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- TPKEYS - Keyboard installation program for Turbo Professional 5.0
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- TurboPower Software
- 1/89
- Version 5.04
- Released to the public domain
-
- Overview
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- TPKEYS serves two purposes. The first and most obvious is to provide a
- convenient and easy means of customizing the key assignments in several Turbo
- Professional units: TPEDIT, TPENTRY, TPHELP, TPMENU, and TPPICK. The second is
- to demonstrate how to write an installation program using the TPCLONE and
- TPCMD units.
-
- Using TPKEYS
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- When you start TPKEYS, it will try to open five files:
-
- TPEDIT.TPU
- TPENTRY.TPU
- TPHELP.TPU
- TPMENU.TPU
- TPPICK.TPU
-
- If any one of these files cannot be found, it will abort with an error
- message. Although it is best to change to the directory containing the TPU
- files before running TPKEYS, the files will always be found as long as they
- exist in a directory on DOS's PATH.
-
- After the files have been opened, you'll see a main menu displaying the names
- of the five units. Move the menu highlight to the name of the unit whose key
- assignments you wish to modify and press <Enter>. (If you have a mouse, you
- can move the mouse cursor to the appropriate menu item and click the left
- mouse button instead.)
-
- The middle portion of the screen will then show a list of key assignments for
- the unit. The far left column shows the name of each command, and the next
- three columns show the current key assignment(s), if any. Each command may
- have a maximum of 3 key sequences assigned to it, and each sequence may
- contain a maximum of 6 keys (keys with extended scan codes, such as <F1> and
- <Left>, count as 2 keys).
-
- To add or change a key assignment, move the cursor to the appropriate row and
- column, then press <Enter>. (You can also use a mouse to move the cursor.
- Clicking the left button once moves the cursor to the item pointed to by the
- mouse, and clicking it a second time selects the item for editing.) The key
- editor will then be displayed in a popup window in the middle of the screen.
-
- Within the key editor, the following keys and mouse buttons have special
- meanings:
-
- <Bksp>
- Delete previous char.
-
- <C>
- Clear key assignment.
-
- <R>
- Restore; cancel changes and keep editing.
-
- <Enter>, <ClickLeft>
- Accept key assignment.
-
- <Esc>, <ClickRight>
- Cancel edits and exit from editor. Pressing any mouse button combination
- involving the center button (on a three-button mouse) will also execute
- this command.
-
- <ScrollLock>, <ClickBoth>
- Toggle between Command and Literal mode. <ClickBoth> can be used only
- while in Command mode.
-
- In Command mode, the default, the key and mouse button combinations listed
- above perform the functions as described. In Literal mode, only <ScrollLock>
- has any special meaning; all other key and mouse button combinations are
- inserted into the key string being edited.
-
- Although the behavior of the key editor is quite intuitive, there are a couple
- of things that you should keep in mind when using it. First, "normal keys"
- (alphabetic and numeric characters, punctuation marks, <Space>, etc) should
- almost never be used for commands. (The only real exceptions to this rule are
- the "Increment choice" and "Decrement choice" commands in TPENTRY.) To
- discourage use of some of these keys, the key editor translates alphabetic
- characters into their control-key equivalents: e.g., <A> is translated into
- <^A>. Second, you should be especially careful when editing commands with the
- word "mouse" in their names. These commands should be assigned only to mouse
- button combinations, not to keys.
-
- After you have made your changes to a given set of commands, press <Esc> or
- <ClickRight> to return to the main menu. TPKEYS will then take a few moments
- to analyze the edits that you've made. The first thing it will do is to check
- for conflicting key assignments. For example, if one command were assigned to
- <^Q> and another to <^Q><^W>, or if two commands were assigned to the same key
- combination, a conflict would arise. All conflicting key assignments would
- then be highlighted, and you would be given an opportunity to resolve the
- conflicts. TPKEYS will also check to insure that there is room in the
- installation area of the unit for all the key assignments that you've
- selected. If there isn't enough room, an error message will be displayed, and
- you'll be given an opportunity to eliminate unnecessary key assignments in
- order to make more room.
-
- Once you're back at the main menu, you'll have two choices. You can either
- select another unit for editing, or you can press <Esc> or <ClickRight> to
- exit from the program. When you do decide to exit, TPKEYS will check to see if
- any key assignments have been changed. If any changes were made, you will be
- asked to confirm that you want to "Install changes permanently". Press <Y> to
- save your changes, or <N> to cancel them. Assuming that you answer Yes, TPKEYS
- will then modify the installation areas in all units where changes were made.
- (Note that the date/time stamps on the modified TPU files will not be changed.
- TPKEYS preserves the old date/time stamp to try to prevent unnecessary
- recompilation.)
-
- TPKEYS as Model
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- As indicated earlier, part of our purpose in providing this program is to give
- you a model to use when creating your own programs. In one key respect,
- however, TPKEYS is an atypical model.
-
- Most installation programs modify only a single file. TPKEYS works with five,
- and much of the complexity of TPKEYS is due to the fact that it is, in a
- sense, five installation programs in one. Please try to keep this in mind when
- studying the source code for the program. TPKEYS would be much smaller and
- simpler if it only had to work with a single file. If you intend to modify
- TPKEYS for use with one of your own programs, a good first step might
- therefore be to trim the program down to the point where it works with only a
- single file. Once you've done that, you should have a much better idea about
- how to add the additional features that you need for your particular
- application.