Re: [stella] Keyboard Controller layout

Subject: Re: [stella] Keyboard Controller layout
From: Manuel Polik <manuel.polik@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 10:19:48 +0100
kurt.woloch@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Each of the 9 upper keys has got 2 or 3 letters. If you press one quickly
> and repeatedly, it will give you the according letter. If you start to press
> another one, the letter will be taken and the next one will be generated. If
> you leave a pause before hitting the same button again, it will accept the
> last letter taken and start a new one. With the lower left button, you can
> toggle between upper and lower case, you could also implement punctuation
> characters as a third set (as it's done on MiniDisc recorders). The
> remaining two buttons could be used for, say, the "delete" option (deletes
> the last character entered) and the "finish" option (tells the 2600 that the
> text is finished).

Let me suggest even another thing:
The Layout would look something like this


ABCD  EDFG  HIJK

LMNO  PQRS  TUVW

 XYZ  /?$"  @+-\

left  righ  <CR>

Basically it goes like this:
- You need _no_ send button, but a cursor on screen.
- Pressing the First button once will display 'A' immediately at cursor
position.
- The cursor won't move though.
- Pressing the first button a second time will then change the 'A' to
the 'B'.
- With repeated pressings you cycle through A>>B>>C>>D>>A>>B and so on.
- You just need a simple counter and 'AND #03' it in your code, when
having 4 values on each key :-)
- If another key is pressed, just reset the Counter. If it's the same,
increase it

The control is as simple as:
- Use left & right (Or Up & Down) to move the cursor to the next
position.
- Use <CR> to finish the entry.

To Erase a char:
- Move the cursor at the right position 
- Press key 7, It would cycle from BLANK>>X>>Y>>Z>>BLANK>>X ...

Another hint: 
- You can rearange the above layout a bit, for example starting the
fifth key with 'S' as it is statistically more often used than P,Q&R.

For The Cursor:
Just EOR #$FF The Graphics Data that paints the char where the cursor is
located.

Greetings,
     Manuel

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