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Text File  |  1990-06-23  |  3KB  |  70 lines
  1.           KEY-FAKE                               Charles Petzold
  2.           ______________________________________________________
  3.  
  4.           Purpose:  Supplies the series of keystrokes needed to
  5.                     initialize an application program on boot-up.
  6.  
  7.           Format:   KEY-FAKE ["xyz"] [nn] [0] [@F]
  8.                     Programname
  9.  
  10.                     Characters typed within a pair of single or
  11.                     double quotes ("xyz") are normal ASCII-
  12.                     character keystrokes.  Numbers (nn) not in
  13.                     quote marks are ASCII decimal codes, e.g., 13
  14.                     (Enter), 26 (Ctrl-Z), or 27 (Esc).  Numbers
  15.                     preceded by @ are the extended ASCII decimal
  16.                     codes (128 through 255) generated by the Alt
  17.                     keys, cursor keys, Ins and Del keys, and the
  18.                     Function keys (e.g., @61 is the F3
  19.                     keystroke).  The 0 is used with programs that
  20.                     check the keyboard buffer (it tells such
  21.                     programs the buffer is clear, so the programs
  22.                     will treat the succeeding keystroke
  23.                     separately).
  24.  
  25.           Remarks:  KEY-FAKE is of greatest use in batch files
  26.                     used to call up application programs.  For
  27.                     example, to enter Lotus's 1-2-3 and set it
  28.                     for File Retrieve, the following .BAT file
  29.                     would be appropriate:
  30.  
  31.                     CD \LOTUS
  32.                     KEY-FAKE 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 0 13 "/FR"
  33.                     LOTUS
  34.  
  35.                     This takes you past the necessary initial
  36.                     carriage returns and /FR command without
  37.                     having to type them in each time.
  38.  
  39.                     Similarly, if each time you enter BASICA you
  40.                     want to have a blue border, blue background,
  41.                     and yellow letters, you would create a batch
  42.                     file, B.BAT, containing the lines
  43.  
  44.                     KEY-FAKE "COLOR 14,1,1" 13 "CLS" 13
  45.                     BASICA
  46.  
  47.                     Notes:
  48.  
  49.                     1.   The keystroke sequence stored by KEY-
  50.                          FAKE is limited to 124 characters and
  51.                          must be on one continuous command line.
  52.                          Keystrokes not supported by PC BIOS
  53.                          (e.g., Alt-Home) cannot be stored.
  54.  
  55.                     2.   Programs such as XyWrite II that get
  56.                          keyboard information directly from the
  57.                          hardware keyboard interrupt will bypass
  58.                          KEY-FAKE.  KEY-FAKE will also not work
  59.                          well when you are on-line using a
  60.                          communications program.
  61.  
  62.                     3.   KEY-FAKE is memory resident, but can be
  63.                          executed multiple times in the same
  64.                          session without reloading.  However, if
  65.                          nested batch files cause it to be re-
  66.                          invoked before its initially stored
  67.                          keystroke sequence has been exhausted,
  68.                          the remaining initial keystrokes will be
  69.                          lost.
  70.