Re: Unwanted 'Action Bar' [was: ersatz autosave...?]

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Patricia M Godfrey  Mon, 7
Mar 2005 18:29:31 -0500

> The solution would seem to be to remove the GT SH call from key
> 56 in Table Alt.

Bingo! This little glitch isn't a "feature" of Xy4, it's an
unforeseen interaction between the OS and Xy4's out-of-the-box
configuration. Easily solved. And the solution is indeed to modify
the default KBD file. But... not in TABLE=ALT. Rather, you need to
change the Alt key assignments (keys 56 and 98) in TABLE= and
TABLE=CAPS. Change them from the default assignment (GT,SH) to NO
(No Operation), like this:

;;56=GT,SH <== commented out (disabled)
56=NO <== new assignment: No Operation
..
;;98=GT,SH
98=NO

To understand what's happening here, you need to know that, in Xy4
(but not in Xy3), "modifier" or shifting keys (Alt, Ctrl, Shift --
indeed, any key defined as a shifting key in the KEYS stanza near
the top of the KBD file) can still have actions assigned to them,
just like regular keys. The difference is that the assigned action
only occurs when the shifting key is *released* (as opposed to
regular keys, which react upon being pressed). So, after you switch
to Xy with Alt-Tab, Editor still executes the assignment associated
with the Alt key -- when you release it. The default assignment
happens to be func SH ("Show Help" -- the top-level menu), but
XyWrite would equally execute any other function assigned to that
key. That's why it's necessary to change the assignment to No
Operation, or to another benign function, such as FF (Force reFresh
of the display).

Of course, if you need the "Action Bar" (leave it to Patricia to
find the mot juste), assign GT,SH to another key.

The reason for the change in behavior from Xy3 to Signature|Xy4 was
that Signature was designed (at IBM's insistence, I would imagine)
to be CUA-compliant. The CUA (Common User Access) convention is
that a press-and-release of either Alt key summons the Action Bar.
To enable that in a way that maintains compatibility with XyWrite's
existing KBD-file design, the Alt key had to be made independently
assignable, in addition to its role as a modifier key. That, in
turn, led to this little unintended consequence -- readily
avoidable, thanks to the power of the KBD file itself.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx