Getting key names for keyboard codes in Swift

I know others have asked similar questions, but I haven’t seen a definitive answer, and I’m still stuck. I’m trying to write a Swift function that takes a hardware-generated keyboard scan code, such as from an NSEvent, and returns the alpha-caps-locked name of the key, for the particular key arrangement (Dvorak, Qwerty, etc.) currently in effect in the OS (which might be different from the arrangement in effect when the code was generated).

It’s my understanding that the only way to do this is to invoke some very old Carbon functions, skirting a lot of the Swift’s extreme type-safety, something I don’t feel comfortable doing. Here is The Show So Far:

import  Cocoa
import  Carbon

func keyName (scanCode: UInt16) -> String?
  { let maxNameLength = 4,      modifierKeys: UInt32 = 0x00000004   //  Caps Lock (Carbon Era)

    let deadKeys      = UnsafeMutablePointer<UInt32>(bitPattern: 0x00000000),
        nameBuffer    = UnsafeMutablePointer<UniChar>.alloc(maxNameLength),
        nameLength    = UnsafeMutablePointer<Int>.alloc(1),
        keyboardType  = UInt32(LMGetKbdType())

    let source        = TISGetInputSourceProperty ( TISCopyCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSource()
                                                        .takeRetainedValue(),
                                                    kTISPropertyUnicodeKeyLayoutData )

    let dataRef       = unsafeBitCast(source, CFDataRef.self)
    let dataBuffer    = CFDataGetBytePtr(dataRef)

    let keyboardLayout  = unsafeBitCast(dataBuffer, UnsafePointer <UCKeyboardLayout>.self)

    let osStatus  = UCKeyTranslate  (keyboardLayout, scanCode, UInt16(kUCKeyActionDown),
                        modifierKeys, keyboardType, UInt32(kUCKeyTranslateNoDeadKeysMask),
                        deadKeys, maxNameLength, nameLength, nameBuffer)
    switch  osStatus
      { case  0:    return  NSString (characters: nameBuffer, length: nameLength[0]) as String
        default:    NSLog (“Code: 0x%04X  Status: %+i", scanCode, osStatus);    return  nil   }
  }

It doesn’t crash, which at this point I almost consider a game achievement in itself, but neither does it work. UCKeyTranslate always returns a status of -50, which I understand means there’s a parameter wrong. I suspect “keyboardLayout,” as it is the most complicated to set up. Can anyone see the parameter problem? Or is there a more up-to-date framework for this sort of thing?

As you already found out, you have to pass the address of a UInt32 variable as the deadKeyState argument. Allocating memory is one way to solve that problem, but you must not forget to free the memory eventually, otherwise the program will leak memory.

Another possible solution is to pass the address of a variable as an inout-argument with &:

var deadKeys : UInt32 = 0
// ...
let osStatus = UCKeyTranslate(..., &deadKeys, ...)

This is a bit shorter and simpler, and you don't need to release the memory. The same can be applied to nameBuffer and nameLength.

The unsafeBitCast() can be avoided by using the Unmanaged type, compare Swift: CFArray : get values as UTF Strings for a similar problem and more detailed explanations.

Also you can take advantage of the toll-free bridging between CFData and NSData.

Then your function could look like this (Swift 2):

import Carbon

func keyName(virtualKeyCode: UInt16) -> String?
{
    let maxNameLength = 4
    var nameBuffer = [UniChar](count : maxNameLength, repeatedValue: 0)
    var nameLength = 0

    let modifierKeys = UInt32(alphaLock >> 8) & 0xFF // Caps Lock
    var deadKeys : UInt32 = 0
    let keyboardType = UInt32(LMGetKbdType())
    
    let source = TISCopyCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSource().takeRetainedValue()
    let ptr = TISGetInputSourceProperty(source, kTISPropertyUnicodeKeyLayoutData)
    let layoutData = Unmanaged<CFData>.fromOpaque(COpaquePointer(ptr)).takeUnretainedValue() as NSData
    let keyboardLayout = UnsafePointer<UCKeyboardLayout>(layoutData.bytes)
    
    let osStatus = UCKeyTranslate(keyboardLayout, virtualKeyCode, UInt16(kUCKeyActionDown),
        modifierKeys, keyboardType, UInt32(kUCKeyTranslateNoDeadKeysMask),
        &deadKeys, maxNameLength, &nameLength, &nameBuffer)
    guard osStatus == noErr else {
        NSLog("Code: 0x%04X  Status: %+i", virtualKeyCode, osStatus);
        return nil
    }
    
    return  String(utf16CodeUnits: nameBuffer, count: nameLength)
}

Update for Swift 3:

import Carbon

func keyName(virtualKeyCode: UInt16) -> String? {
    let maxNameLength = 4
    var nameBuffer = [UniChar](repeating: 0, count : maxNameLength)
    var nameLength = 0
    
    let modifierKeys = UInt32(alphaLock >> 8) & 0xFF // Caps Lock
    var deadKeys: UInt32 = 0
    let keyboardType = UInt32(LMGetKbdType())
    
    let source = TISCopyCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSource().takeRetainedValue()
    guard let ptr = TISGetInputSourceProperty(source, kTISPropertyUnicodeKeyLayoutData) else {
        NSLog("Could not get keyboard layout data")
        return nil
    }
    let layoutData = Unmanaged<CFData>.fromOpaque(ptr).takeUnretainedValue() as Data
    let osStatus = layoutData.withUnsafeBytes {
        UCKeyTranslate($0, virtualKeyCode, UInt16(kUCKeyActionDown),
                       modifierKeys, keyboardType, UInt32(kUCKeyTranslateNoDeadKeysMask),
                       &deadKeys, maxNameLength, &nameLength, &nameBuffer)
    }
    guard osStatus == noErr else {
        NSLog("Code: 0x%04X  Status: %+i", virtualKeyCode, osStatus);
        return nil
    }
    
    return  String(utf16CodeUnits: nameBuffer, count: nameLength)
}

Update for Swift 4:

As of Swift 4, Data.withUnsafeBytes calls the closure with a UnsafeRawBufferPointer which has to be bound a pointer to UCKeyboardLayout:

import Carbon

func keyName(virtualKeyCode: UInt16) -> String? {
    let maxNameLength = 4
    var nameBuffer = [UniChar](repeating: 0, count : maxNameLength)
    var nameLength = 0

    let modifierKeys = UInt32(alphaLock >> 8) & 0xFF // Caps Lock
    var deadKeys: UInt32 = 0
    let keyboardType = UInt32(LMGetKbdType())

    let source = TISCopyCurrentKeyboardLayoutInputSource().takeRetainedValue()
    guard let ptr = TISGetInputSourceProperty(source, kTISPropertyUnicodeKeyLayoutData) else {
        NSLog("Could not get keyboard layout data")
        return nil
    }
    let layoutData = Unmanaged<CFData>.fromOpaque(ptr).takeUnretainedValue() as Data
    let osStatus = layoutData.withUnsafeBytes {
        UCKeyTranslate($0.bindMemory(to: UCKeyboardLayout.self).baseAddress, virtualKeyCode, UInt16(kUCKeyActionDown),
                       modifierKeys, keyboardType, UInt32(kUCKeyTranslateNoDeadKeysMask),
                       &deadKeys, maxNameLength, &nameLength, &nameBuffer)
    }
    guard osStatus == noErr else {
        NSLog("Code: 0x%04X  Status: %+i", virtualKeyCode, osStatus);
        return nil
    }

    return  String(utf16CodeUnits: nameBuffer, count: nameLength)
}