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First post, by lighningjoe

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Help! DOSBox just blew up my homebrew, and half the block! (Maybe using nitroglycerin in my cooling system wasn't such a good idea...) Just kidding! Just kidding!

System:

Homebrew w/ ASUS A7N8X-E MB, 2.2 gHz Athlon, 512 mb ram, WinXP Pro, Microsoft wireless natural kbd

Application:

Running DOSBox for a legacy word processor called VDE (BOTP!). VDE is largely written in assembler. Also using Norton Commander, Webster spell check, and the CtrlCaps utility inside DOSBox. CtrlCaps converts the capslock into a Ctrl key. I'm having DOSBox run an autoexec.bat to load these. Trying to recreate TSR Heaven.

Problem:

The CtrlCaps-altered capslock key "sticks" ctrl on. That is, ctrl acts as a toggle, not an "active when pressed" key.

The "real" Ctrl key still acts properly, whether or not CtrlCaps is loaded. These symptoms occur when CtrlCaps is the only TSR running in the DOSBox, and also when either VDE or Norton Commander is the only app in the Box.

I could just (gasp!) not use CtrlCaps, but it adds a lot to the utility of the word processor (wordstar commands).

I've read the included lit, and perused the forums here, but no joy so far.

I know DOSBox itself uses Ctrl combos for its hotkeys. Is there a way to map THAT hotkey to something else? My brain boggled recursively at that point...

Thanks much for any ideas,

Reply 1 of 3, by dvwjr

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I still use VDE v1.64D from 1992 as a DOS-based simple text editor. I have the Wordstar command set hard-coded into my fingers. 😁

Since you are running WinXP, take a look at a SysInternals utility which will map the CAPSLOCK key to a Left CTRL key. This gives you a WordStar key board layout while retaining the original LeftCTRL key. The SysInternals guys now work for Microsoft so here is the current Ctrl2Caps link.

Hope this helps,

dvwjr

Reply 2 of 3, by lighningjoe

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Thanks for the response, I've been trying every combo i can think of in DOSBox's keymapper, but i can't get the key to act right. I'll read the link you gave me, but i don't have tools to compile anything modern (even though i've been building my own pc's for a long while, "jumped-up noob" is mostly what i am!)

Reply 3 of 3, by lighningjoe

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Hey, i didn't see the download link on that page. I went, i downloaded, i installed. And yay, it seems like the fix! Nothing like going to the source. Plus, my Ctrl key is now where it belongs, under my left pinky.

Right you are, about the vastly superior wordstar keybindings. I don't know or use them all, but they sure beat Ctrl-Alt-Space-F9, or whatever, for simple tasks, and they're much better than all that mousing and clicking.

Problem Solved. Thanks dvwjr!

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