🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <783278807snx@holly.demon.co.uk> mcr@holly.demon.co.uk (Mark Rogers) writes:
>Relay-Version: ANU News - V6.1 08/24/93 VAX/VMS V5.4-3; site dofasco
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>Newsgroups: demon.tech.pc,comp.os.msdos.programmer
>Subject: Keyboards
>Message-ID: <783278807snx@holly.demon.co.uk>
>From: mcr@holly.demon.co.uk (Mark Rogers)
>Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 10:26:47 +0000
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>On every keyboard I have ever used, except one, holding down a key and 
>subsequently pressing a second key causes the second key to be "seen" by 
>the BIOS. For example, if I were to hold down the "f" key and hit "t" at 
>the dos prompt I would get "ft" displayed on screen.

>The same would apply if I were holding the shift key down as well, so 
>"<shift>-f" held down and then "t" hit would display "FT".

>As I understand it, all the keyboard should actually be doing is sending 
>make and break codes to the BIOS via port 60 and how the BIOS interprets 
>them is up to the BIOS code writters.

>However, on my Gateway AnyKey keyboard this does not work. That is, it 
>works for almost all keys, but the shift-f + t combination fails every 
>time. This occurs quite commonly when typing FTP quickly, and it is a 
>pain to have to edit all the FP's that get displayed because the T isn't 
>seen.

>Gateway tell me that I should not type this way - ie the first key should 
>always be up before the second goes down. I disagree, not least because I 
>would think that several games rely on seeing the actual make/break codes 
>so that they could allow me to use the "shift", "f" and "t" keys together 
>if they so wished.

>Who's right? And where can I get documentary evidence to prove my case 
>(if I am right)? Just several good arguments in my favour would help, 
>or perhaps examples of programs which use the keyboard in this way 
>(although probably not with this exact key combination).

>I'd also be interested to know if any other keyboards out there exhibit 
>this behaviour. Particularly programmable keyboards like the AnyKey. 

>OTOH if you think I am wrong, let me know so I can admit defeat and climb 
>down gracefully.

>Mark.
>-- 
>int MeaningOfLife (void) { return 42; }    // mcr@holly.demon.co.uk
>function MeaningOfLife :integer; begin MeaningOfLife := 6 * 9; end;


Mark...

I've done some work with keyboards and have found that the rule is "there are 
no rules".  As you know there are two components to a keyboard system - the 
keyboard and the BIOS.  One would think that the keyboard would be standard 
and interchangeable on any platform, but they may not be.  I have found that 
the while most keyboards operate one way, Compaq keyboards do the same things 
in a slightly different way. Not wrong, just different.  To isolate who is 
giving you the problem, a quick interrupt service routine to replace int 9 and 
see what the KBD is sending would give you plenty of information.  How does 
the system react to games?

Mike

---
Mike Ranger                            DOFASCO Inc.
Automation Engineer                    P.O. Box 2460, PA-Beach Rd.
(905)548-4591                          Hamilton, Ont. Canada
MRanger@DCM.dofasco.ca                 L8N 3J5

Ayrton Senna  ... Montreal Won't be the Same

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Disclaimer: These be my opinions, and only my opinions...
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