Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.programmer
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!uw!dnanian
From: dnanian@uw.com (Dave Nanian)
Subject: Re: Is OS/2 really usable for programming?
Message-ID: <1991Jun7.144505.3131@uw.com>
Sender: dnanian@uw.com
Reply-To: dnanian@uw.com (Dave Nanian)
Organization: UnderWare, Inc.
References: <11560004@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1991 14:45:05 GMT

In article <11560004@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com> joeb@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Joe Barnhart)  
writes:
> In comp.os.os2.programmer, phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) writes:
> 
>   | I want my program to be able to trap and handle every keyboard state  
change
>   | that takes place.  I want to handle both up and down keystrokes in any
>   | combination.  Under MS-DOS I would just have my program take over the
>   | interrupt handling of the keyboard directly.  How do I make a program do
>   | this under OS/2?
> 
> Use a "keyboard monitor."  This is an OS-supplied "keyboard hook" which
> allows you to do just about anything you want on keystrokes.  You can
> hook a similar monitor on virtually any hardware device.
>[stuff deleted]

Please note that keyboard monitors don't work under PM -- they only work full  
screen.  You can simulate keyboard monitors with PM calls, but doing so means  
your application won't work outside of PM.

IBM and Microsoft seemed to have second thoughts about the whole keyboard  
monitor interface.  Perhaps it'll return in 2.0 or 32-bit OS/2....

--Dave Nanian, UnderWare, Inc. (dnanian@uw.com, uunet!uw!dnanian, NeXT Mail  
Preferred)