Re: Easy Access problem

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <29jp5i$le9@polaris.unm.edu> casa@unm.edu (Jim Pittman) writes:
> 
> I got ORCA/Pascal and tried it out, starting with the first example in
> the manual. It worked but - to my considerable surprise - the cursor,
> when moved into the edit window, acted like a big eraser and blanked
> out all the text it moved over! Clicking the mouse restored the text,
> but it was essentially impossible to do any editing.

Aha!  That sounds like a conflict with CloseView.

> At the next Applequerque club meeting I mentioned this to some not-so-
> new-to-IIgs members and they said, Oh yeah, you gotta get rid of that
> new 6.0.1 "Easy Access" thing - it's got a known bug.

Wrong answer, right idea.  Easy Access, Video Keyboard and CloseView
are parts of the "Universal Access" tools for disabled users.  Some
programs written before these were released (and some after, it would
seem) have compatibility problems with some of these tools.

"Easy Access" provides "sticky keys" and "keyboard mouse" capabilities
for the ROM 01 (they are built into the ROM 03).  Certain programs
have problems with Easy Access installed: anything which waits for a
keypress with interrupts disabled will cause the computer to hang so
hard that you have to switch it off.  [Easy Access intercepts all
keypresses (including Ctrl-Reset) using interrupts, before they get to
the normal keyboard location.]

"CloseView" is an NDA which provides a magnifying glass on the Super
Hi-Res graphics desktop.  You can select a magnification factor, and a
large rectangle follows the mouse around the screen, enlarging
everything in the vicinity.  CloseView does this by getting the
application to draw on the "shadowed" Super Hi-Res screen, and copying
the appropriate portions to the real screen.  Some applications bend
the rules for accessing screen memory, and the effect is a "smearing"
when the mouse is moved.

"Video Keyboard" is an NDA which lets you type keys by clicking on an
on-screen keyboard.  It is always in front of the frontmost window.
Some programs write directly to the screen without checking for
clipping, and Video Keyboard gets "drawn over".  (I haven't seen this
with any software I use).

Note that none of these are "bugs" - the Universal Access tools work
perfectly, provided applications obey Apple's rules for accessing the
keyboard and screen.

The only solution to the conflicts with Easy Access and CloseView are
to remove them, or to avoid the programs which have problems.

It sounds like the ORCA/Pascal sample code is taking some shortcuts.
Which program was it?  The first example I can see is "Spiral" (page 30
in the ORCA/Pascal 2.0 manual).

I wasn't aware that "graphics" programs (StartGraph/EndGraph) used the
mouse at all.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand