The Pier Shareware 6/The_Pier_Shareware_Number_6_(The_Pier_Exchange)_(1995).iso/010/keycac21.zip/KC.DOC

Text File | 1994-09-29 | 28KB | 564 lines

                 KEYCACHE--THE UNIVERSAL INPUT ACCELERATOR

Keycache is a memory-resident (TSR) program that makes it easier and faster
to type text when you're using an application program like a word
processor.  Keycache speeds up input the same way a disk cache speeds up
disk accesses.  Keycache can:

-- Display words that start with the letters you've typed.  You can finish
"typing" a word by pressing a single key or clicking the mouse.

-- Automatically add new words to its vocabulary as you type them.

-- Display frequently-used words when you're "in between" typing words.

-- Expand single keystrokes ("macros") or abbreviations into complete words
or phrases.

-- Automatically insert the right number of spaces after you type a
punctuation character.

-- Automatically capitalize the next letter after you end a sentence.


Keycache is especially useful for users who

--Have learning disabilities that make spelling and word selection difficult

--Have physical disabilities that slow down keyboard usage

--Are using alternative input techniques like scanning

--Are simply slow hunt-and-peck typists

--Are working with programs that require highly stereotyped input, such as
databases that require field names to be spelled out.  Keycache can be used
to add pick-list capability to such programs.

Keycache works with nearly any DOS program that uses keyboard input and a
text-mode display (we're presently working on a version that will work with
Windows applications).  Keycache cooperates with other keyboard utilities
such as "sticky-key" programs and alternative input programs such as on-
screen keyboards and scanning programs.

You can easily create your own vocabularies (such as lists of legal or
medical terms) for Keycache.  Keycache takes up only as much memory as you
want it to.

INSTALLING KEYCACHE

Keycache doesn't need any special installation.  All you need to do is copy
KC.COM from the distribution disk or archive into a convenient directory on
your hard disk (if you don't have a hard disk, you can run Keycache from
the distribution disk).  You'll probably want to put it in a directory
that's on your DOS path.  If you have a registered (paid-for) copy of
Keycache, the distribution disk will also include a vocabulary file called
KC.DIC; copy this to your directory as well.

RUNNING KEYCACHE

To run Keycache, just type KC at the DOS prompt.  Of course, you can put
the "KC" command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that Keycache will be up and
running whenever you turn your computer on.  Keycache will check the
current directory for its vocabulary file and load the words in it.  If it
can't find the vocabulary file, Keycache will start off with a "clean
slate" and accumulate the words that you type.  When Keycache finishes
loading, you'll be returned to the DOS prompt and you can run your
application programs the usual way.

If you are using Keycache along with another TSR that affects keyboard
input (for example, a program that lets you point to an on-screen keyboard
matrix with a trackball to "type" characters), you should load Keycache
after the other TSR (otherwise Keycache won't see the characters you enter
with the alternate-input program).

USING KEYCACHE

Keycache normally sits in the background and helps you type.  When you want
to "talk" to Keycache directly (for example, to define an abbreviation or
to change one of Keycache's settings), you can pop up Keycache's "control
panel" by pressing Alt-K.  When you do this, Keycache puts you application
program "on hold" and displays a menu of options.  You can select these
options by typing the number or letter displayed before the selection you
want, or by clicking the mouse on the selection.  You can take down the
control panel and go back to your application by selecting option 0, "Exit
menu."

Some application programs might use Alt-K as a command.  If you're using
one of them, just press Alt-K a second time when the control panel appears
and Keycache will take down the control panel and pass the command through
to your program.

WORD PREDICTION

Whenever you type letters, Keycache looks at its vocabulary to find words
that start with what you've typed so far.  If it finds any, it will pop up
a window that shows these words, numbered 0 through 9 (Keycache always
numbers lists starting with 0 instead of 1 so you can select up to 10
choices with single keystrokes).  If you want to "type" one of the words on
the list, all you have to do is press the number key that corresponds to
the word you want.  If you have a mouse, you can also select a word by
clicking on it.  If the word you're looking for isn't on the list, just
keep typing and Keycache will continue to show words that start with what
you've typed.

Keycache always shows its word choices in alphabetical order.  If more than
10 words match what you've typed, you can scroll through the complete list
by using the up and down arrow keys and the page up and page down keys.  If
you're using a mouse, there will be reverse-video arrows shown on the top
and bottom borders of the window, as well as at the right end of the first
and last numbered lines.  Clicking on the top arrow is the same as pressing
page up, the bottom arrow is the same as page down, the arrow on the first
numbered line is the same as pressing up arrow, and the arrow on the last
numbered line is the same as down arrow.  As you scroll through the list,
the words will be renumbered so that the first one in the window is always
number 0.

