Very Computer

by **Tony Hamilt** » Sun, 12 Sep 1993 07:42:03

Am using dBase v1.1 for Unix, but believe this may still be a problem in
all versions, including 2.0 for DOS. I _need_ to trap escapes while in a
READ or EDIT. If you read the manual on ON ESCAPE, it specifically states
that this does not work in READs. Looking through Borland's TechFax on this
subject, they maintain that this is a valuable _feature_, since of _course_
you wouldn't want to disable the functionality of escape. The article
discusses how to trap things like PG-DOWN and so forth in READs, but
basically infers that ESCAPE will always break out of a READ without saving
the changes in the current record.

I've tried playing with SET ESCAPE ON, SET ESCAPE OFF, and a number of
other things. Why do I want to do this? Because, when the user hits ESC while
in a form, I want to _warn_ them that their changes will be lost, and give
them the option of escaping. DOS users may not appreciate this, but in Unix,
everyone is used to using the ESC key in the vi editor to be able to save
their document. I have a large body of Unix users who are instinctively
hitting ESC after they are done editing a form, only to find all their
changes lost.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tony Hamilton

by **Doug** » Mon, 13 Sep 1993 12:51:35

>Am using dBase v1.1 for Unix, but believe this may still be a problem in
>all versions, including 2.0 for DOS. I _need_ to trap escapes while in a
>READ or EDIT. If you read the manual on ON ESCAPE, it specifically states
>that this does not work in READs. Looking through Borland's TechFax on this
>subject, they maintain that this is a valuable _feature_, since of _course_
>you wouldn't want to disable the functionality of escape. The article
>discusses how to trap things like PG-DOWN and so forth in READs, but
>basically infers that ESCAPE will always break out of a READ without saving
>the changes in the current record.

>I've tried playing with SET ESCAPE ON, SET ESCAPE OFF, and a number of
>other things. Why do I want to do this? Because, when the user hits ESC while
>in a form, I want to _warn_ them that their changes will be lost, and give
>them the option of escaping. DOS users may not appreciate this, but in Unix,
>everyone is used to using the ESC key in the vi editor to be able to save
>their document. I have a large body of Unix users who are instinctively
>hitting ESC after they are done editing a form, only to find all their
>changes lost.

>Thanks in advance for any help.

>Tony Hamilton

I use the function LASTKEY() to trap the ESCAPE key and many other keyboards
combination after the READ command. Here is an example, with the ESC key
being the ASCII number of 27:

READ
if lastkey() = 27
do got_esc
endif

Very Computer

Trapping ESCAPE in dBase

Trapping ESCAPE in dBase

Trapping ESCAPE in dBase