I have over 55 years in computers and computing but today I'm a
"newbie".
I have many varied Windows-using computers with no problems
whatsoever with the following mentioned programs.
I have a new MacbookPro and have vmware installed and use windows 2000
Professional by choice due to extensive experience of alternatives,
but I have keyboard problems
Using the wmware emulation on the Mac, I have disabled only the
Function-using shortcut keystrokes.
Then I have run Microsoft EDIT on text files and it works well enough.
Other editing programs written in ASM do not work in ways which follow
the same problem description.
Since I have several for-DOS and for-WIndows compiled Fortran
applications, I tried them under vmware and found "serious" keyboard
trouble to the extent of non-functionality (and all these "dos"
programs run correctly in Windows using the command line). I also
have several ASM-written utilities all giving the same keyboard
problem, including one designed to test the keyboard. All the
mentioned "dos" programs have run on earlier macintosh computers over
some ten years
My problem is that programs that use the arrow keys have a 5 second
delay in responding; some others have a two-second delay; some work as
expected; some ignore the keystroke (e.g. Ctl-down) and do not respond
at all..
I also have very very many Dos/Windows applications that use the keys
Insert, delete, page up, page down, Home and End. VERY MANY also use
Ctl-and Alt-shift versions of these and CTl-return for newline.
These I planned to simulate with Ctl or Alt-arrow keys. I welcome
suggestions.
The underlying DOS service used is a call to interrupt 16h and uses 0
or 1; or 16h or 17h in register AH to select normal (0h) or extended
keyboards (10h) respectively and wait(0h) or test(1h) for the next
keystroke.
The return is a keystroke scancode pair, with character in AL and
keynumber in AH, or else E0 for pad and 00 for Alt keys in AL and the
stroke code in AH. In extended mode I get the correct result for all
function keys in all 8 shift,ctl,alt combinations but only some other
keys. (I ignore the mac-signalling command and alt-tab and alt-esc
combinations)
I have also tried the Int 10h service to read and write strings on the
display, with the exact, same odd results.
I am sure this has been raised many times since 2007 or so, but my
google searches do not find any references to the problem or
solutions. Mainly: special keys respond in 5 seconds or not at all;
some give 2-second delays whereas text keys give no detectable delay.
I also see that MAC's "delete" key is actually an erasing backspace.
I would appreciate Forum members posting fixes or work-arounds; or e-
mailing me directly.
.
