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- KEY-FAKE Charles Petzold
- ______________________________________________________
-
- Purpose: Supplies the series of keystrokes needed to
- initialize an application program on boot-up.
-
- Format: KEY-FAKE ["xyz"] [nn] [0] [@F]
- Programname
-
- Characters typed within a pair of single or
- double quotes ("xyz") are normal ASCII-
- character keystrokes. Numbers (nn) not in
- quote marks are ASCII decimal codes, e.g., 13
- (Enter), 26 (Ctrl-Z), or 27 (Esc). Numbers
- preceded by @ are the extended ASCII decimal
- codes (128 through 255) generated by the Alt
- keys, cursor keys, Ins and Del keys, and the
- Function keys (e.g., @61 is the F3
- keystroke). The 0 is used with programs that
- check the keyboard buffer (it tells such
- programs the buffer is clear, so the programs
- will treat the succeeding keystroke
- separately).
-
- Remarks: KEY-FAKE is of greatest use in batch files
- used to call up application programs. For
- example, to enter Lotus's 1-2-3 and set it
- for File Retrieve, the following .BAT file
- would be appropriate:
-
- CD \LOTUS
- KEY-FAKE 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 "/FR"
- LOTUS
-
- This takes you past the necessary initial
- carriage returns and /FR command without
- having to type them in each time.
-
- Similarly, if each time you enter BASICA you
- want to have a blue border, blue background,
- and yellow letters, you would create a batch
- file, B.BAT, containing the lines
-
- KEY-FAKE "COLOR 14,1,1" 13 "CLS" 13
- BASICA
-
- Notes:
-
- 1. The keystroke sequence stored by KEY-
- FAKE is limited to 124 characters and
- must be on one continuous command line.
- Keystrokes not supported by PC BIOS
- (e.g., Alt-Home) cannot be stored.
-
- 2. Programs such as XyWrite II that get
- keyboard information directly from the
- hardware keyboard interrupt will bypass
- KEY-FAKE. KEY-FAKE will also not work
- well when you are on-line using a
- communications program.
-
- 3. KEY-FAKE is memory resident, but can be
- executed multiple times in the same
- session without reloading. However, if
- nested batch files cause it to be re-
- invoked before its initially stored
- keystroke sequence has been exhausted,
- the remaining initial keystrokes will be
- lost.