Hi Helge. Are you able to build gcalctool, either from
CVS HEAD or from the latest tarball under:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gcalctool/4.3/

If so, could you do so please, but first adding one line
of debug code near the beginning of the kframe_key_press_cb()
routine in gtk.c (about line 1342 for the version in CVS HEAD).

I'd like you to add:

fprintf(stderr, "keyval is %d\n", event->keyval);

just after:

int retval = FALSE;

so that the beginning of the routine looks like:

static gboolean
kframe_key_press_cb(GtkWidget *widget, GdkEventKey *event, gpointer 
data)
{
    GtkWidget *focus;
    int retval = FALSE;
fprintf(stderr, "keyval is %d\n", event->keyval);
    if (event->keyval == GDK_space) {

If you then compile gcalctool and run this new version and hit
the + key from the main keyboard, what keyval does it display?

Thanks.

no, I dont have developement packages installed.

But maybe the keycode derived from xev is enough?
KeyRelease event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001,
    root 0x40, subw 0x0, time 46571948, (117,137), root:(121,179),
    state 0x80, keycode 35 (keysym 0x2b, plus), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes:  "+"

Yes, that's great (I keep forgetting the good old
X11 apps). So the equivalent entry in gdkkeysyms.h
is GDK_plus. If you look at:

http://cvs.gnome.org/bonsai/cvsblame.cgi?file=gcalctool%2Fgcalctool/ca
lctool.c&rev=&root=/cvs/gnome

at about 421, you'll see that GDK_plus is there but that
the Shift key needs to be pressed to get this to work.

I'm guessing that on a German keyboard, the plus key is
on the bottom row (i.e. doesn't need to have to be
pressed in conjunction with the Shift key). Is that correct?

>I'm guessing that on a German keyboard, the plus key is
> on the bottom row

No, in the first row. See
http://www.buessert.de/TRS-80/GermanTRS80/PC_GermanKeyboard_Make_large.gif

>(i.e. doesn't need to have to be
>pressed in conjunction with the Shift key). Is that correct?

Yes, + is a direkt key. Shift+"+" is * ,which is working.

Sorry, when I wrote "bottom row", I meant on the lower level
of the two symbols defined on a single key. Thanks for supplying
the .gif; that confirms it (as well as your last sentence).

This is a simple fix. I'll check it into CVS HEAD when I get to
work tomorrow.
 

Changes checked into CVS HEAD. Fixed in v4.3.15 of
gcalctool. Helge, if you haven't got developer
packages installed, I'm not sure you are going to
get a chance to verify this until Mandrake pick it
up. If at that time, it still doesn't work for you,
please just reopen the bug.