4.16.2

• Added the reusable "Soldered Inputronic" keyboard driver.
• TCA8418 keyboards share one controller backend. ( separate generic, Inputronic, and LilyGO Pager mapping profiles. )
• The generic driver supports configurable matrix geometry.
• Keyboard profiles have shared descriptions for a desktop Python keymap CLI and validated build-time custom defaults, selected per keyboard profile.
• Runtime map loading and reset retain those compiled defaults.
• Python and Lua can exclusively capture a named local keyboard with source-specific key presses, releases, HID usages, and modifiers for forwarding utilities.

Build a keyboard around a TCA8418 matrix controller, choose what each switch does, and use the same keymap JSON for a runtime experiment or a firmware default.

Tutorial is here: https://solar-os.eu/tca8418-keyboard.html

The question has been raised multiple times, so I have updated the description to better represent what I think it is about ( feel free to chime in and we can include what it means to you )

Homage to a simpler life

SolarOS tries to bring back the spirit of the golden era of home computing: turn on a computer, arrive at a shell prompt, and start doing something. Explore, customize, write a program, make a tool, share it with someone.

• Modern software accumulates layers of convenience that obscure how it works and what it costs to run. We become accustomed to using - and now generating - software without understanding it.
• SolarOS encourages a more deliberate approach: understand the machine, question the complexity, and take responsibility for the resources your software uses. Scripting makes experimentation approachable; native services provide an efficient foundation. The constraints give us a reason to pay attention.
• The scripting surfaces let users express their ideas, while native services handle demanding work, making efficient execution a shared foundation that users can build on.

Wastefulness for the sake of convenience is not sustainable.

It is a continuous exploration of how much useful, understandable, general-purpose computing can be built on deliberately constrained hardware. We already have an abundance of computing power; we can and should make better use of it.

SolarOS is an argument made executable.

SolarOS argues that useful, general-purpose computing can be built on modest hardware - and that efficiency, understanding, and the ability to shape your own tools should guide its design.

• The Solar in the name reflects the goal of building an efficient operating environment that can run on solar power. Energy consumption is a design concern alongside memory, storage, and processing time.
• That commitment also extends to the project’s infrastructure: all our servers ( website, HIL pipeline, local expert systems ) are powered by 100% renewable energy.

This project got away from me a bit, but here it is!

Introducing - Hearth: an interactive story engine for SolarOS and the Web!

Features:

• Uses an open, human readable and writeable file standard (.hearth)
• SolarOS as a first class citizen platform
• Web-based player
• Multiple save slots for each story
• Easy to Use online Story Studio
• The ability to export a transcript of your playthrough (full transcript on web, limited on SolarOS)
• Support for branching narratives, variables, conditions, and user text input
• In-line markdown support for Bold, Italics, and Strikethrough
• An online "Featured Stories" repository

You can get Hearth on the Playground now!
I hope you all enjoy Hearth and I extra hope you share stories of your own for others to enjoy!