Keycache has a unique feature called "jumping" that cuts down the amount of
typing and/or scrolling needed when you have many words that all start with
the same few letters.  If you've enabled jumping and more than 10 words
match, Keycache's window may include partial words that end with a "+"
sign.  If you select one of them, Keycache will "key in" the letters that
were shown and then show the words that could begin with this prefix.  For
example, one of the entries on the display after you've typed "ab" might be
"abbrev+"; if you select this, Keycache will fill in "brev" and then show
you, perhaps, "abbreviate," "abbreviated" and "abbreviation."

When you select a word, Keycache will "type" it in lower case unless you
have the caps-lock key on.  If a word has more than 20 letters, the window
will show only the first 20, but Keycache will still "type" the entire
word.  If you've selected the "Auto-spacing" option on the control panel,
Keycache will add a space after it completes a word (unless you selected a
partial word).  If you type a punctuation symbol right after Keycache
completes a word, Keycache will remove the space.  If Keycache is
displaying its window and you want to type a literal digit or use the arrow
keys, press Escape or click the mouse outside the window.  This will remove
the window until you type another letter.

If you haven't selected the "fixed prediction" option on the control panel,
Keycache will add new words to its vocabulary as you type them.  Keycache
detects the end of a word whenever you type a space, number or punctuation
symbol.

When Keycache sees the end of a word, it will check its vocabulary to see
if any of the words have been flagged as "frequent words." If it finds any,
it will display these words in its window until you type a letter.  You
select frequent words the same way you select words that match what you've
typed.

Keycache's window will appear in either the top or bottom half of the
screen, depending on where your cursor is.  This is so that it won't cover
up the line you're typing on.  If you're using a mouse, you can "drag" the
window horizontally by putting the mouse cursor anywhere on the left border
of the window, holding down the button and moving the cursor.  If you don't
have a mouse, you can move the window by popping up the control panel and
"dragging" it with the left and right arrow keys.

CONTROL PANEL SETTINGS FOR WORD PREDICTION

Selection 1 ("Expansion") turns word prediction on if it was off or off if
it was on.  If expansion is turned off, Keycache will not display the word-
choice window.  Expansion is on by default.

Selection 2 ("Add new words") turns automatic vocabulary updates on or off.
Turning it off is called "fixed prediction"; you'd use this setting if you
wanted to stick with a fixed, previously created vocabulary or if you were
going to type material that you didn't want added to your regular
vocabulary.

Selection 3 ("Auto-spacing") turns the automatic addition of spaces to the
end of words on or off.

Selection 7 ("Common words") turns the display of frequent words when
you're in between typing words on or off.

Selection 9 ("Minimum word size") determines how many letters a word has to
have before Keycache will display it or add it to its vocabulary.  The
default setting is 3 (in other words, no 2-letter words will be displayed).
Each time you press the 9 key, this value will increase until it reaches 9,
at which point it will "wrap" back to 2.

Selection A ("Jump size") determines how many letters two or more matching
words have to have in common in order for Keycache to show a partial word
in its window.  For example, if you typed "ac" with a jump size of 2,
"access," "accessories" and "accelerate" would all be shown as "acce+" and
"accommodate," "accomplish" and "according" would all be shown as "acco+."
If this is set to 0, Keycache will not display any partial words.  Each
time you press A, the setting increases until it reaches 9, at which point
it wraps back to 0.

There's no one best jump size for everybody, and we recommend that you play
around with the setting.  There's little point in setting it to 1, since
that will hardly ever save you any keystrokes.  Low values will show more
letter combinations early on in a word, whereas higher values will save you
more keystrokes if you type a lot of long words with common beginnings
(such as variable names in computer programs).  The default setting is 0,
for people who get flustered by seeing anything other than whole words.

MACROS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Macros and abbreviations are "shortcuts" that let you enter long words or
whole phrases with only a few keystrokes.  A macro is a single keystroke
(usually a non-printable key like Control-T or Alt-W) that immediately
expands to a word or phrase when you press it.  An abbreviation is a short
sequence of letters (like "asap") that gets replaced by a word or phrase
(like "as soon as possible") when you type it and then enter a space or
punctuation character.

Macros and abbreviations are stored in Keycache's vocabulary file along
with words.  You use selection D on the control panel to define them.  To
define a macro, make sure you're in between typing words and pop up the
control panel.  Selection D will show "Define Macro." Press D and the
control panel will disappear.  Now enter the keystroke you want to use for
the macro and then type the word or phrase you want it to expand to.  Pop
up the control panel again; this time, Selection D will show "Finish
Macro." Press D and Keycache will record your macro.

