Re: Locking Alt key

[Pam Upton upton1@xxxxxxxx]

On Thu, 27 Jun 1996, David Nuttycombe wrote:

>
>      I, too, use XY 3x and have the problem--what I call the
>      "locking Alt key." F10 will suddenly switch between windows
>      and, worse, F5 becomes ALT-F5 and deletes a line. I've
>      assumed it's because we're using an old version on new PCs
>      (I run it on a Pentium under Win95). Am most eager for an
>      answer.
>
>      DN
>

I can't say how glad I am to hear that other people are having this
problem! Well, that's not really what I mean, of course. I'm just glad to
hear the problem's not unique to users here at the UNC Press. This is
definitely a quirk specific to XyWrite 3+, and it has carried, as best I
can remember, across at least two releases of that program (3.54 and
3.56). It is NOT a hardware problem, because we've used at least a dozen
different keyboard models during this time, and all fall victim
eventually. The key seems to lock most during periods of heavy
keyboard-pounding, and it seems to be the lefthand Alt key
exclusively--I've never had the righthand one lock up. If you hit the key
a couple of times it will unlock, but the danger is in what happens
before you realize the key's locked. (For example, I have the Abort
command in an "a" save/get. . . .)

One theory I've had is that perhaps the problem lies in the IBM.KBD file,
which is the one many people use to customize their keyboards. My
surveys on this point haven't been systematic or thorough by any means,
but most people I've talked to who have never had the Alt key lock up
also say they don't load that file. I customized mine long ago
and cheerfully spread it around to all the other editors here at the
Press (and many of our freelance editors); eventually, all of them began
reporting problems. The frustrating thing is that it all happens so
sporadically that it took quite a while to make even this tenuous
connection.

On the other hand, if the problem is something deeply buried in the basic
XyWrite code, seems like it would have cropped up in XyDos 4 or XyWin,
which it never has for me.

If anyone out there knows what causes this lockup--and, better yet, how
to prevent it--I for one would love to hear about it. (Yes, switching to
a newer version would cure the problem, and we are in the process of
upgrading in-house, but we have many freelance editors who can't or don't
want to make an immediate switch.)

--Pam Upton
 Assistant Managing Editor
 University of North Carolina Press