[comp.sys.atari.st] Phantom typist and mystic

jvt@its.bt.co.uk (John Trickey) (12/14/90)

In article <1990Dec18.050211.21559@watmath.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) writes:
>
>I had not seen the Phantom Typist for quite some time.  But recently I
>saw that there was a new version of Time-Drive, so I installed
>"timedrv5.prg".  Within 10 minutes, I found keys that got stuck "on".

I too have recently re-discovered the Typist - or at least I think it is.
I occasionally use mystic to format higher capacity disks when I don't
want doMeSDOS (is that a UK joke) compatibility. I have found that
mouse movement too soon after clicking the format button causes a
key down fault.  This appears to be the ESC key as the directory
windows are updated although pressing any key will stop the problem.
This is 100% reproducable on my system and does not seem to require
the presence of any other accessory.  As yet my cure is to count to 5
before moving the mouse - but if those chasing this bug want more info
I will look at it more seriously (by email please).

John


-- 
John Trickey <jvt@its.bt.co.uk> || ..!mcsun!ukc!axion!its
              G4REV @ GB7SUT      Voice: +44 21 333 3369
#include <std/disclaimer>

ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) (01/03/91)

jvt@its.bt.co.uk (John Trickey) writes:

- I too have recently re-discovered the Typist - or at least I think 
- it is.  I occasionally use mystic to format higher capacity disks 
- when I don't want doMeSDOS (is that a UK joke) compatibility. I have
- found that mouse movement too soon after clicking the format button
- causes a key down fault.  This appears to be the ESC key as the
- directory windows are updated although pressing any key will stop 
- the problem.  This is 100% reproducable on my system and does not 
- seem to require the presence of any other accessory.  As yet my cure
- is to count to 5 before moving the mouse - but if those chasing this
- bug want more info I will look at it more seriously (by email please). 

This occurs not only with Mystic, but with all, if not most, desk 
accessories using the pseudo-multitasking feature.  I have 
experienced the repeated key syndrome while uploading with STalker, 
the do-everything-in-the-background desk accessory terminal program by
Eric Rosenquist, and typing in a text editor like STeno, which comes 
with STalker.  (No, Eric didn't pay me to say that.  He just writes 
great programs.)  I asked him about the problem and he's looked into 
it a lot, but hasn't found a cure.  It seems Atari hasn't been to 
helpful in discovering a cure, or even recognizing the problem.  If I 
remember correctly, it's the keyboard interrupt interfering with the
multitasking (is it 'evnt_multi' or something like that?).  He 
mentioned something about waiting for Doug Wheeler's (from Gadgets) 
routines from the Megatalk board, I think.  He said they should work 
right.  I'm not sure what correlation Megatalk board has with it, but 
it sounded promising. :^)  I asked Eric about this a while ago, so my 
memory about it is a little foggy.

-- 
         Ed Krimen  ...............................................
   |||   Video Production Major, California State University, Chico
   |||   INTERNET: ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu  FREENET: al661 
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