File LK250.HLP LK250 KEYBOARD UTILITY January 1990 LK250.COM is a "device driver" for the DEC LK250 keyboard. This is a keyboard made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) which can be substituted for IBM's keyboard on IBM PC/ATs and compatibles. This program has no effect when run on original PCs and PC/Xts. Here's what LK250 does: 1) It allows the keyboard to be switched from DEC to IBM mode and back under program control. This replaces the "Press Alt-Special" mechanism provided by DEC. 2) It allows programs which call it to manipulate the state of the keyboard. Currently, MS-DOS Kermit only does this to set/clear the Hold Screen LED, so that the user can tell if s/he's in Hold Screen mode. 3) It intercepts certain key scancodes which normally can't be seen (like Num Lock) so that they can be used as DEC functions. LK250.COM controls the behavior of the top-row function keys and the two keypads on the right end of the keyboard. When LK250.COM is active, it puts your LK250 keyboard into "DEC" mode, meaning that the legends on the keytops apply, rather than the blue labels on the front of the keys. The blue labels correspond to IBM keys and functions. If LK250.COM is loaded, MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 will make use of it by putting the keyboard into DEC mode during terminal emulation (CONNECT), and returning it to IBM mode whenever terminal emulation ends. When LK250.COM is told to go into DEC mode by Kermit's CONNECT command then the scan codes of the DEC keys are mapped to the MS-DOS Kermit keyboard verbs of the same name as the DEC keys, so the keyboard appears to work like the regular LK201 DEC keyboard found on the VT200 and 300 series terminals. Here's the list of assignments when LK250.COM is active and the keyboard is in DEC mode: LK250 Key Assignment (Character or Kermit Verb) Compose Escape (\27) Main Keyboard Backspace DEL (\127) Shift-Backspace Backspace (\8) Return Carriage return (\13) Shift-Return Linefeed (\10) Tab Horizontal Tab (\9) F1 (Hold) \Kholdscrn Top Row Function Keys F2 (Print Screen) \Kprtscn F3 (Setup) (none) F4 (none) F5 (Break) \Kbreak F6 (Interrupt) \KdecF6 F7 (Resume) \KdecF7 F8 (Cancel) \KdecF8 F9 (Main Screen) \KdecF9 F10 (Exit) \KdecF10 F11 (ESC) \KdecF11 F12 (BS) \KdecF12 F13 (LF) \KdecF13 F14 (Insert/Overst) \KdecF14 F15 (Help) \KdecHelp F16 (Do) \KdecDo F17 \KdecF17 F18 \KdecF18 F19 \KdecF19 F20 \KdecF20 Find \KdecFind Cursor/select keypad (gray) Insert Here \KdecInsert Remove \KdecRemove Select \KdecSelect Prev \KdecPrev Next \KdecNext Up Arrow \Kuparr Left Arrow \Klfarr Right Arrow \Krtarr Down Arrow \Kdnarr PF1 (Gold) \Kgold Numeric keypad PF2 \Kpf2 PF3 \Kpf3 PF4 \Kpf4 Keypad 7 \Kkp7 Keypad 8 \Kkp8 Keypad 9 \Kkp9 Keypad - (Minus) \Kkpminus Keypad 4 \Kkp4 Keypad 5 \Kkp5 Keypad 6 \Kkp6 Keypad , (Comma) \Kkpcoma Keypad 1 \Kkp1 Keypad 2 \Kkp2 Keypad 3 \Kkp3 Keypad Enter \Kkpenter Keypad 0 \Kkp0 Keypad . (Period) \Kkpdot To install LK250.COM, just type "lk250" (this assumes that the file LK250.COM is in your current disk and directory or in your DOS path). You can also run LK250 from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file if you want it to be active all the time. To build LK250.COM from the assembly language source, see the instructions in the source file, LK250.ASM. The LK250 program was written in IBM PC assembly language and contributed to Kermit Distribution by Terry Kennedy, St. Peter's College, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA (TERRY@SPCVXA.BITNET), December 1989. End of File LK250.HLP.