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Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

Title:DECWINDOWS 26-JAN-89 to 29-NOV-90
Notice:See 1639.0 for VMS V5.3 kit; 2043.0 for 5.4 IFT kit
Moderator:STAR::VATNE
Created:Mon Oct 30 1989
Last Modified:Mon Dec 31 1990
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:3726
Total number of notes:19516

1345.0. "Keyboard Question" by WSINT::GOLDBERG (Marshall R. Goldberg, Workstations) Wed Aug 30 1989 16:21

    Cognoscenti,
    
    I have a question relayed from Insignia Solutions of the U.K.
    They are building a synthetic PC which will run under VAX/VMS
    DECwindows and are having a keyboard problem. Trouble is
    if they call XAutorepeatOff to prevent X autorepeating, keys
    generate a key down/key up sequence even if the key is
    held down. That kills the synthetic PC's ability to auto-repeat.
    After discussing the issue with Peter Sichel, he said the
    keyboard does, indeed, support a Key Down/Key Up mode. How
    can Insignia get X to use this mode for all keys?
    
    Marshall
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1345.1IF you are really really stuck then there may be an outSTAR::BMATTHEWSWed Aug 30 1989 18:2119
Since the lk201 keyboard gives the same keycode for both up and down
transitions the software must know what state the lk201 is in at all times
in order to interpret what keycodes it is getting correctly. For example
if you press and release the "A" key if the keyboard is in updown mode
you will get 2 "A" keycodes and if it is in down only mode you will get one
"A" keycode. X wants both up and down keycode transitions, we in VMS DECWindows
set all of the keys except for those in the main keyboard array to updown
but because the console rom expects the main kb in down only mode we set the
main kb array into downonly mode to prevent double characters when using the
console. Since the operator console window is hardly ever used fo input
after the window system is up we put in an escape hatch logical name to 
solve just this problem. If before the server is started you define
DECW$SERVER_MAIN_KB_UPDOWN to TRUE then the main keyboard array will be up
down and the synthetic pc should be happy but the console rom will be real
confused. This is in the category of unsupported but should work and was
tested during early v1 development.
					Bill
1345.2KONING::KONINGNI1D @FN42eqWed Aug 30 1989 19:257
Has anyone considered phasing in an ECO to the console code to have it
force the keyboard into the mode it wants?  This seems like normal good
programming practice anyway, and would take care of this requirement
without the logical name hack.

	paul
1345.3The combinations really end up costing alotSTAR::BMATTHEWSThu Aug 31 1989 11:277
The software would have to know when that occured. For example we would
have to know which rev level on which console ROM had that support.
Right now we support VSII, VSII/GPX, VS3100 mono, VS3100 GPX, Mayfair GPX,
VS35x0, and more on the way. Is it really acceptable to have it work one
way on some systems and another way on other systems?
						Bill
1345.4KONING::KONINGNI1D @FN42eqFri Sep 01 1989 18:335
One might argue that it's better for it to work right on some systems than
on no system.

	paul
1345.5WSINT::GOLDBERGMarshall R. Goldberg, WorkstationsTue Sep 05 1989 12:348
    Thank you very much !
    
    Shall relay the information to Insignia and let you know
    how it goes.
    
    Marshall
1345.6:-(WSINT::GOLDBERGMarshall R. Goldberg, WorkstationsWed Sep 06 1989 12:1122
    
    Jad tried the following.
    
    First, in SYS$STARTUP_V5.COM just before starting the network and
    DECwindows server he put in:
    
    $ DEFINE DECW$SERVER_MAIN_KB_UPDOWN TRUE
    
    This had no effect whatsoever.
    
    Then, he tried:
    
    $ DEFINE/SYSTEM DECW$SERVER_MAIN_KB_UPDOWN TRUE
    
    That hung the system and produced a message number 02DB821C.
    A control-C managed to get back the system prompt.
    
    Any thoughts? 
    
    Marshall