Right Alt key not recognised

[russelledwards]

When I use the right Alt key, it is ignored. Keyboard input is recognized as if the Alt key was not pressed

Within my programming environment (Powerbasic) the INKEY$ command returns a 1 or 2 character string for the key combination pressed

Eg:

A = ASCII 65

B = ASCII 66

Left Alt-A = ASCII 0,30

Left Alt-B = ASCII 0,48

but

Right Alt-A = ASCII 65
Right Alt-B = ASCII 66

Eg: The left Alt key is recognized, but not the right Alt key

I'm using the US keyboard within Windows

Can this be corrected/mapped with the KEYCODE command within CONFIG.TXT ?

Thanks

[Jos]

Could you download vDosSetup once more and install vDos.
The initial 2021.05.01 release had a mishap with right Alt key combinations.
Eventually use attached DOS program SCODE.COM to verify those.

Jos

Attachments:

SCODE.COM (2.97 KB)

[russelledwards]

Thanks for the reply Jos

I downloaded the latest version from your Home page, and installed, but the same thing is happening. I also compared the .exe before and after, and they are the same

I've attached a screen shot of SCODE

The first 3 lines are the keys ABC without any Alt keys

The next 3 lines are using the LeftAlt key

The last 3 lines are using the RightAlt key

I hope this helps

Thanks

Attachments:

[Jos]

Seems related to the input language of the keyboard.

Dutch works fine, except of course some key combinations produce extended ASCII codes.
English, the On-Screen Keyboard shows both Alt keys pressed. And seemingly Windows reports an ASCII or Unicode if the right Alt key is pressed. Will look into that.

Jos

[Jos]

The problem was caused by a fix for keyboards (like Nordic) that produce standard ASCII characters for some Right Alt key combinations.

vDos previously tested if Windows returns an Unicode that resolves to a supported extended ASCII character.
If not, Alt+key was reported to DOS, else the extended ASCII character.

That of course didn’t work with those keyboards returning standard ASCII characters. That was then fixed.
Windows however returns an Unicode with US keyboards. Don’t know why it does so, but I excluded US keyboards from this testing procedure.

Jos

[kostas]

Hello Russelledwards and Jos!
I was sure that there would be another report (besides my own) about the ALT keys.
The curious thing is that this time it happens with the right ALT.

[Jos]

As said, the right Alt has some extra code to deal with specific circumstances where vDos should report a standard ASCII value instead of the Alt key combination. With the exception of the US keyboard now added.

I was unable to reproduce your issue with the left Alt by setting the keyboard layout to Greek - 220L.

Jos

[kostas]

Do not grieve dear Jos. I am sure that a solution will be found!