Re: Mac & VPC

[Carlo Caballero carloc@xxxxxxxx]

Hi, Flash...

Quoting flash :
>
> I've also made the change to Mac OS X. Are you running xy3 in emulated
> _DOS_ in VPC, or are you emulating a _Windows_ environment in VPC? I'm
> emulating DOS only in DosBox and iEmulator, with very spotty results, so
> I may end up going with the VPC, too. I'm running a box-standard xy3+,
> so I am encouraged by your results. I'm keen to hear more.

I'm running XY3 and XY4 in emulated DOS (PC DOS 2000), *sans* Windows. VPC
let's you look at your XyWrite session as a window pane or as a full screen
with no borders. Even the Apple menu disappears completely. (You use the
quatrefoil to get it back, but more on that below.)

I await my pristine copy of VPC 6.0 from the E-Bay and will let you know if
I have different results when I install that, but Russ's message to the
list from a couple of days ago already augurs well.

>
> A problem common to DosBox and iEmulator is flaky keyboard results,
> particularly affecting the F1-F12 function keys. Mac does not reliably
> release them to xy, and I found that I had to redefine those functions
> to other keys in the kbd file. There is a function in the Mac OS X
> system preferences>keyboard settings to force OS X to release the F1-F12
> keys to other apps, but even that produced only spotty results.
>

With VPC, the function keys behave as they're supposed to do. But
occasionally, a key combination that I haven't been able to put my finger
on (sorry, Patricia) muddles VPC and forces me to end the session and
restart. It might have to do with F5 or F10; I need to monitor the event
more closely next time it happens.

> I find cursor movement flaky, too. It seems the four cursor keys (bottom
> right on my G4 keyboard) are: 72, 75, 77, 80; but the commands CU, CL,
> CR, CD, respectively, produce unexpected results. CL and CR move the
> cursor one step along the text line, as expected, but CU and CD move the
> cursor up or down TWO text lines.
>

I had real problems with cursor movement on the G3 in OS 9.0. But all that
vanished when I moved the same set-up onto my G4. I was really delighted
to have the cursor movement completely obedient on the Mac. In order to
install and use VPC *3.0* on an OS X machine, by the way, you have to
choose OS9 as your start-up disk in the Preferences pane. (VPC predates
OSX to the extent that "Classic" mode won't even recognize it, but that's
true of a lot of applications as recently minted as 2002.) When I get VPC
6, I should be able to install it directly on the OS X desktop. This is
important information for those who are interested in VPC on the Mac, as
the most recent machines with OS 10.4.x do not offer you the option of OS9
as an alternate startup disk. The ITS person here told me it was
impossible to add OS9 boot-ability to the most recent Macs, but I think she
was just towing the party line. In any event, it would be wise to purchase
a version of VPC no earlier than 5.0, since that's where Connectix began to
add OS X compatibility.

>
> RE the kbd file, have you figured out which keys are: fn, ctrl,
> alt/option, and apple (on my PowerBook, those are the first four leys at
> the bottom left of the keyboard)? In my original kbd file the following
> were defined: CTRL=29,99, ALT=56,98, SHIFT=42,54, CAPS=58,T:C, but I
> suspect the apple key is none of the above. And, finally, what, please,
> does T:C stand for after CAPS=58,?
>

I can't answer these questions, I'm afraid. I hope someone else on the list
knows about the "T:C." I do know the keyboard layout you're describing--my
Powerbook laptop has it, but I don't use VPC on that machine. My desktop
G4, in contrast, has CTRL, ALT/OPTION, and Quatrefoil as the first three
keys on the lower left (no FN). These keys interact seamlessly with XY
under VPC:

CTRL = CTRL
ALT[OPTION] = ALT

The quatrefoil or apple key does nothing in XyWrite; rather it allows you to
control VPC itself so that you can move out of the PC emulation and back to
your Apple desktop.  In other words, if I want to leave XyWrite, I hold
down the quatrefoil and seize the mouse. Now I'm back in Mac-land. A
click of the mouse in the VPC window puts me back there and renders the
quatrefoil powerless again.

Thanks for responding.  I didn't know about iEmulator, but it doesn't sound
like a superior choice from what you report. By the way, what's the story
with prefixing nearly everything from Cupertino with "i"? Did it
originally mean something? I just moved to the Bay Area, and no one talks
about the "i," but it really looks like a joke to an outsider--you see bike
shops named things like "i-Velo" and "iWheels." We can't be far from iBanks
and iCleaners.

Cheers,
Carlo

--------------------------------------------------
Carlo Caballero
Stanford Humanities Center
424 Santa Teresa St
Stanford, CA 94305 USA

tel. 650-724-8128
CarloC@xxxxxxxx