Help me teach my laptop to speak VT100

October 11, 2006 5:08 PM

How do I map VT100 keys (PF1 to PF4) to the function keys on my laptop keyboard?

I really hope the Hive Mind can help me with this one...

As part of my job I need to connect to a fairly old computer system that uses the VT100 "PF" keys for a number of functions. To connect to this system while on the road, I need to connect using Remote Desktop to a Windows server, and then run the terminal emulation software (WRQ Reflection) on the remote system. I'm using a Fujitsu P1120 laptop, if it matters.

Everything works fine except my laptop keyboard doesn't have "PF" keys. How do I map the PF1 to PF4 functions to my laptop keyboard? I'd like "Alt-F1" to equate to PF1, "Alt-F2" to PF2, and so on. Is there some software I can install on the laptop to accomplish this?

I hope the question makes sense - if not please ask.

posted by gwenzel to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: Page 51 of the VT Terminal Reference Manual: "This control function is linked to the Keypad options in the Terminal keys group box on the Keyboard tab of the Terminal Setup dialog box."

PDF manual is on this page:
http://support.wrq.com/manuals/reflection.html
posted by jdfan at 5:31 PM on October 11, 2006

do you have to do remote desktop to log in to the mainframe? if not there are a lot of terminal emulators out there (like the wonderful putty) that let you control how keys are mapped.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 5:31 PM on October 11, 2006

Response by poster: sergeant sandwich: yup, gotta log into the server first before connecting, unfortunately.

jdfan: I was expecting to have to change something locally on the laptop, not in the Reflection settings, but that was exactly what I needed! Thanks!
posted by gwenzel at 6:03 PM on October 11, 2006