Capturing keystrokes from background app

Some of you may be aware of the TeamSpeak project
(http://www.teamspeak.net/), a gamers’ voice comm system. Currently there’s
a client for Windows and servers for both Windows and Linux. Version 2, to
be released imminently, will have a Linux client. However, the developer is
primarily a Windows Delphi programmer and will be creating the Linux client
primarily with a recompile using Kylix (I’m presuming). The Linux client is
slated to have only voice activation, because the developer doesn’t know
how to trap a keyboard event from a background Linux app. I’d prefer hotkey
activation as VOX has never been very reliable in match situations.

As a potential user (and Loki Tribes 2 player) I’m hoping to find this out
for him. (TS works great but it means I have to switch to Windows to join
my teammates in matches. Imagine if Linux players could join their Windows
brethren in matches.)

I’ve programmed GUI stuff on OS/2 but not X. However, I’ve done a lot of
programming of Linux console and service stuff, and have a lot of
experience with multi-threading and rooting out bugs in other people’s
sources. So mostly what I’m looking for is references within the X system
(and SDL, if it’s relevant) that show how the keyboard system works and
what’s necessary for TeamSpeak to intercept hotkeys in the background while
Tribes 2 is running in the foreground. Given a better idea of what I’m
looking for, I figure I can do the final legwork and hunt down the
specifics.

Some of you may be aware of the TeamSpeak project
(http://www.teamspeak.net/), a gamers’ voice comm system.
Currently there’s a client for Windows and servers for both
Windows and Linux. Version 2, to be released imminently, will
have a Linux client. However, the developer is primarily a
Windows Delphi programmer and will be creating the Linux client
primarily with a recompile using Kylix (I’m presuming). The
Linux client is slated to have only voice activation, because
the developer doesn’t know how to trap a keyboard event from a
background Linux app. I’d prefer hotkey activation as VOX has
never been very reliable in match situations.

As a potential user (and Loki Tribes 2 player) I’m hoping to
find this out for him. (TS works great but it means I have to
switch to Windows to join my teammates in matches. Imagine if
Linux players could join their Windows brethren in matches.)

I’ve programmed GUI stuff on OS/2 but not X. However, I’ve done
a lot of programming of Linux console and service stuff, and
have a lot of experience with multi-threading and rooting out
bugs in other people’s sources. So mostly what I’m looking for
is references within the X system (and SDL, if it’s relevant)
that show how the keyboard system works and what’s necessary for
TeamSpeak to intercept hotkeys in the background while Tribes 2
is running in the foreground. Given a better idea of what I’m
looking for, I figure I can do the final legwork and hunt down
the specifics.