[comp.sys.next] Command-Arrow_Keys

gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn) (06/21/91)

dwatola@NEXTASY2.EECS.WSU.EDU (David Watola) writes:
> Eric P. Scott writes:
>  |Command-. is "magic"--intercepted very early on.
> 
> actually, if you are very bold and daring (and possibly a little
> stupid :-) ) you can get rid of this interception.   my guess is
> (i have not actually tried this.  i don't plan to--i'm not willing
> to take the risk) that all you need to do is change the /_handleCommand
> routine in /usr/lib/NeXTstep/windowPackage.ps.  this routine is
> the part of the window server code responsible for squirreling away
> command-. and taking care of command-uparrow and command-downarrow.

While the idea of intercepting the command-. key sequence seems like an  
*extremely* silly thing to do, the above did remind me of something else I  
wanted.  It'd be nice (perhaps) if command-right_arrow and command-left_arrow  
cycled you thru the windows of the active application.  Basically I want what  
option-right_arrow and option-left_arrow do in Stuart, but I want that for all  
applications.

Would that be easy to do?  Anybody else think it would be worth doing?
 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
Garance Alistair Drosehn   = gad@rpi.edu  or  gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer                       (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;  Troy NY  USA

dwatola@nextasy2 (David Watola) (06/22/91)

Garance A. Drosehn write (regarding my description of modifying
/usr/lib/NextStep/windowPackage.ps)

> 
> While the idea of intercepting the command-. key sequence seems like an  
> *extremely* silly thing to do, the above did remind me of something else I  
> wanted.  It'd be nice (perhaps) if command-right_arrow and command-left_arrow  
> cycled you thru the windows of the active application.  Basically I want what  
> option-right_arrow and option-left_arrow do in Stuart, but I want that for  
all  
> applications.
> 
> Would that be easy to do?  Anybody else think it would be worth doing?

i have been told by someone who has done this that you CAN do this.  you
can change windowPackage.ps to change the interface.  he recommends that you
back it up and have a terminal on the serial port to recover from crashes.  i  
suspect that rebooting in single-user mode (console mode) would allow you
to fix it though.

as for changing so the arrows only cycle through the windows of the
active application, i suspect this is easy as changing the line 

true 0 /getWindows winexec

in the /_handleCommand routine of windowPackage.ps to something like

true currentcontext /getWindows winexec

since the zero means "check all contexts."

hey, if anybody tries this, please let me know.  even if the results are  
catastrophic ;)


dave watola
dwatola@nextasy2.eecs.wsu.edu
dwatola@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu