Re: Gateway AnyKey keyboard (was Re: Non-mushy keyboards)

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Eric Van Tassel wrote:
>
> On 6 Sept. 99, "Leslie" [Bialler? not her usual signature] wrote, in part,
>

His. And yes. C'est moi!

> >... my computer at home has one
> >of those old Gateway "anykey" programmable keyboards, so at least here I
> >don't have to worry about flipping into Windows by accident.
>
> Are we talking about the extra keys just outside the two ALT keys
> (Gateway's User's Guide calls them "Windows logo keys" -- the keytop shows
> the little icon of a quadruple square fleeing to the right)?

We _certainly_ are.

> I'm still
> using Win 3.x,

Unquestionably the most hideous op. sys. ever foisted upon computer
users.

> and my XyDOS/XyWin EVT.KBD files make copious use the
> right-hand one of this pair (it's key 55): it changes DSORT sort orders,
> and in particular it runs a routine
>     55=NI,BC,d,i,r,XC,BC,c,a,GT,CD,CD
> which calls up a directory file, puts up CAll on the command line, returns
> to the directory display, and puts the cursor on the first file.
>

Aha! Nicely done. Just for curiosity's sake, do you arrange your
directories by filename or by extension? I teach the critters here that
by extension is more efficient, but that may be very work-specific. (We
save files as ch01.1, .2, or .3, depending on the editing stage.)


> Do the comments of Leslie (and others) mean that when (as I must) I switch
> to Win9x I'm going to be unable to use this key 55? Will Win9x supersede
> XyWin (and XyDOS??) so far as this key is concerned?
>

Quelle chose! Key 55 is the grey asterisk key according to my chart. Are
you telling me that if you don't have Win 9x loaded it scans in XyWrite
as another asterisk key??!! C'est formidable!


> Leslie also wrote
> >... That
> >keyboard also has the F keys on the left _and_ on the top. I seldom use
> >the ones on the left. ...
> >I never had whatever benefits
> >are supposedly derived from the F keys on the left.
>
> A vivid demonstration that what you're used to is the only thing that
> really matters.
>

Exactly right! I couldn't agree more.


> My touch-typing hands hardly know where the top-row F4 and F10 are, and I
> can't hit them without looking down; but I have thoroughly embedded
> XyWriting habits of hitting SHIFT + left-side F4 with thumb and middle
> finger (to define a sentence), or ALT + left-side F10 with index+pinky
> fingers (to shift between two XyWrite windows). If I ever have to work
> without the left-side set of F keys I'll have some serious relearning to
> do.
>
> On the other hand, if memory serves, I learned both those habits (and many
> others) in XyWrite III. SHIFT + F11 (to hide/reveal deltas) or SHIFT + F12
> (to erase defined copy) were both (weren't they?) innovations in Xy4; and
> because my Focus was my first 12-F-key keyboard, acquired at the same time
> as I started learning Xy4, I do those SHIFT operations using the top row of
> F keys.
>

Yep. Xy4 first made use of the F11 and F12 keys, but the scancodes for
them (87 and 88), predate Xy4, so you can use them in the Luddite
versions if you wish.

> But I presume that the great majority of list members use only one set of F
> keys and will think I'm weirdly handicapped.
>

Quite probably. My advice to you is not to worry about that majority
opinion. As for me, I resist keys that require the left pinky (I wish
eternal damnation for whoever decide back there in the 1890s that the
"a" should be assigned to that finger. I broke my wrist when I was
eight; I broke my pinky 10 years later. Now I have arthritis in it. Ugh.
Pfui!

Cheers,

--
Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup

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