Reserved Keys (XyWin)

[Robert Holmgren]

 SysOp> ...The keys which we cannot conventionally control are F10,
 SysOp> Alt-Tab, Alt-Esc, Alt-Space, Alt-Enter, Alt-PrtSc, Ctrl-Esc,
 SysOp> PrtSc. Also, the complete alphabet under TABLE=ALT is mapped
 SysOp> to accelerator keys. You can remap all of these keys except
 SysOp> ALT-F. Windows will not allow us to remap this.

 You confused me there. Are you talking about XyWrite for DOS or for Windows?
I haven't found *any* reserved keys in Xy4-DOS. Memory may be failing me but
... hmmm, I think not. Whereas in XyWin -- whew! You understate the
difficulties, I think. Many keys in the ALT table are out the window (so to
speak). If you think that we can remap "all of these [Alt] keys except Alt-F",
well then, NO WONDER you don't consider this a grave problem! Because that's
just incorrect. If, for example, I assign (in KBD) a U2 program to Alt-H,
XyWin first accesses the Help bar up on the menu line, and then (if I escape
out of Help) runs the mapped program. It's nuts. My notes to myself when I
was trying to configure this bloody XyWin say that TABLE=ALT+SHIFT isn't
mappable either; I had to use TABLE=LCTRL+SHIFT+ALT instead. (This was shortly
before I gave up on XyWin: I can't have hopeless keyboard inconsistencies
between various versions of the same program.) RSHIFT (Shift key 54) can't be
separated from LSHIFT (key 42); in fact, RightSHIFT picks up whatever you
assign to LeftSHIFT even if your DEFINITIONS table only says "SHIFT=42". Let's
see: do distinctions between LeftALT (56) and RightALT (98), and between
LeftCTRL (29) and RightCTRL (99), work? Gotta try it ... Yeah, they both work.
But then the Function keys are quirky/abnormal.

 I got very tired trying to keep track of what worked and what didn't; for me
it passes way beyond the threshold of tolerance. If I wanted to use a CUA
keyboard, I'd use MicroSoft Word. It's so irritating that XyQuest has subtly
modulated into a mindset (or promotes a mindset) which **assumes** that we're
going to use the CUA keyboard, or whatever keyboard XyQuest has prepared;
whereas the main reason to use a word processor like this is user
configurability and control. Even if I wanted to change old habits which my
fingers know by heart, its a fact that most of the keys on a keyboard are
useful and therefore not attractive to sacrifice as shifting keys; the only
real "free" keys are ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, and maybe PrintScreen.