In QB.EXE 4.5 on Tandy 1000 SX, \ Key Acts Like HOME Key (39732)

SUMMARY

It has been reported that the Tandy 1000 SX with a standard keyboard does not work correctly with the QuickBasic version 4.5 editor or the QBX.EXE environment provided with Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) version 7.0. The BACKSLASH (\) key, which is needed to specify a directory path, does not function correctly. Instead, the BACKSLASH key acts the same as a HOME key.

According to reports, the BACKSLASH key works correctly in QuickBasic versions 4.0 and 4.0b on the Tandy 1000 SX.

It has also been reported that the pipe character (|), which is the same as SHIFT+BACKSLASH, does not work correctly in the QB.EXE environment of QuickBasic 4.5 or in the QBX.EXE environment of Basic PDS version 7.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Tandy has supplied a keyboard driver with Tandy DOS version 3.2 that corrects this problem. It converts the scan code of the key pressed to the IBM standard scan code. The driver can be installed by placing the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file if the file KEYCNVRT.SYS is in the root directory:

device=KEYCNVRT.SYS

If it is in a subdirectory, you must supply a full pathname, or move the file to the root directory. After the CONFIG.SYS file is modified, restart the computer.

Note: This KEYCNVRT.SYS is applicable only to Tandy DOS.

To work around this problem, if you have a Tandy 1000 with PC-DOS or MS-DOS, press ALT+Keypad 92 (where NUM LOCK must be active) to type a backslash character in the QB.EXE editor. (The ASCII value for a backslash is 92. You can create an ASCII character by pressing up to three digits on the numeric keypad while holding down the ALT key.)

To get a pipe character (|), press ALT+Keypad 124 (where NUM LOCK must be active).

One customer found that with a Tandy 1000 laptop, with the KEYCNVRT.SYS driver installed, he had to use CTRL+SHIFT+[A,S,D,F,E,C] to select (highlight) text. (The Tandy 1000 has nondedicated cursor keys.) Before the KEYCNVRT.SYS driver was installed, the customer could not access the backslash (\) key (such as for DOS path names and Basic integer division), but could select text with the normal SHIFT+ARROW key combination.