------------------------------------ Documentation for METAKEYS Copyright (c) 1987 by Dwayne Scribner 917 Mills Ave. Dumas, TX 79029 ------------------------------------ BACKGROUND I recently downloaded a copy of "AUTOKEYS," a very nice vector key and keypad redefinition program for Kaypros running CP/M 2.2 versions F,G,H, and U. While "AUTOKEYS" had some features I really liked and was a significant improvement (my opinion) over the old Kaypro "CONFIG" program in the manner in which it went about redefining these keys, I had one major problem. I do not use any of the versions of CP/M listed above. My little Kaypro 4-84 has an Advent Turborom installed so I am using ZCPR1 plus the special BIOS designed to work with the Turborom. Alas, AUTOKEYS would indeed create those neat little (2k) programs which were supposed to redefine my keypad and vector keys to my specifications and then run another program also of my choosing, but they would not do what they were supposed to do, in fact all they did was freeze up force me to do a cold-boot of the system. It was because of this that I wrote METAKEYS. While METAKEYS does not work in exactly the same manner as AUTOKEYS, it does serve the same purpose. It will reconfigure the vector keys and keypad on my Kaypro to any of five predefined configurations of my choosing. This redefining of keys is done only in memory so that whatever is configured in the system residing on disk is not changed in any way. METAKEYS does not use any "High-memory RAM space" so the Transient Program Area is not one byte smaller as a result of running METAKEYS. I am sure that MetaKeys will work with CP/M 2.2H and with Systems running the Advent Turborom. Beyond this I do not know which systems METAKEYS will work with and which ones it will not. Any feedback in this regard would be much appreciated. You can contact me by leaving a message on John Nicholson's FAST-KODE BBS, Alamogoro NM., ( ). PROGRAM USE: HOW TO RUN METAKEYS When METAKEYS is first run it opens and reads a file called 'MK.DAT' and then for an instant (I mean read quick!) displays the following message on the screen: Reading Keyboard Data File... If this data file is not present a error message will display and METAKEYS will abort. This data file read by METAKEYS contains information needed by the program for the opening menu and for reconfiguration of the keys. The data file can be edited with a standard text editor (DO NOT USE WORDSTAR IN DOCUMENT MODE) to suit the needs of the METAKEYS user. More explanation on this will follow shortly. After reading the 'MK.DAT' file, METAKEYS will display a menu of keyboard configuration choices. The first five will be those which were predefined in the data file. The sixth will be for the purpose of directly redefining the keys from METAKEYS itself one at a time. Your last two choices will be for exiting METAKEYS and for veiwing the current configuration of the vector and keypad keys as they fixed in the Kaypro's system which is presently residing in RAM. Upon making one of the first five choices, a graphic picture of the configuration you chose will be displayed on the screen. You will be given a choice from here of either returning to the opening menu or exiting METAKEYS. If you should choose the sixth menu choice, a display of the current key configurations will be given and you will be asked to type the key you want to directly redefine or you can simply type to go back to the opening menu. Upon typing this key you will then be asked for the redefinition. (NOTE: SEVERAL OF THE STANDARD KAYPRO CP/M SYSTEMS ALLOW MACROS OF SEVERAL KEY PRESSES TO BE REPRESENTED ON ONE KEY. METAKEYS DOES NOT AS MY TURBOROM SYSTEM PERMITS ONLY ONE KEY TO BE REPRESENTED IN REDEFINITION.) This process will continue to loop until you decide to return to the opening menu. EDITING THE 'MK.DAT' FILE: Each line in the program data file consists of: (1) A backslash --- '\'. (2) A reconfiguration descrip tion. On my system this consists of the name of the program I am redefining the keys for. THIS MUST TAKE EXACTLY 13 CHARACTERS. If you do not need that many then pad the description out with spaces. This will constitute a choice identifier in the opening menu. (3) A space. (4) The key redefinitions. You will need 18 of these. If you want to configure a key to a control character simply precede it with a '^' sign. Do not seperate the definitonss with spaces. Example of a line in the data file: \Wordstar ^E^X^S^D^B^G^T^Y^A^F^R^K^O^P^Q^C^M^V ||____________||______||__________________________| | | | | | | | (14 keypad definitions) | | | | | (4 vector key definitions) | | | (13 character configuration description) | (backslash) You need to have 5 lines of data in the data file to fill the slots available in METAKEYS opening menu. ******************************************************************* CONCLUDING NOTICE: METAKEYS directly accesses specific addresses in RAM. This makes it specific to certian Kaypro CP/M systems. I have yet to determine all the specific versions of CP/M 2.2 it will work with. USE AT YOUR RISK! ******************************************************************* SEND ANY RESPONSE OR QUESTIONS TO: Dwayne Scribner 917 Mills Ave. Dumas, Tx. 79029 {EOF}