Gateway AnyKey keyboard (was Re: Non-mushy keyboards)

[Eric Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

On 6 Sept. 99, "Leslie" [Bialler? not her usual signature] wrote, in part,

>... my computer at home has one
>of those old Gateway "anykey" programmable keyboards, so at least here I
>don't have to worry about flipping into Windows by accident.

Are we talking about the extra keys just outside the two ALT keys
(Gateway's User's Guide calls them "Windows logo keys" -- the keytop shows
the little icon of a quadruple square fleeing to the right)? I'm still
using Win 3.x, and my XyDOS/XyWin EVT.KBD files make copious use the
right-hand one of this pair (it's key 55): it changes DSORT sort orders,
and in particular it runs a routine
    55=NI,BC,d,i,r,XC,BC,c,a,GT,CD,CD
which calls up a directory file, puts up CAll on the command line, returns
to the directory display, and puts the cursor on the first file.

Do the comments of Leslie (and others) mean that when (as I must) I switch
to Win9x I'm going to be unable to use this key 55? Will Win9x supersede
XyWin (and XyDOS??) so far as this key is concerned?

Leslie also wrote
>... That
>keyboard also has the F keys on the left _and_ on the top. I seldom use
>the ones on the left. ...
>I never had whatever benefits
>are supposedly derived from the F keys on the left.

A vivid demonstration that what you're used to is the only thing that
really matters.

My touch-typing hands hardly know where the top-row F4 and F10 are, and I
can't hit them without looking down; but I have thoroughly embedded
XyWriting habits of hitting SHIFT + left-side F4 with thumb and middle
finger (to define a sentence), or ALT + left-side F10 with index+pinky
fingers (to shift between two XyWrite windows). If I ever have to work
without the left-side set of F keys I'll have some serious relearning to
do.

On the other hand, if memory serves, I learned both those habits (and many
others) in XyWrite III. SHIFT + F11 (to hide/reveal deltas) or SHIFT + F12
(to erase defined copy) were both (weren't they?) innovations in Xy4; and
because my Focus was my first 12-F-key keyboard, acquired at the same time
as I started learning Xy4, I do those SHIFT operations using the top row of
F keys.

But I presume that the great majority of list members use only one set of F
keys and will think I'm weirdly handicapped.

Cheers
Eric Van Tassel