Curious behavior of two shifting keys

[Robert Hemenway robhem@xxxxxxxx]

The left Alt (56) and right Ctrl (99) keys have been acting a little
strangely ever since I
upgraded to XyW 4.017 last April and added FixPak 6 to OS/2 Warp 4.

When I hit left Alt together with left Shift, or when I hit right Ctrl
together with right Shift or with right Shift plus right Alt, the
combination doesn't "take". That is, I get the Shift table key assignment,
or the Shift+Alt table key assignment and nopt what I want. BUT if I hit
the keys arpeggio style, so that the misbehaving key has a moment to
respond, all is well. Otherwise, the performance of those two keys is
erratic . Only those two keys, and erratic only in these combinations--left
AS, right CS or CSA.

My computer is slow, a 486/33, though I can't see that speed is relevant. I
use the Northgate OmniKey Ultra still. The KBD shift state assignments for
ALT, CTRL, and SHIFT are standard -- no difference between left and right.
Changing the delay rate on the Omnikey board itself doesn't help. Changing
the KBD_RATE_LOCK in DOS Properties from Off to On has no marked effect.
And it's hardly practical to disable those two keys in the KBD file and use
only the right Alt and the left Ctrl.

In XyWin and in Nota Bene, running in OS/2's DOS, the keys are fine. The
trouble is only in Xy 4.017.

XyWrite 4.016 under WARP before the FixPak was fine, and v. 4.017 is fine
in pure DOS, booted from a floppy. Under "virtual DOS" under OS/2 (booted
from A but still under OS/2), the keys again misbehave.

The trouble seems to be somehow in the interaction between WARP/FixPak 6 and
XyW 4.017.

No big deal. But a nuisance -- and it's easy to forget that arpeggio dodge.
I've hesitated to bring it up. Well, it's a curious flaw, and I'm curious.

Have any of you seen or heard of the like?

Robert Hemenway