Re: T,r,i,c,k, ,o,r, ,t,r,e,a,t,!

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Fri, 1 Nov 1996 06:45:49 -0500 (EST)

> Funny you should ask! I was just last night bewildered and
> frustrated by my inability to get ol' ncapture.pm to work with Xy4.
>
> So thanks for the [KBDMACRO.PM] pgm!
>
> Does anyone use the native Xy4 macro "capturing keystrokes"
> facility? I've been sort of afraid of it.

The reason I never upgraded NCAPTURE.PM to Sig/Xy4 is precisely the
built-in RK (RecordKeystrokes) facility. What's to be afraid of? It works
well. Play with it! NCAPTURE gave you the additional ability to
suspend keystroke recording and insert XPL expressions within the keystroke
macro, which was admittedly handy. But for light usage, you can finger
your macro, SAVERK it, and then insert XPL within the RK code at
appropriate points. Anything more elaborate, you might as well just start
a scratch file and write the whole routine . . .

Carl's KBDMACRO.PM takes another very useful approach. I've set
STARTUP.INT to pre-load (in the Stack) a bunch of KB macros for daily use.
Little routines to clean up imported E-mail msgs, for example. A great
idea. Notice how you can extend KB's functionality by simply calling U2
routines within the macro.

P.S. Carl said that you always get one unwanted character, namely the one used
to turn RK off. Not true. If you turn RK off with the same keystroke which you
used to turn RK on, namely func RK, it's not recorded. I use RK a lot for
limited purpose work, and find it effectively quick-and-dirty.

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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