Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 'Sys Req' - key.
Keywords: What is it for?
Message-ID: <257EC851.9656@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 7 Dec 89 20:30:09 GMT
References: <189@nmtvax.nmt.edu>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 25

In article <189@nmtvax.nmt.edu> jeff@nmtvax.nmt.edu (- Jeff -) writes:
$This is probably a useless question, but there is a mysterious key on my 
$XT-keyboard called the 'Sys Req' key. I've seen this key on many other 
$IBM and compatible keyboards and I am just curious if anyone knows what it 
$is for and how to access it? I can't seem to find anything in my DOS 3.3 
$manual about it. Anyone know what this key is for? Just curious...

   SysReq is short for "System Request", and is a key introduced with the
AT.  I don't think there's a way to read it on an XT, as the function you
call is part of the AT's BIOS extensions.

   The use of this key is up to an application (actually, it was designed
with operating system uses in mind).  Writers of an operating system that
runs several tasks but only allows one to have control of the screen,
for example, might use it to allow the user to switch between displaying
the screen of one task and the screen of another task.

   Basically, you can use it for whatever you want, but it isn't read like
the other keys through standard keyboard read functions.

-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
****************************************************************************
    If it's true that love is only a game//Well, then I can play pretend