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keyboards/accents



I have a query from a work colleague who has recently gotten a new
computer and now finds herself plagued by a number of unusual problems
when she tries to type many special characters in XyWrite. Her new setup:

Computer: IBM 300 PL
Keyboard: IBM Model #KB-7953
Operating system: Windows 98
XyWrite version: 3.56 (running in a DOS window off the Win98 desktop)

The specific problems: (1) she cannot seem to type accents by pressing
Ctrl-Alt (or Alt-Shift) plus the ASCII number--on either the number keypad
or the top keyboard row. When she tries, she gets nothing. No weird
characters, no spaces, nothing. As though there was no keyboard input at
all. (2) When she tries to get the embedded code delimiters (≪ and ≫) on
the command line, a regular Ctrl + < or > doesn't work. She has to press
the relevant angle key twice, then hit backspace, and poof! the character
pops up. This is, needless to say, annoying. (3) She has to hit F5 twice
rather than once to put the cursor on the command line. Other problems may
surface, but these are the most apparent.

This person does load a keyboard file (IBM.KBD) with some minor
customizations, but it's the same one she has used for years. It just
doesn't work with this particular setup, it seems. Also, this doesn't
appear to be a case of Windows appropriating the keyboard for its own
inscrutable purposes, since other traditional key combinations (Alt +
cursor, save/gets, etc.) work just fine as far as I can tell.

Now, I run XyWrite under Windows 98 on my own home computer (a HP pentium
model with a Gateway keyboard), and I've never encountered any of these
problems. So my guess is this is a keyboard idiosyncracy. Can any of the
list gurus enlighten me? (And yes, perhaps the most obvious solution would
be to upgrade to either Xy4 for DOS or XyWindows, but for various reasons,
this isn't really an option at this point. I just want to get her to a
point where she can operate the program she already has with a minimum
of fuss!)

Suggestions for things I could try or investigate? Many thanks.

**************************
Pamela Upton
Assistant Managing Editor
Univ. of N.C. Press
116 South Boundary Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-966-3561, ext. 241
upton1@xxxxxxxx
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