Command (i.e. Windows-Key) and Option (i.e. Alt) are

[Jonathan Gillaspie]

Doug:

Regarding this issue, I thought the discussion on our boards was much 
more productive than you make it sound, perhaps I wasn't clear about 
it.  [ http://www.redstonesoftware.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=199]  We 
never claimed that we are "doing the right thing", only that we made an 
implementation choice and it's not strictly wrong and that choosing the 
other mapping would also have drawbacks.  We also don't "blame" anyone 
for anything, this is an imperfect situation that's arisen because of a 
variety of factors.

In this particular situation there is no perfect solution, there is no 
Apple Command key or Apple Option key on a Windows keyboard, what's 
more, the Windows Keys and the Mac Keys are both being mapped into X 
Windows Terminology for VNC, so there really is no single correct 
interpretation. You could just as easily say that it's "wrong" in the 
keycodes the client is sending.

We have _chosen_ to map the Windows ALT key to the Mac's Command key 
and the Windows "Logo" Key to the Mac's Option Key (sometimes called 
Alt). This most closely replicates the physical placement of the Mac 
keys on a standard US-101 keyboard. We chose physical placement over 
label names because most people type by feel rather than by reading the 
keys.

We recognize that this isn't ideal for everyone but if we switched it 
now MANY more people would believe we had "broken" it than "fixed" it.  
This is the exact same mapping that Apple has chosen for their Remote 
Desktop product.

At this time the key mapping is hardcoded into the application. In the 
future we hope to expose the keyboard loading into a file which can be 
modified for international users or people who want to remap the 
modifier keys.

--
Jonathan Gillaspie
jonathan "at" redstonesoftware.com
Redstone Software, Inc.
-- Makers of Eggplant, Platform-Independent Automation Software
-- http://www.redstonesoftware.com