Re: extra keystrokes

["Olson, Timothy" timothy_olson@xxxxxxxx]

>I loaded xy3+ under Windows 95 on a new (to me) Compaq at work. Certain
>commands, when I'm in Xywrite, now require extra keyboard strokes in
order
>to execute. . .
>note: xy3 runs fine under Win95 at home on a different computer

I suspect your problem is the same one that we've had (and that Brian
Henderson and, I think, one other person on the list has had). If your
machine at work is running Client 32, then you're in our boat and you do,
in fact, have a problem. But it's a known problem with a known (though
perhaps not easy) solution: switch to Xy4. The following may save you the
trouble of searching the archives.

We have encountered this problem as well, because our MIS department is
in the process of upgrading to Novell Netware 4 with a 32-bit Client.
There is a 16-bit Client available, but they tell me the only one that's
available is one from Microsoft, and it doesn't get along too well with
Netware 4. Or something like that--I'm not up on the technical details.
But anyway, in terms of XyWrite, what happens is that any keystroke with
more than one character or function mnemonic assigned to it in the
keyboard file gets "stuck" (at least in terms of display, probably also
in terms of processing) until another keystroke bumps both of them out.
Try hitting the right-arrow key after F5 and you'll see what I mean. I
don't know of any solution for this. (Although, theoretically, one could
rewrite the "offending" keyboard assignments into programs, replace their

keyboard file code with & and $ save/get function calls, then load the
programs individually onto those save/gets in startup.int. But that's
such a mess I wouldn't even stoop to calling it jury-rigging; and it
seems likely to cause enormous programming snafus.) [And adpFisher thinks
this approach wouldn't even work at all.]

This situation was discussed a couple months ago on the list. My thanks
to Stephen Moore and Rafe Tennenbaum for their perspective and insights.
Based on their input, we are in the process of switching to Xy4 as our
solution; Xy4 doesn't have this problem. Here are their posts that
address the situation:


From: R Tennenbaum
Date: 8/10/98  Time: 9:52PM
The one thing I can offer is that it's possible that Xy4 will not have
the same problems as Xy3. When I first started using OS/2 I was
experiencing keyboard snafus with Xy3, and reported these to IBM, and
was told that Xy4 was CUA compliant whereas Xy3 was not, and upgrading
would solve my problems. It did. So perhaps it would be a somewhat
less painful intermediary step to move to Xy4? Maybe worth a try. I
believe there are many more using Xy4 than XyWin on the list.



From: Stephen Moore
Date: 8/10/98  Time: 8:58PM
	I administer two Novell LANs, one 3.2 and one 4.11, together comprising
nearly 250 users. There is nothing (that I've found) inherent in the
4.11 operating system that demands 32-bitness from applications or the
workstation software (the client). The client does indeed come in two
flavors, 16- and 32-bit, but this does not in general preclude the use
of 16-bit applications with the 32-bit client. In fact, except for a few
NT users, we run exclusively 16-bit apps on a mixture of 16- and 32-bit
clients on machines ranging from 386DXs to Pentia. Only one program (an
installer, as it happens) won't run under Client 32, but the major app
it installs does so happily. (Go figure.)
	I suspect that your problem might be due to a specific conflict between
XyIII and the particular revision of Client 32 you're using. (Have your
MIS people gotten the latest rev off the Novell website?) I use XyIII
on the 4.11 network with the 16-bit client with no problems; I've not
experienced your difficulties, but tomorrow morning will endeavor to
do so.
	Would your MIS department be willing to support both 16- and 32-bit
clients? The only credible argument against it (that I see) is if
they want *every last app* to be 32-bit, *and* want to use the FAT32 file
system exclusively. Short of that, I'm enough of a XyWrite fanatic that
I would set up a CONFIG.SYS menu with two options: one to load the
16-bit client for XyWrite and one to load the 32-bit client for every-
thing else.


Timothy Olson
Editorial/Technical Assistant
Tyndale House Publishers
(630) 668-8310
(630) 668-8311(FAX)
Timothy_Olson@xxxxxxxx