USB numeric keypad anyone?
Bob Koehler
My IBM T41 laptop has a nasty feature: to get the numeric keypad you
have to hit shift-numlock and to get out you have to hit both again.
Compare this to my Dell which simply required holding a function key.
When working with VMS this is a royal pain. I've seen USB keypads
now in stores, featuring the full set of PC style numeric keys and
am wondering if it's worth the investment.
Has anyone tried one of these keypads with any of the VT terminal
emulators for PCs? Any feedback?
Unfortunately I haven't seen one with a full LK style keypad layout,
the last time I saw one of those it was on an ADB cable for a Mac.
Staffan Tjernstrom
> When working with VMS this is a royal pain. I've seen USB keypads
> now in stores, featuring the full set of PC style numeric keys and
> am wondering if it's worth the investment.
>
> Has anyone tried one of these keypads with any of the VT terminal
> emulators for PCs? Any feedback?
>
Inspiron 8200 and Reflection v10 (X & VT), and it's worked about as well
as any non-LK solution has for me.
The problem I've found with any non-LK solution is that PC num-locks (ie
Gold/PF1) are typically stateful keys (either on or off), so in order to
get the right effect in eg TPU/EVE/LSE you sometimes end up having to
hit num-lock twice to get the right effect.
Not ideal, but if you don't have the option of carrying an external eg
LK461 around (my preferred solution), then it's certainly a lot better
than nothing at all. At least my debug fingers know their way around the
keypad.
Hoff Hoffman
> ...if you don't have the option of carrying an external eg
> LK461 around (my preferred solution), then it's certainly a lot better
> than nothing at all...
The LK463 is USB, FWIW. Rather bigger than just a keypad, but also
rather more familiar to those of us with our fingers programmed for the
LK-style keyboard.
Ken Fairfield
But directly connected to an IBM T41, you lose certain high-usage
keys, and others are mapped in odd places.
Admittedly, I've tried only under Hummingbird Exceed 9.0.0.0 and
KEA!340 5.10j, not particularly current versions... As I recall,
KEA "sees" more of the keys than Exceed (for remapping purposes).
Both miss Help and Do. Exceed also misses PF1, 2, 3& 4 and
KP_Separator (KP Comma). A smaller problem (for me, in the US) is
that the Compose keys are interpreted as the "Windows" keys, which
seem to be grabbed by the O/S before they get to the application.
So Hoff, do you have a terminal emulator that allows you to use
all of the LK463 keys within EVE (under Windows XP or newer)?
Thanks, Ken
--
I don't speak for Intel, Intel doesn't speak for me...
Ken Fairfield
D1C Automation VMS System Support
who: kenneth dot h dot fairfield
where: intel dot com
Hoff Hoffman
> So Hoff, do you have a terminal emulator that allows you to use
> all of the LK463 keys within EVE (under Windows XP or newer)?
I've been using the (available on the OpenVMS Freeware) VTstar
terminal emulator package for some eons now. I haven't tried it with an
LK463 however, and yet don't have one of those keyboards in my hardware
stash. (I'll see if I can acquire one, and try it -- they're too new to
be showing up in my usual supply chain.)
VAXman-
>
>
>Ken Fairfield wrote:
>
>> So Hoff, do you have a terminal emulator that allows you to use
>> all of the LK463 keys within EVE (under Windows XP or newer)?
>
> I've been using the (available on the OpenVMS Freeware) VTstar
>terminal emulator package for some eons now. I haven't tried it with an
Can you relay this to the person that provided this package:
How about a Mac OS X version?
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)COM
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"
Hoff Hoffman
> In article <KwHBg.1632$tA4...@news.cpqcorp.net>, Hoff Hoffman <hoff-rem...@hp.com> writes:
> Can you relay this to the person that provided this package:
> How about a Mac OS X version?
There's no current owner. VTstar dates back to the Multia days, and
has been under ad-hoc maintenance since its retirement. At best.
An OS X port would require a hardware delivery, and several
sequential deliveries of copious spare time.
The port of VTstar was most recently via the Microsoft Visual Tools;
it's not likely going to be a straight port over to OS X. (One snag
with that port and any with any currently-hypothetical source code
release, too, is that the VTstar source code requires a custom-modified
and copyrighted Microsoft Visual C source code module. That was one of
the central snags when last the release was contemplated.)
It might well be faster to start out with a DECterm port, as that
already knows about X Windows, or to teach (for instance) an emulator
like PuTTY about an LK-series keyboard. But that's all just theories
right now.
And yes, I know where the VTstar source code is.
Forrest Kenney
A standard USB keypad should look just like tbe built in keypad you
get
at by using shit+numlock. The keypad will generate standard HID reports
for
the keys on it. So that will work just fine.
Getting an LK463 to work correctly and get all the keys is more
problematic. The keyboard generates documented key codes for all the
keys on it. But for reasons best known to Windows it does not return
the codes it does not recognize to applications. We ran into the same
issues when we tried it on a Apple MAC.
Forrest
David J. Dachtera
>
> Bob Koehler wrote:
> >
> > My IBM T41 laptop has a nasty feature: to get the numeric keypad you
> > have to hit shift-numlock and to get out you have to hit both again.
> > Compare this to my Dell which simply required holding a function key.
> >
> > When working with VMS this is a royal pain. I've seen USB keypads
> > now in stores, featuring the full set of PC style numeric keys and
> > am wondering if it's worth the investment.
> >
> > Has anyone tried one of these keypads with any of the VT terminal
> > emulators for PCs? Any feedback?
> >
> > Unfortunately I haven't seen one with a full LK style keypad layout,
> > the last time I saw one of those it was on an ADB cable for a Mac.
>
> A standard USB keypad should look just like tbe built in keypad you
> get
> at by using shit+numlock.
Let's see now: the "shit" key: is that the one with the "flying window"
on it?
--
David J Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
http://www.djesys.com/
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Paul Sture
> In article <KwHBg.1632$tA4...@news.cpqcorp.net>, Hoff Hoffman <hoff-rem...@hp.com> writes:
>>
>> Ken Fairfield wrote:
>>
>>> So Hoff, do you have a terminal emulator that allows you to use
>>> all of the LK463 keys within EVE (under Windows XP or newer)?
>> I've been using the (available on the OpenVMS Freeware) VTstar
>> terminal emulator package for some eons now. I haven't tried it with an
>
> Can you relay this to the person that provided this package:
> How about a Mac OS X version?
>
Seconded.
--
Paul Sture