For example, if you wanted to define Control-K as a macro that expanded to
"Keycache: The Universal Input Accelerator," you would first make sure that
you weren't in the middle of typing a word, press Alt-K to pop up the
control panel, press D to define a macro, press Control-K (which will not
be echoed on your screen), type "Keycache: The Universal Input
Accelerator," press Alt-K again, and press D again to finish recording the
macro definition.  Once you've done this, each time you press Control-K
Keycache will "type" "Keycache: The Universal Input Accelerator."

If you select control panel option D by mistake, press Escape instead of
entering a macro keystroke.  To define an abbreviation, type the
abbreviation but do not type a space or punctuation character at the end.
Pop up the control panel and select option D, which will show "Define "
followed by what you've typed.  The control panel will disappear and
Keycache will erase the abbreviation you typed.  Now type the word or
phrase you want the abbreviation to expand to and pop up the control panel
again.  This time, option D will show "Finish " followed by the
abbreviation.  Press D and the abbreviation will be recorded.

For example, if you wanted to define "asap" as an abbreviation for "as soon
as possible," you would type "asap," press Alt-K to pop up the control
panel, press D (selection D will show "Define asap"), type "as soon as
possible," press Alt-K again and press D again to finish recording the
abbreviation.  Once you've done this, whenever you type "asap" followed by
a space or punctuation character, Keycache will erase "asap" and replace it
with "as soon as possible."

If you want to redefine a macro or abbreviation, just enter it as if you
were defining a new one.  If you want to remove a macro, proceed as if you
were redefining it, but don't type any text after pressing the macro
keystroke.  Instead, pop up the control panel again.  Option D will now
show "Delete Macro"; selecting it will remove the macro definition.  To
remove an abbreviation, proceed as if you were redefining it, but pop up
the control panel again immediately after Keycache erases what you typed.
Option D will show "Delete " followed by the abbreviation; selecting it
will remove the abbreviation from Keycache's vocabulary.

When you're typing a macro definition, you should not use any editing keys
other than the backspace; Keycache has no way of knowing what your word
processor or other application is doing with your text.

Selection 6 ("Abbreviations") on the control panel turns abbreviation and
macro expansion on or off.  If this is turned off, Keycache will ignore
macro keys and will not expand abbreviations.  You'd turn this off if you
wanted to include a literal abbreviation in what you were typing or if you
were using an application where your macro keys were used as commands.
This option is independent of the word prediction option; you can have
Keycache expand abbreviations and macros but not predict words, or vice
versa, if you so desire.  If both abbreviation and prediction are on,
Keycache will display abbreviations (and as much of the expansion phrase as
will fit) in the prediction window; selecting one will erase the letters
you've typed and replace them with the abbreviation text.

PUNCTUATION SPACING AND AUTOMATIC CAPITALIZATION

Selection 5 ("Punct spacing") on the control panel turns automatic spacing
after punctuation on or off.  If this is on, Keycache will add 1 space
after commas, semicolons and colons, and two spaces after periods, question
marks and exclamation marks.  If you immediately type another punctuation
character, Keycache will delete the space.  This is off by default.

Selection 8 ("Auto caps") turns automatic capitalization on or off.  If
this is on, Keycache will automatically capitalize the first letter you
type after a period, question mark or exclamation mark.  This is off by
default.

MISCELLANEOUS CONTROL PANEL OPTIONS

Selection 4 ("Erase protect") turns erase protection on or off.  Some
programs constantly repaint the screen while they're waiting for keys,
making Keycache's window disappear.  Turning erase protection on causes
Keycache to redraw its window if some other program has destroyed it.  This
may cause the screen to flicker obnoxiously, but it's better than nothing.
Erase protection is off by default.

Selection B ("Foreground color") lets you choose the foreground color for
the control panel and the word-selection window.  Each time you press B,
Keycache redisplays the control panel in a new foreground color; the
sequences is black-blue-green-cyan-red-magenta-brown-white.  Some color
combinations may be very hard to read; if the control panel window
disappears while you're selecting colors, just press B again (even though
you can't see it, the control panel is still there) The default foreground
color is blue.

Selection C ("Background color") works just like selection B, but lets you
pick the background color.  The default background color is green.

EXITING FROM KEYCACHE

Keycache doesn't automatically save new words or macro or abbreviation
definitions to disk.  If you've defined macros or abbreviations or you've
let Keycache accumulates new words, you'll need to save your vocabulary
back to disk before you turn off your computer.

