Re: DOS emulator

["Martin J. Osborne" osborne@xxxxxxxx]

>
> > Regarding Robert Holmgren's remarks about not noticing the problem on
> > his setup: I think hardware/software differences must cause differences
> > in the magnitude of the problem.
>
> full screen I see no trace of this behavior (Martin?).

	Yes---me neither. (I like to work in a window, for several reasons.
One is that I have my (flat panel) monitor takes several seconds to
switch between modes, and in any case I have it turned into "portrait"
mode, which makes full screen hard to read(!). But certainly full
screen is an option that seems to work well.)

> (BTW, which keys do you mean by "the dedicated cursor keys"?

	The gray (non-number pad) cursor keys (I don't know their official
name---maybe the "cursor pad"). David Thomas wrote that the are
"handled differently" (or something like that)---which I took to mean
that he could see why there might be a difference.

> And what happens that's negative if you remove NI? It makes sense that
> if NI is designed to mask the keystroke from the operating system, then Tame
> won't even see them.)

	Yes---I understand the reason why Tame doesn't affect them. My
understanding (quite possibly way off the mark...) is that when you hold
down alt and press a sequence of keys on the number or cursor pads(?),
Windows transmits the character corresponding to the ASCII number
generated. (E.g. if you press number pad 6 twice while holding down
alt, you get ASCII 66.) If you want to assign alt + any of these keys
in a XyWrite keyboard, you need to put NI in front of the assignment to
avoid Windows from "seeing" the keystroke and putting ASCII 66 in your
file (as well as whatever assignment you've made in your keyboard
file). For example, I use alt + cursor pad 6 for NW; I put 103=NI,NW to
avoid getting the superfluous characters. Perhaps there is some better
way of achieving the same result.

	[I have NI in front of several other assignments, but I haven't tested
to see that they are all necessary with my current hardware: keys 84,
90, and most assignments for key modifiers containing ALT (e.g.
ALT+SHIFT) for keys 71-80, 100-103.]

> Bottom line is try before you buy, if possible.

	Definitely good advice!

--
Martin J. Osborne
Department of Economics
150 St. George Street
University of Toronto
Toronto
M5S 3G7
Canada
http://www.economics.utoronto.ca

martin.osborne@xxxxxxxx
http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/osborne