54 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
54 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# Frequently Asked Questions
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## What is QMK?
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[QMK](https://github.com/qmk), short for Quantum Mechanical Keyboard, is a group of people building tools for custom keyboards. We started with the [QMK firmware](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware), a heavily modified fork of [TMK](https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard).
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## I don't know where to start!
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If this is the case, then you should start with our [Newbs Guide](newbs). There is a lot of great info there, and that should cover everything you need to get started.
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If that's an issue, hop onto the [QMK Configurator](https://config.qmk.fm), as that will handle a majority of what you need there.
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## How can I flash the firmware I built?
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First, head to the [Compiling/Flashing FAQ Page](faq_build). There is a good deal of info there, and you'll find a bunch of solutions to common issues there.
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## What if I have an issue that isn't covered here?
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Okay, that's fine. Then please check the [open issues in our GitHub](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues) to see if somebody is experiencing the same thing (make sure it's not just similar, but actually the same).
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If you can't find anything, then please open a [new issue](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/new)!
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## What if I found a bug?
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Then please open an [issue](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/issues/new), and if you know how to fix it, open up a Pull Request on GitHub with the fix.
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## But `git` and `GitHub` are intimidating!
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Don't worry, we have some pretty nice [Guidelines](newbs_git_best_practices) on how to start using `git` and GitHub to make things easier to develop.
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Additionally, you can find additional `git` and GitHub related links [here](newbs_learn_more_resources).
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## I have a Keyboard that I want to add support for
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Awesome! Open up a Pull Request for it. We'll review the code, and merge it!
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### What if I want to brand it with `QMK`?
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That's amazing! We would love to assist you with that!
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In fact, we have a [whole page](https://qmk.fm/powered/) dedicated to adding QMK Branding to your page and keyboard. This covers pretty much everything you need (knowledge and images) to officially support QMK.
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If you have any questions about this, open an issue or head to [Discord](https://discord.gg/qmk).
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## What Differences Are There Between QMK and TMK?
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TMK was originally designed and implemented by [Jun Wako](https://github.com/tmk). QMK started as [Jack Humbert](https://github.com/jackhumbert)'s fork of TMK for the Planck. After a while Jack's fork had diverged quite a bit from TMK, and in 2015 Jack decided to rename his fork to QMK.
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From a technical standpoint QMK builds upon TMK by adding several new features. Most notably QMK has expanded the number of available keycodes and uses these to implement advanced features like `S()`, `LCTL()`, and `MO()`. You can see a complete list of these keycodes in [Keycodes](keycodes).
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From a project and community management standpoint TMK maintains all the officially supported keyboards by himself, with a bit of community support. Separate community maintained forks exist or can be created for other keyboards. Only a few keymaps are provided by default, so users typically don't share keymaps with each other. QMK encourages sharing of both keyboards and keymaps through a centrally managed repository, accepting all pull requests that follow the quality standards. These are mostly community maintained, but the QMK team also helps when necessary.
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Both approaches have their merits and their drawbacks, and code flows freely between TMK and QMK when it makes sense.
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