Re: How XyWrite handles keystrokes {VPC report}

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Martin J. Osborne"  on
Thu, 23 Oct 2003 13:10:27 -0400


> There is still an overrun when using the cursor and
> PgDn/PgUp keys (the action continues to be performed after the key is
> released), for example.

That's probably just keyboard buffer overflow -- the buffer is unloading
everything stored in it. When you "hold down" a key like PgUp|PgDn, you may be
putting dozens or hundreds of instances of that command into the buffer. In
W2K and WXP, XyWrite executes much faster than the Desktop DOS window is able
to update the display. I often make global search&replace text changes, via an
XPL program, to every file in a specific directory -- generally around 700 or
800 files. The command executes in about 10 seconds (which I consider amazing
-- 700 files opened, changed, and stored!), but the display keeps updating for
a second or two after the command has ended. If you perform the same operation
in a full screen session, you notice two things: 1) execution and window
updating stay exactly in synch, and 2) execution is significantly slower.
Clearly, this has to do with the emulation that goes on in a Desktop window,
and the complexity of updating the GUI display -- not trivial.

When you get right down to it, who cares. We're lucky to have Desktop DOS
windows at all. It's NOT the way XyWrite was designed to be run.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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