, Windows sends the comma/less-than character code on French keyboards when ? is being pressed. I have no way of detecting that situation. That's a known problem and there isn't anything we can do about it now. Use the (?) button in the toolbar if you are using a French keyboard on Windows. Also, ZQSD will not work -- you will need to use the arrow keys to move.
  Let me know if other keys do not work and I'll investigate them! Thanks for testing.
  (Note that a keyboard preference pane would be nice, one day... but it is an enormous, enormous change.)
  Posted 5 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- Thx for the details
  Did you apply the change to the /game already?
  Not sure if it was like this before, but for the emote keys, only "2" (angry face) works for the "top row",
  the numbers on the numpad work fine
  When I have a look at the hotkey list, makes me wonder why we need those additional "shift" here and there...I would prefer just to type "F" to find for example
  Also, wouldn't that solve the problem if we simply have "H" for help instead of "?"
  Posted 4 months ago by Lemo | Permalink
- Lemo, I agree with your suggestions for the hotkey list. I would open another thread in Ideas about changes you think would be valuable and certainly simpler.
  For some of them, we probably have collisions with other shortcuts. For instance, shift-d opens decorate mode. But d also moves you to the right.
  Posted 4 months ago by Jono | Permalink
- Thanks a lot - Shift + ß (?) is now working indeed.
  Posted 4 months ago by Not a Princess | Permalink