Re: Shift in GS/OS

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

In article <CEwFzp.J8w@eecs.nwu.edu> paulb@eecs.nwu.edu (Paul Brazis) writes:
> I doubt that it is an easter egg, since I found it on a Mac as well as a GS,
> but... when I repeatedly hit the <shift> button while in the Finder (I have
> GS/OS System 6), a little icon appears in the extreme upper right corner of
> the screen, in the menu bar. What does this do? It looks like a little basin,
> keep on hitting the shift, and an arrow appers. What is this for, and what
> are all the different "settings"?

That icon is caused by the "Easy Access" INIT.  Easy Access provides a
feature called "Sticky Keys".

Sticky Keys is most useful for a disabled person who can only type one
key at a time.  This make it rather hard for them to type key
combinations (such as Apple-Q).

With Easy Access installed, pressing the SHIFT key five times in a row
will enable Sticky Keys.  This causes the icon to appear.
                                 _   _
(It looks something like this:    |_|    )

Once Sticky Keys is enabled, any modifier key (shift, control, option
or apple) will remain "stuck" down if you press it once.  For example,
you can type Apple-Q by pressing the Apple key, releasing it, then
pressing Q.  This causes the Apple-Q sequence to be generated, and the
apple key is automatically released again.

When you press a modifier key once, a downward-pointing arrow appears
in the Sticky Keys icon.

If you press the same modifier key twice in a row, the key is "locked"
down.  This is useful if you need to type several shifted symbols in a
row, for example - press SHIFT SHIFT, then typing digits will give you
the !@#$%^&*() symbols instead.

A "locked" modifier key is indicated by a downward-pointing arrow
with a thick lower line.

Pressing the modifier key a third time releases the "lock".

Pressing SHIFT five times in a row turns Sticky Keys off again.

You can also disable Sticky Keys by typing a multiple-key combination
in the normal manner.

There is a minor bug in Easy Access on the ROM 03: the keyboard micro
recognises a multiple key combination, and turns off Sticky Keys, but
the INIT is not aware of it, and doesn't remove the icon from the menu
bar.  This can get very confusing.

I think it is handled correctly on a ROM 01 or on a Macintosh.



An aside: Easy Access also provides a keyboard mouse.  Enable it by
pressing Apple-Shift-Clear.  The numeric keypad can then be used to
control mouse movement.  '5' causes a click, '0' locks the mouse
button down, and '.' releases it.  The 'clear' key turns keyboard
mouse off again.

The other keys on the numeric keypad control the second mouse button
(not supported by any software), change the movement increment, etc.

There is no on-screen indication that keyboard mouse is active.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand