Using the keyboard, mouse, screen, and sound

Contents

• Overview
• Using the PC keyboard
• Other special hardware features
• Using the screen and mouse
• Using sound

Overview

The Emulator allows users to use the PC’s keyboard, mouse, screen, and sound facilities as if they were the real input and output devices of a target machine. This section describes these facilities.

Using the PC keyboard

The keyboard on your PC is similar to, but not the same as, that used on keyboard-equipped EPOC devices. The following table shows some special extra key assignments implemented by the Emulator:

SHIFT, CTRL and Fn are the EPOC modifier keys. Because target machines will almost always have fewer keys than a PC keyboard, EPOC programs should not rely on combinations such as Fn+PgUp, since PgUp may itself be implemented using Fn+Up.

The Menu key is not a modifier.

Note that the Windows locale keyboard setting will be translated by the Emulator into the equivalent EPOC locale.

Other special hardware features

Special features typical of EPOC devices are also available when developing using the EPOC Emulator, through special key assignments.

Removable media support is simulated by two files in the PC’s temp directory, each representing one PC-Card device. Pressing F5 simulates opening the door, and pressing F4 while the door is open switches between the two simulated devices. When the Emulator is started, each device is equivalent to an empty, unformatted, volume. An F32 client under WINS may access the removable media using the EPOC y: drive.

Additionally, the Emulator is able to mimic the three external dictating machine buttons found on the underside of Psion Series 5 devices using special key assignments.

Automatic power-off — for example after a set time — is also simulated. The Emulator application minimises itself; restoring the application causes an EPOC power-on to be simulated.

Using the screen and mouse

The Emulator window shows the screen on an EPOC device, with a sidebar to the left-hand-side, and a taskbar below.

EPOC devices often have touch-sensitive screens. To simulate a tap on the EPOC screen, use the PC mouse. Only the left button is supported.

The touch-sensitive area is extended beyond the LCD area of the screen, to include a sidebar and a taskbar. Use the sidebar to invoke the menu, edit, infrared or zooming functions; use the taskbar to launch or switch between applications:

• the System icon brings you to the permanently-running System shell, which allows you to navigate around EPOC’s folders and files, and to launch a file by pressing enter, or tapping, on a selected file; also, the System application includes a control panel which can be used to inspect and change various system settings
• the Word, Sheet, Data, Agenda, Time, Calc and Sketch icons allow you to either launch the corresponding application if it is not already running, or switch to the application if it is already open but you are in a different application, or to switch between instances of the application if multiple instances are open
• the Extras icon causes other application icons to slide up onto the screen, where they can be selected as if they were part of the permanent, off-screen, taskbar
• press Ctrl while tapping on System, to see a list of currently-running programs

Using sound

The Emulator can drive the PC’s sound facilities to emulate sound functionality on a target machine. The PC setup should be as follows:

• a sound card supporting 16-bit PCM with the appropriate driver installed
• the Microsoft CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC installed in the Audio Compression Codecs section of the Devices page on the Multimedia Control Panel applet