Program: ADDKEYS.COM

Author: Herb Kleinman

Access: PC Computing, June 1990

Purpose: To utilize the F11 and F12 keys that DOS forgot


Though DOS does not respond to pressing the F11 and F12 keys, the
following DEBUG program circumvents this shortcoming. Enter the following
commands in DEBUG (or save them in an ASCII file and execute with the
command DEBUG < filename.ext) to create a small RAM-resident utility
called ADDKEYS.COM:


N ADDKEYS.COM
E 0100 EB 25 00 00 00 00 9C 80
E 0108 FC 01 77 15 80 C4 10 9D
E 0110 9C 2E FF 1E 02 01 9C 3C
E 0118 E0 75 02 32 C0 9D CA 02
E 0120 00 9D 2E FF 2E 02 01 B8
E 0128 16 35 CD 21 89 1E 02 01
E 0130 8C 06 04 01 B8 16 25 BA
E 0138 06 01 CD 21 BA 27 01 CD
E 0140 27
RCX
0041
W
Q


ADDKEYS changes DOS's way of handling the keyboard, adding support for
F11 and F12 to the keys DOS recognizes. The simplest way to use ADDKEYS is
to place it in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, where it is loaded when you boot up.
To trap presses of F11 and F12 use the following keycodes:


F11 0;133
F12 0;134
Shift-F11 0;135
Shift-F12 0;136
Ctrl-F11 0;137
Ctrl-F12 0;138
Alt-F11 0;139
Alt-F12 0;140


Thus, PROMPT $E[0;133;"CLS$_"p will assign the CLS command to F11 when
you are on the DOS command line (providing, of course, ANSI.SYS is installed
in your CONFIG.SYS). Another method of assignment is through the ECHO
command. Thus, echo [0;133;"DIR";13p will assign the DIR command to F11
when you are on the command line. The symbol "" is ESC or 27. The "0"
references the keyboard, while 133 references F11. As you can figure out,
"DIR" is the command you assign to the afore mentioned key. The "13p" is
optional, for it is a carriage return .

One note: ADDKEYS will work with most enhanced keyboards, but not all.
If you have added a 101-keyboard to an XT clone or to a machine with an
outdated BIOS, ADDKEYS may freeze the keyboard. If it does, just reboot
from a floppy and remove ADDKEYS from your AUTOEXEC.BAT.





ADDENDUM by Floyd D. Barber


Enclosed in this package (ADDKEYS.ZIP) you should find:

ADDKEYS.COM - COM file used to enable F11 and F12 keys
ADDKEYS.DBG - Source listing to be fed to DEBUG
ADDKEYS.DOC - The documentation file you are now reading
AK.BAT - Assign commands to F11 and F12 keys
FKMENU.BAT - An easy way to display a menu of your function keys


To utilize ADDKEYS.COM you need to assign commands to each key. After
installing ANSI.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS, determine which key will issue
each command. For our examples, we will only talk about the F11 and the F12
keys. You could use these examples to build the other function keys to give
you a total 48 commands in your arsenal. AK.BAT can be directly installed in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT or called externally. Let us look at AK.BAT:

echo off <-- "@echo off" for DOS 3.3+ or greater

echo
echo F11 and F12 Activated
echo
echo [0;133;"DIR";13p
echo [0;134;"MENU";13p
echo [0;140;"FKMENU";13p

As you can see we assigned only 3 out of the 8 possible commands to
the F11 and F12 function keys. By pressing F11, you send the DIR command.
By pressing F12, you sent the command to select your MENU program. When
you select F12, you display a Function Key MENU. The Function Key
MENU (FKMENU.BAT) has been supplied as an example in this package. Each
of these commands should be available through DOS's PATH command unless you
specify the complete path in the command assignment.

The FKMENU.BAT, in our example, is called when the F12 keys are
pressed. This provides you with an easy reference of your function key
commands. To modify, use a ASCII editor and go at it. Here is a look at
FKMENU:



F11 and F12 MENU

F11 - Dir/p
Shift F11 -
Ctrl F11 -
Alt F11 -

F12 - MENU
Shift F12 -
Ctrl F12 -
Alt F12 - FKMENU

Undefined -

Info-Base Systems
Waldorf, MD 1990



All batch files are setup for DOS 3.3+ or greater. If you wish to
use these batch files on anything less, please remove the "@" at the
beginning of each batch file. In DOS 3.3+ or greater, the "@" cancels
any echo to the screen for that line. This creates a more professional
appearance.

Hopefully, you will find many useful and time-saving ways to implement
ADDKEYS.COM and the batch files presented here. An excellent reference for
mapping function keys, and other keys, is Supercharging MS-DOS by Van
Wolverton.

Enjoy!

FDB 1990