Considering that the brand of
laptop, the version of OS, the specific
hardware and any RS-232 to USB converter that are involved may implement the control lines differently (and there's always a choice of implementing them in
hardware or
software, another setting which could disable a hardware button unintentionally) I think that would be an unreliable feature to add. That it would
work on "this computer not that computer" and leaves users confused or misunderstanding whether it would or wouldn't
work on any one particular system--unless they tested it out and did configuration of the
serial port. (Which further confuses most people.)
Clever kludge if it works though.
Would there be a way to have a "Bluetooth button" that actually signaled to the computer & program, using legitimate (fully supported) programming though? A wy to send a BT alert message into OpenCPN to trigger the alert?