Re: Keycodes that might be appropriate here...

From: Russ Holsclaw (russ_at_holsclaw.nyet)
Date: 05/13/04 

Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 16:26:59 -0600

"YYZ" <notapplicable> wrote in message
news:ONHUZySOEHA.3744@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> What would be a good "start of transmission" one character delimeter that
won't
> interfere with other things on a computer when sent via SendKeys? I need
2 of
> them -- one for start and one for end (yeah, I could get away with one,
but I
> would prefer different characters for each. Chr$(1) and Chr$(2)? That's
the
> basic question. Here's the long explanation.
>
> Strange situation, but please give some thoughts if you feel so inclined.
>
> There is a 3rd party application that our company uses for doing what we
call
> takeoff. Takeoff is basically measuring the lengths of walls on blue
prints and
> turning that into lineal footages. So, I'd look at my blueprints, and
measure
> all of the outside walls, and that would end up being 400 LF for example.
>
> How our estimators do this is by laying all the plans out on a digitizer
(big
> flat thing connected via serial port) and marking the start and stop
point of
> wall segments. We have a 3rd party app that takes that distance, applies
a
> scale to it, and comes up with LF.
>
> The estimator then presses a special button on their menu card (don't get
bogged
> down on that) and the 3rd party program uses findwindow api (I'm
assuming) and
> sendkeys to send that value to our application, into the active control
(in this
> case it is a cell in far point grid, but it can also be a textbox or any
control
> that takes user input).
>
> Now we have a chance to have the 3rd party programmers create a set of
special
> functions just for our company. So, we have decided that we'd like to
receive
> the data from this other app in this kind of form:
>
> (special delimeter)#A#R#S(special delimeter). The # means any number --
123.34
> for example. The A, R and S are Add, Replace, and Subtract respectively.
>
> For the special delimeters, I'm wondering what characters to use. I'd
like to
> use a different one for starting and ending (so it's easier on us to know
> exactly what's happening), and I want to make SURE that I don't use
characters
> that will confuse Windows. For example, previously, they were using F10
as one
> of the delimeters (in a different kind of text sending scheme), which
will
> possibly mess up an application that has a File menu. Doesn't F10 put
the focus
> on the File menu if one exists? I kind of remember that...
>
> Anyone have any ideas for me on this?
>
> Thanks in advance for any responses.

Doesn't DDE work anymore? That kind of application is what it was for. I
know .net doesn't support it, but vb6 still does.