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From: pegram@uvm-gen.UUCP (pegram r)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
Message-ID: <1396@uvm-gen.UUCP>
Date: 19 Feb 90 16:44:04 GMT
References: <13352@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Sender: nobody@uvm-gen.UUCP
Organization: EMBA Computer Facility, Univ. of Vermont, Burlington.
Lines: 41

> I have seen the Phantom strike in both Word Writer and 1st Word Plus.  In
> both cases, his appearance always immediately followed some keyboard
> confusion on my part.  In particular, I would type too fast and botch it
> up, try to backspace quickly, botch that up, try to type the correction,
> generally just hitting an awful lot of keys in quick succession.  It's
> kind of spooky the way the Phantom seems to get fed up with my
> incompetence and begins to do the typing himself.  Unfortunately, he is
> a much slower typist than me.
> 
> Has anybody else noticed any correlation between rapid sequences of
> keystrokes (involving multiple backspaces) and the appearance of the Phantom?
> 
> -- 
> Me:      Scott Flinn                   /  "If it doesn't fit, force it.
> Domain:  wsflinn@watcgl.waterloo.edu  /  If it breaks, then it didn't
> UUCP:    watmath!watcgl!wsflinn      /  fit anyway."

	Ok, time to add my 2 cents.  I have never seen the Phantom
typist as described on the net recently, but I *do* have problems when
I have been using the mouse extensively (lots of movement for 2+
hours) in some programs - Michtron's Cards comes to mind first, but I
can also lose it when reorganizing files.  What happens is that the
mouse and keyboard stop responding, the mouse pointer stops in mid
move, then no mouse clicks or moves work and keys do not sound or show
up on the screen (perhaps I don't wait long enough).  A warm reboot
cures the problem for a minute or so, then it shows up again.  The
real work around is to turn off my 1985 vintage 520 for a minute or
two and then turn it on again.

	It looks like a hardware problem - lost communication between
IKBD and motherboard.  Either the IKBD is a little sick, or the
reciever uart is flakey (If I knew which was at fault, I'd fix it,
unless it's a firmware problem).  Is this related to the Phantom
typist?  If not, what is the fix if known?


Bob Pegram (Internet: pegram@griffin.uvm.edu)

P.S. I have Word Writer version 1, if the typist affects it, I will be
looking for it.  Does anyone know if the bug is version dependent in
the programs it affects?  If so, which versions?  RBPIII