[xmonad] xmonad and remapping keys with xmodmap

[wagnerdm at seas.upenn.edu]

Quoting Ico <xmonad at zevv.nl>:

> - I remap the numpad arrows to send 'Left' instead of KP_Left':
>
>   xmodmap -e "keycode 83 = Left Left"
>   ...
>
> - Xmonad now works with the keypad left arrow key, but the normal arrow
>   key (that was not remapped) is no longer picked up by xmonad. It works
>   for all other apps I tested, though. xev shows the normal key symbols
>   when pressing the keys.

Yeah, that's a bit annoying. The culprit is that xmonad asks X to  
convert keysyms into keycodes, then binds keycodes instead of keysyms.  
This is subtly a bug because many keycodes may map to the same keysym,  
in which case X will choose one arbitrarily to return from the  
conversion. You might be interested in

http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=273

which even has a patch you might want to try applying to xmonad core.  
Spencer is skeptical about the patch, but it looks like just what the  
doctor ordered to me.

~d