Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!carolyn
From: carolyn@cbmvax.UUCP (Carolyn Scheppner CATS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: to RAWKEY or not to RAWKEY
Message-ID: <2981@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 87 15:49:56 GMT
References: <552@oscvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: carolyn@cbmvax.UUCP (Carolyn Scheppner CATS)
Distribution: na
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 42

In article <552@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes:
>All this talk about the whys and wherefores of RAWKEY has
>seriously confused me so I'm going to ask a direct question:
>
>I want to know when the key that is in the position that
>the 'A' key normally is in (I don't care if the guy's using
>DVORAK or whatever the position is what's important) goes
>down and when it goes up.  That's all.  I don't want any
>escape sequences.  I don't want any accents.  I only want
>to know about the current state of the 'A' key.  I don't
>care (in fact I prefer) if I stop getting messages when my
>window isn't active.
>
>Can I use the code field from an intuition RAWKEY directly without
>commiting a cardinal programming sin?  If no then what the #@$!%
>am I supposed to do?


   If all you care about is whether a key in a particular physical
position of the keyboard is pressed, then RAWKEY is OK.  As long
as you keep in mind, in your documentation and prompts (if any)
that a US RAW 'A' key value will not necessarily be an 'A' in Italy
or Germany etc.  For instance, in Germany, their Z is where our Y key
is, and their Y is where our Z key is.  So if they pressed 'Z', your
program would get a different RAWKEY than when we press 'Z' in the US.

   Most of the foreign keyboards have keys in different positions, especially
punctuation symbols.  And many have additional keys.  And in Europe, there
are even key differences between A1000's and A500/2000's.

   Please use KeyToy (on the 1.2 Enhancer Extras disk for the 1000, newer
version that draws extra keys on the A500/A2000 Extras disk for A500/2000).
Try each version on appropriate machine and pick out keys that return
the same raw values on all currently existing foreign keyboards, paying
particular attention to Germany (pretty large % of Amiga sales).

-- 
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Carolyn Scheppner -- CATS   >>Commodore Amiga Technical Support<<
                     UUCP  ...{allegra,ihnp4,rutgers}!cbmvax!carolyn 
                     PHONE 215-431-9180
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