Re: keyboard hexadecimal key representations

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Charles Rogers wrote:

> I am looking for a document that will give me all of the keystroke
> hexadecimal representations for a 5250 emulation keyboard (client access
> express or client access).
> If anyone has any knowledge of this please reply promptly.  Thank you.
> 

I'm sorry, but "hexidecimal representations for a 5250 emulation keyboard"
is very vague.   (Would these codes be any less useful if I gave them
to you in decimal or binary?!)


The AS/400 doesn't directly read a keyboard.   The terminal reads the 
keyboards and assembles a buffer of fields that needs to be sent back
to the AS/400.

The PC keyboard reports 'scan codes' of each key to the PC's operating
system.  The operating system then forwards these scan codes to whichever
window or session is currently selected.   If that window is Client
Access, it reads the scan codes, and generates the appropriate codes
to send to the AS/400.

There are 3 basic types of keys that are dealt with:

   -- 'normal' keys are A-Z, 1-9, punctuation symbols, etc.
        These are simply added to the field buffer for whichever
        field you're typing in.

   -- 'cursor' keys that control cursor movement.  Such as the 
        arrow keys, backspace, tab, etc.   These are not reported
        to the AS/400, though the terminal does report what position
        on the screen you left off in.   The main use of the cursor
        keys is to move the cursor to another field, so that when you
        hit your next 'normal' key, it goes into the correct buffer
        for the correct field.

    -- 'AID' generating keys.   These are keys like F1-F24, Attn, 
        SysReq, Print, etc.  When an AID generating key is pressed,
        the system will send the appropriate AID code back to the 
        AS/400.   


You can find detailed information on the 5250 protocol in the 
"5494 Functions Reference" manual at this URL:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com:80/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/CO2E2001/CCONTENTS

(In particular, you may want to look at "Topic 16: Keyboard Functions")



If you just want to look at the possible EBCDIC codes, you might check
the 'AS/400 International Application Development' manual:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/QB3AQ501/CCONTENTS

(In particular, look at "Appendix F: Code Pages")



Also, more code page info, as well as keyboard layouts can be found 
in the 'National Language Support' manual:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/QB3AWC01/CCONTENTS


If this seems like "too much information" or "too complicated" then
perhaps next time you'll explain what you're trying to accomplish, and
give some detail!!  That way, maybe someone could directly tell you
what you need to do, instead of explain the entire story behind how
keyboards work!



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