To save your vocabulary, make sure you're at the DOS prompt and in the
directory where you keep your vocabulary file, and type KC/W followed by
the ENTER key.  This will replace any previous vocabulary file with a new
one and will also save your control panel settings.

You can remove Keycache from memory by typing KC/U or KC/Q at the DOS
prompt.  Be sure to save your vocabulary before doing this.

THE KEYCACHE VOCABULARY FILE

Keycache vocabulary files are plain ASCII text files with one entry per
line.  There are four kinds of entries: words, macros, abbreviations and
options.  Word entries consist of single words per line.  These specify the
words that will be used in prediction.  If you put an exclamation mark
before a word, that word will be displayed in the frequent-word window when
you have frequent-word display enabled.

If either a word entry ends with a plus (+), Keycache will not
automatically insert a space after the word when you select it, even if
auto-spacing is turned on.  The plus will not be keyed in.  This is
actually an artifact of the way Keycache handles jumps, but it can also be
used deliberately.

Macro entries consist of a pound-sign (#), the four-digit hexadecimal scan
code for the macro key, and the macro text.  Normally you'll just leave
these entries alone when editing a vocabulary file, since it's easier to
define macros using control panel option D.

Abbreviation entries consist of an at-sign (@), the abbreviation, an equal-
sign, and the text to replace the abbreviation with.  If an abbreviation
expansion is too long to fit on a single line, you can carry it over to the
next line by ending the first line with a semicolon.  You can include a
forced press of the ENTER key in an abbreviation by including "^M" in the
text.  For example:

@omsn=OMS Development^M610-B Forest Ave^MWilmette, IL 60091^M

would cause "omsn" to be replaced with our mailing address in the right
format for a letter.

Option entries begin with a slash.  They specify what control panel
settings to use and are the same as the command-line options discussed
below.  When Keycache saves a vocabulary it puts your settings on the first
line.

To edit or create dictionary files, use a text editor that supports plain
ASCII files.  If you want to use a word processor to edit a Keycache
dictionary, you need to tell it to load and save the file as a plain text
file rather than as a word processor document.  For example, if you use
WordPerfect you will have to use the "DOS Text" option when retrieving or
saving a dictionary.

Dictionary entries do not have to be in alphabetical order, although large
dictionaries will load faster and will be easier to edit if they're
alphabetized.  Whenever you save a dictionary with the /W command-line
option, all the words will be saved in alphabetical order.

MULTIPLE VOCABULARY FILES

Keycache normally uses KC.DIC as its vocabulary file.  However, you can
have as many vocabulary files as you want.  For example, a classroom
computer might have different vocabulary files for different students.

To load Keycache with a vocabulary file other than KC.DIC, type KC/R
immediately followed by the name of the vocabulary file at the DOS prompt.
For example, if you wanted to load Keycache with a vocabulary file called
MYVOCAB, you would type "KC/RMYVOCAB."

To save a vocabulary file other than KC.DIC, type KC/W immediately followed
by the file name.  For example, if you wanted to save MYVOCAB, you would
type "KC/WMYVOCAB."

You cannot load a new vocabulary while Keycache is resident.  If you want
to load a new vocabulary, you will need to remove Keycache from memory with
KC/U or KC/Q (be sure to save your current vocabulary first if it's been
changed).

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

Keycache has a few command-line options that can be invoked when you
install it.  All of them are indicated by typing a slash (/) followed by a
letter on the command line:

/E  Expansion on

/E- Expansion off

/F  Fixed prediction on (don't record new words)

/F- Fixed prediction off (record new words)

/S  Auto-space on

/S- Auto-space off

/O  Erase protect on

/O- Erase protect off

/P  Punctuation spacing on

/P- Punctuation spacing off

/A  Abbreviation and macro expansion on

/A- Abbreviation and macro expansion off

/B  Common words on

/B- Common words off

/X  Auto-caps on

/X- Auto-caps off

/L digit Set the minimum word length to digit.

/J digit Set the jump size to digit

/C fg bg Set the foreground and background colors of the popup window.  fg
and bg are both decimal numbers from the following list:
0  black     8  gray
1  blue      9  light blue
2  green     10 light green
3  cyan      11 light cyan
4  red       12 light red
5  magenta   13 light magenta
6  brown     14 yellow
7  white     15 bright white
On most video displays, colors 8-15 can be used for foreground only; trying
to use them for background will result in a blinking display.

/H nn Display the window beginning at column nn.  Acceptable values are 1
through 54.  The default value is 50.

