Multiple Keypress/release problems.

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

I've been writing a simple split-screen two/three/four player game where each
player uses a few of the keys on the keyboard to control a character in the game.
I was checking key presses and releases to allow multiple keys to be held down
at one time.

I find that the program doesn't see certain keys when certain combinations
of others are depressed.  I've been using GLUT but I don't think this is
GLUT-related because I can reproduce the problem in a simple X-term window.

You can try this right now in any text window:

    Press and hold 'a' and 'w' and then tap the 's' key repeatedly.
    You'll notice that the 's' key doesn't produce an echo - neither
   does the 'q' key.  Most other keys work just fine - only 'q' and
   's' are blocked?!?

You can easily find other combinations that don't work.

Is this a Linux keyboard driver thing - or an X-windows issue or just a
hardware limitation of the PC keyboard?  I've tried this both on my no-name
ergonomic keyboard and on my laptop's keyboard - the effect is the same on
each of them.

I've tried doing things like turning off the key-autorepeat - no effect.

So, my questions:

* Is there a software fix for this?

* Does anyone know the rules that determine which keys will work with which
  key combinations?  Maybe I can work around it by picking just the right
  set of keys.

----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
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