=====Creating a keyboard accelerator table from a resource=====

//by Jon Ripley, August 2007//\\ \\  The normal method of checking for keyboard hot keys is to use [[http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/manual/bbcwin5.html#inkeyminus|INKEY]] with a negative argument:

<code bb4w> 
          SYS "GetForegroundWindow" TO hWnd%
          IF hWnd% = @hwnd% THEN
            IF INKEY-2 THEN
              IF INKEY-86 THEN PROCnew  :REM Ctrl+N
              IF INKEY-55 THEN PROCopen :REM Ctrl+O
            ENDIF
            REM ...
          ENDIF
</code>

However there may be circumstances where you want to use an accelerator table that has already been designed and its template is contained as a //resource// within a DLL or EXE file. In that case you can create the accelerator table in your program using the resource data. The code example below uses the accelerator table from the resource data for the BB4W IDE (in BBCWIN.EXE or BBCWDEM.EXE):

<code bb4w>
        REM Acquire handle to BBCWIN.EXE or BBCWDEM.EXE
        SYS "GetModuleHandle", 0 TO hmod%

        REM Load the accelerator table
        SYS "LoadAccelerators", hmod%, "BBCWIN" TO hAccel%
        SYS "CopyAcceleratorTable", hAccel%, 0, 0 TO nAccel%
        DIM ACCEL{(nAccel% - 1) fVirt&, _&, key{l&,h&}, cmd{l&,h&}}
        SYS "CopyAcceleratorTableA", hAccel%, ACCEL{(0)}, nAccel%

        REM Virtual key to -ve INKEY conversion table
        DIM vTable(255)
        vTable() = 0, -10, -12,   0, -11,   0,   0,   0, -48, -97,   0,   0,   0, -74,   0,   0, \
        \         -1,  -2,  -3,   0, -65,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,-113,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \        -99, -64, -79,-106, -63, -26, -58,-122, -42,   0,   0,   0, -33, -62, -90,   0, \
        \        -40, -49, -50, -18, -19, -20, -53, -37, -22, -39,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0, -66,-101, -83, -51, -35, -68, -84, -85, -38, -70, -71, -87,-102, -86, -55, \
        \        -56, -17, -52, -82, -36, -54,-100, -34, -67, -69, -98,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \       -107,-108,-125,-109,-123,-124, -27, -28, -43, -44, -92, -59, -61, -60, -77, -75, \
        \       -114,-115,-116, -21,-117,-118, -23,-119,-120, -31, -29, -30,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \        -78, -32,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \         -4,  -7,  -5,  -8,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0, \
        \          0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0,   0

        ON CLOSE SYS "DestroyAcceleratorTable", hAccel%:QUIT

        REPEAT
          click% = 0
          ON SYS click% = @wparam%:RETURN

          REPEAT
            REM Scan through accelerator table looking for matches
            SYS "GetForegroundWindow" TO hWnd%
            IF hWnd% = @hwnd% THEN
              FOR i% = 0 TO nAccel% - 1
                IF -(4*INKEY-3 + 2*INKEY-2 + INKEY-1) = (ACCEL{(i%)}.fVirt&>>2) THEN
                  IF INKEYvTable(ACCEL{(i%)}.key.l&) THEN
                    IF ACCEL{(i%)}._& = 0 THEN
                      SYS "SendMessage", @hwnd%, 273, ACCEL{(i%)}.cmd.l&+256*ACCEL{(i%)}.cmd.h&, 0
                      ACCEL{(i%)}._& = 1
                    ENDIF
                  ELSE
                    ACCEL{(i%)}._& = 0
                  ENDIF
                ENDIF
              NEXT i%
            ENDIF

            WAIT 1
          UNTIL click%

          REM Handle events...
          PRINT "click% = ";click%
        UNTIL FALSE
</code>

Naturally this code will only run within the **BB4W IDE**, because if compiled to an executable file the accelerator table resource data will not be present.\\ \\  To load an accelerator table from a different file (for example a DLL) then replace the call to "GetModuleHandle" with a call to "LoadLibrary" as follows:

<code bb4w>
        SYS "LoadLibrary", "EXAMPLE.DLL" TO hmod%
</code>

When the program ends all accelerator tables must be destroyed using code similar to the following. Here **hAccel%** is the handle to the accelerator table:

<code bb4w>
        SYS "DestroyAcceleratorTable", hAccel%
</code>