You can have more than one option on the command line (each option needs
its own slash) and they can come after the /R option for loading special
vocabulary files.  Once you have Keycache loaded, you can subsequently type
KC followed by one or more options to change Keycache's settings.  This is
useful if you need to change settings from within a batch file.

There's one more command line option that's only available when first
loading Keycache.  /M nn reserves nn K of memory in addition to whatever is
taken up by the vocabulary loaded from the file.  This area of memory will
hold macro and abbreviation definitions and new words that Keycache adds to
its vocabulary.  nn can range from 0 to 60, but Keycache will never use
more than 64K total.  The default value is 4K; you'll want to specify more
if you're planning to define a lot of abbreviations or macros.

LIMITATIONS

Keycache will only work with programs that use BIOS services to get keys
(most do, but a few programs insist on reading the keyboard port directly).

Keycache doesn't know much about the context of what you type; if, for
example, you exit Word Perfect, type "N" in response to the prompt and then
type "dir," Keycache will think you typed "NDIR" and add it to its
dictionary.

Keycache tries to do everything it can to make sure that the window isn't
displayed at a time when the application program could overwrite it, but
some programs manage to sneak by it.  If this happens, you'll get a lousy-
looking display (when the window does clear, it will be replaced with
whatever was under it at the time it popped up, which may not match what's
currently being displayed); while ugly, this effect is harmless.

If there's no room in memory to add a new word, the current version will
ignore it.  Future versions will make room for new words by discarding
infrequently-used words.

Keycache won't work with programs (including Microsoft Windows) that put
the screen in graphics mode.

LEGAL STUFF

Keycache and this manual are copyright 1991-1994 by OMS Development/Eric
Bohlman.  All rights reserved.  You may freely copy and distribute Keycache
as long as you include both the executable program and this manual and you
do not alter them in any way.  If you distribute Keycache, you may not
charge more than the actual cost of duplication.  You may not distribute
Keycache as part of a commercial package without written permission from
OMS Development

Keycache is distributed as shareware.  If you decide to use it on a regular
basis, you are required to register it.  Registration costs $40 (single
user) or $100 (all users on a single network) and entitles you to
automatically receive any upgraded versions of Keycache.  Registered
versions will include at least one default dictionary file to help you get
started.  To register, send the appropriate amount in US funds to:

OMS Development
610B Forest Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091
[phone] or 708-251-5787
FAX: [phone]

We can also accept payment by Visa and Mastercard, and we can accept
purchase orders from rated firms and governmental agencies (purchase orders
must be written).

When registering, please specify 5.25" or 3.5" disks.

CONTACT INFO

I can be reached by snail-mail or voice phone at OMS Development, by
Internet mail at [e-mail], by Genie Mail at E.Bohlman and by
Fidonet mail at 1:129/89.3.  I would appreciate any suggestions or bug
reports, and can usually be reached by phone between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM
Central time.  Ordinarily I can return long-distance calls from registered
users only.

VERSION HISTORY

2.1 (9/29/94) Added jumps, macros and control-panel definition of
abbreviations.  Rewrote manual.

2.0 (9/19/94) Added abbreviation expansion, frequent words, automatic
punctuation spacing, automatic capitalization and deletion of automatic
word spaces when punctuation is typed.  Eliminated need for dictionary
entries to be lower-case.  Increased maximum word/phrase length to 255.
Keycache should be less likely to lock up when reading improperly-formatted
dictionary files.

1.2 (1/14/93) Fixed interaction problem with No-Keys (from Leithauser
Research).

1.1 (12/7/92) Added scrolling (more than 10 words), control panel, mouse
support, erase protection and ability to save settings in dictionary files.
Shows up to 20 characters of words rather than 15.

0.3 (3/23/92) Added options for fixed prediction and window positioning.

0.2 (10/20/91) Fixed bug that caused garbage to display when dictionary
size was a multiple of 128 characters.

0.1 (7/13/91) Initial release.

ABOUT OMS DEVELOPMENT

OMS Development specializes in the development of custom software and
hardware.  Since 1980, we have provided custom programming, hardware
product design and computer consultation to a wide range of clients.  Our
services have included designing specialized microprocessor-based
optometric instruments, writing Turbo Pascal database programs for the food
brokerage industry, installing LANs and writing custom DOS utilities.

We also market a variety of shareware programs including Tinytalk, a
powerful and memory-efficient screen reader for blind or dyslexic users who
use speech synthesizers, EEK, an on-screen keyboard for Windows and Search,
a flexible text retrieval system.

Eric Bohlman
September 29, 1994