Need to pass the "do key" running putty

[Joe Gibbens]

I have an application that requires the "do key" for input. Is there a way to send a custom character sequence in putty? I think the sequence is \x1b[29~.

[Hoff]

This isn't the best forum for PuTTY terminal emulator support, and (based on the lack of related details and the platform and PuTTY versions) the following assumes you're using Microsoft Windows with current PuTTY.

The DO key is a standard LK-series function key found on LK201 keyboard and the VT220 and later terminals, and specifically is the F16 key, and F16 is encoded as:

Esc [ 2 9 ~

That's the same as what you have, but with different formatting.

There's a whole pile of terminal documentation at the site:

http://vt100.net

Simplest: just send the character sequence. Escape is the ^[ control chord, and you can then key the rest in directly.

^[ [ 2 9 ~

Check with the PuTTY docs and the PuTTY folks, but Shift-Fn or Alt-Fn or ^Fn can tend to generate additional keys. When last I checked, this stuff worked, but it wasn't all that clearly documented. Not being a Windows user, I don't have a test case.

As an alternative, there's the VTstar terminal emulator on OpenVMS Freeware V7.0 distribution. That's the real VT terminal firmware, built as a Windows terminal emulator. And there are other emulators around, including the current Hilgreave Hyperterm package (the version that was baked into the older versions of Windows is buggy.)

[Graham Burley]

IIRC in Putty Shift+F6 is equivalent to DO / F16.

[John Gillings]

Joe,

I use PuTTY all the time, and use EVE as my editor, so the DO key is crucial. I'm assuming you're using a standard PC keyboard.

Go into the "PuTTY Reconfiguration" dialog, select "Terminal Keyboard" and set "The Function keys and keypad" to VT400. The DO key is then the "-" key on the top right hand corner of the numeric keypad. Be careful not to hit "Pause/Break" just above it - it's sent as ^Z.

I have VT400 saved in my "Default Settings" and propagated to all my saved sessions to OpenVMS hosts.

You may also want to find a copy of SET_TERM_INQUIRE.EXE to run in your LOGIN.COM so your PuTTY terminal size is read and sent to your terminal settings.