Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!cbmvax!mks
From: mks@cbmvax.commodore.com (Michael Sinz - CATS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Reading the keyboard without a window.
Keywords: keyboard,read,easy?
Message-ID: <9670@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 14 Feb 90 13:33:41 GMT
References: <6675@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <1990Feb9.150945.29787@santra.uucp> <131583@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <1990Feb13.140718.26883@santra.uucp>
Reply-To: mks@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Michael Sinz - CATS)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 33

In article <1990Feb13.140718.26883@santra.uucp> justus@niksula.hut.fi (Juhana R{s{nen) writes:
>In article <131583@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes:
>>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!
>
>SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

(Thanks Chuck...  Gee, Charlie Brown, this is interesting...)

So, howmany of you want to do this with the rest of the system not working.
Lets say you have taken down intuition and input.device (which is the other
half of intuition in a way) you can do the simple (and documented) thing
of opening and reading from the keyboard.device.  See the RKM on methods.
There are even ways of finding the key matrix in a bit array which tells which
keys are down and which are not.  The matrix can even be used while intuition
is running.

Now, remember that this is not the system friendly way to do things.  It should
always be attempted to do it via a window and IDCMP messages or console.device
attached to a window and device I/O.  If that can not be done, then you must
have taken down the system and now need to work in a new way.

(This excludes hot-key programs which become clients of the input.device
or of the commodeties exchange.)

/----------------------------------------------------------------------\
|      /// Michael Sinz -- CATS/Amiga Software Engineer                |
|     ///  PHONE 215-431-9422  UUCP ( uunet | rutgers ) !cbmvax!mks    |
|    ///                                                               |
|\\\///          When people are free to do as they please,            |
| \XX/                they usually imitate each other.                 |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/