XyWin, Note Bene, ECCO and misc.

NASSH100@SIVM.SI.EDU
9 Jun 94 09:32 EDT

The following takes up in the middle of a conversation between me and
Jack Shafer on problems getting XyWIN to work perfectly with other
windows programs that use the Windows clipboard as an intermediary. In
my case ECCO 2.0, his case Random House Dictionary.... Apparently the way
XyWIN accesses the Windows clipboard is nonstandard enough to spook some
other applications. We suspect it is possible to redefine certain keys
in XyWin so as to satisfy the requirements of the external programs. We
are stumbling a bit however.

Please feel free to jump in and straighten us out.

Allan Needell, Dept. of Space History, Nat'l Air & Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution, MRC 311, Washington, DC 20560
i: nassh100@sivm.si.edu; b: nassh100@sivm; CServe: 71461,1115
tel 202/357-2828; fax 202/786-2947
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
To: SHAFER --CMSNAMES

From: Allan Needell
Subject: XyWin, Note Bene, ECCO and misc.

Jack,

I played around a little last night with some success, but like you, not
complete. The keyboard entry 00=JM,(C,o,p,y,) does indeed copy selected
text to the Windows clipboard. 00=JM,(,P,a,s,t,e) moves the contents of
the clipboard into Xywin. My problem is that even if I assign these
function calls to Cntrl-Insert and Shift-Insert (one of the keyboard
shortcuts recognized by the ECCO Shooter, I still can't seem to move
text from Xywrite to Ecco. (It moves text the other way fine). I can do
it in a two step process (copy and then paste into ECCO) but the nice
thing about shooter is its supposed to work with one step.

Let me give a try at explaining what's going on. (Obviously my knowledge
is far from complete). With the keyboard assignment 32=DW,JM,(,C,o,p,y,)
when you press that key, the following happens:

1) The DW (define word) function call is executed, i.e. the word the
cursor is on is selected.

2) The JM (jump to menu item) function all is executed. The JM call
needs and argument. In the keyboard arguments must be spelled out one
letter at a time (separated by commas). (In an xpl program you would
omit the commas.) The argument "Copy" tells XYWIN to execute that part
of the Menu File labeled "Copy." Clearly the Menu file associates
instructions to copy selected text to the Windows clipboard with the
label "Copy".

As for 00=DW,MW, c,p,KP, that's clearly a mistake.

MW is like JM and tells XYWIN to execute the Windows function described
in the following argument. Like JM, it requires and argument. cp is the
argument for copy to clipboard, pa pastes from clipboard.

What this suggests is we should try: 00=DW,MW,(,c,p,)

I simply have not had the time to try it. It should work. But what
function call is KP? It is not listed in any of the manuals I have.

PS: I hope you won't mind if I post this (with a little introduction) on
the xywrite list as well. Maybe someone there will jump in.)

Allan Needell, Dept. of Space History, Nat'l Air & Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution, MRC 311, Washington, DC 20560
i: nassh100@sivm.si.edu; b: nassh100@sivm; CServe: 71461,1115
tel 202/357-2828; fax 202/786-2947