NORTHGATE OMNI PLUS

[BENNY SMITH]

Thanks for the information that the Omni key on my Northgate Omni-Plus keyboard
maps as key zero in the XyWrite keyboard file. I now have 0=RD included in my
keyboard file and the Omni key now allows me to rub out a defined block of
text.

About the hardware features on the Omni Plus and Omni Ultra keyboards that you
and Strat Sherman have mentioned: Except for the added keys (including Omni
key), aren't the Omni 102, Omni Plus, and Omni Ultra each sending the same
codes for the same keys?

My son is using an Omni Plus keyboard with XyWrite on an HP ES-12 (286). He is
having all sorts of trouble with that combination. He bought his Omni Plus at
the same time I bought one for my HP QS-20 (386). The BIOS for the two
machines is obviously different (at least where keyboard scanning and decoding
is concerned) because while my Omni key was giving a down arrow function, his
Omni key was giving a backspace-and-delete-character function. Additionally,
on his machine the Omni Plus seems to conflict with certain TSRs and will cause
some programs to lock up for particular keystroke sequences. I am not having
those problems on my QS-20/Omni Plus. And the key-bounce sysmptoms we both
suffered earlier have been mostly eliminated by the new controller boards which
Northgate sent to us.

Both of us really like the feel and features (e.g., function keys on the left)
of the Northgate keyboards, but they just don't work well with our HP
computers. I continue to let Northgate know about these problems.