refactored sendkeys to properly handle dead keys

[umlaeute]

attempt on fixing the issue with not being able to type ~ character on portuguese/brazil keyboard layouts.

this still requires testing!

Closes: #732

[HenriAugusto]

Dead keys are working now. When you press them twice it appears two of them (which is what actually happen throghout windows so it seems correct)

It is a bit annoying though having to type ~~ and then BackSpace everytime you want to input a single ~. For that reason i would add an ad_hoc solution to the new code to only output a single ~. It's way more convenient since ~ plays a special role in PD.

In the case of not coding this ad_hoc solution for ~~ i would at least write in the release notes of the new version that you can output a single ~ by pressing ~+Space. Everyone i knew just used ~ twice. Almost nobody here know about the DeadKey+Space combo heh :)

[umlaeute]

In the case of not coding this ad_hoc solution for ~~ I would at least write in the release notes of the new version that you can output a single ~ by pressing ~+Space.

but that's simply not true for the majority of users.
it's only true for users with keyboard layouts where the ~-key is used as diacritic and therefore set as a dead key.

we could add a release note telling people that dead-keys are finally fixed, and if they need to type them, they should type them as in any other application :-)

otoh, who ever reads release-notes?

[millerpuckette]

I had already put on a band-aid here: 65d1dcb
(just now pushed to github) - it seems to manage the immediate problem at least. Maybe that will suffice for 0.50-1 and this nice complicated rewrite should wait for 0.51?

[HenriAugusto]

it's only true for users with keyboard layouts where the ~-key is used as diacritic and therefore set as a dead key.

I may be missing something but can't we check if we received a ~~ and change it to ~ only in this special case? I can't imagine any case where someone would actually type two tildes but typing a single one is bread and butter. And if someone, with a US kbd for example, sent a single ~ it would pass untouched.

But it is just a Quality-of-life suggestion anyway.

otoh, who ever reads release-notes?

I do 🤓. Some people don't but it was an idea for a "courtesy" of letting at least the ones who read them know.

Btw do we have testers with spanish/french/etc keyboards? I figure their keyboard works in a similar fashion but i've never actually used them.

[Lucarda]

Btw do we have testers with spanish/french/etc keyboards?

Tilde "~" is a no-go for the Spanish layout (even the Latin American variant). I can’t get it in any app unless I do ALT+126 (on Windows).
On my translation of Kreidler’s tutorial I suggest people to switch to the US-layout when using Pd.

[Spacechild1]

I can’t get it in any app unless I do ALT+126 (on Windows).

ouch... maybe we can add a possibility for people to set their own shortcut for the tilde symbol? I know there are ways to do this system wide, but it's not straightforward (at least on Windows)

[millerpuckette]

Can you try msp.ucsd.edu/tmp/pd-tmp.msw.zip ? It should work on Portuguese (and I think Spanish)
keyboards that you can hit the "~" modifier twice to type a tilde character into Pd.

[Lucarda]

Can you try msp.ucsd.edu/tmp/pd-tmp.msw.zip ? It should work on Portuguese (and I think Spanish)...

Didn't work for me with the "Spanish" layout (Alt Gr + 4 , space). With the "Spanish Latin American" variant is a no-go across all apps.

It only works for me with this PR by @umlaeute and the "Spanish" layout (Alt Gr + 4 + space).

[millerpuckette]

OK, I just loaded up the Spanish (espana) layout and can confirm I can't type a tilde. #$&^%ing hell... will look at what tcl/tk is seeing and see if I can work around it

[millerpuckette]

(I don't really think alt-gr-4 + space is intuitive :)

[Lucarda]

(I don't really think alt-gr-4 + space is intuitive :)

Yes but it had always been like that (there is no regression for people with the Spanish layout).
It is really easy to add a keyboard layout in windows and switch to the US layout when using Pd.
This is what I had always suggested for readers of Kreidler’s tutorial. One of the very few out there in Spanish and it has considerable traffic. I know because the translation is hosted on my server. So people had always been aware of the "~" thing.

[umlaeute]

I did some Windows10 tests with Spanish keyboard layouts, running in a VM (which runs on a Debian machine, that has a German keyboard (and according keyboard layout) attached to it):

This is what i get in notepad++ (so i assume all "proper" applications behave like this):

• Spanish (United States): AltGr++ (the + is located left of the ↵, first row)
• Spanish (Latin America): AltGr++ (as above)
• Spanish (Spain): AltGr+4-Space
  I don't think this is "totally unintuitive", given that on a spanish keyboard, the 4-key is marked with a ~ as the third (AltGr-) option.

Testing with Pd I get:

• AltGr++ (for Spanish (US) and Spanish (Latin America) works on Pd-0.49-0, Pd-0.50-0test1, and (Pd-0.50-0-test1) with this PR.
• AltGr+4-Space (for Spanish (Spain)) works with Pd-0.49-0 and this PR. However, it does not work on Pd-0.50-0test1

I did not test 65d1dcb.

Note: I've also tested AltGr++ using the Spanish (US) layout on a real Windows10 machine (not VM). Nevertheless the keyboard hardware used was still a German keyboard, which has 105 keys.

[Lucarda]

@umlaeute I can confirm all your test on a Win8.1 real machine. (my previous tests were wrong because I was using a Spanish variation instead of Latin American (this appear as an option once adding the spanish language.)

I can confirm 65d1dcb is not working (alt gr + 4 , space) in the Spanish layout (in this layout is a dead-key)

[umlaeute]

@Lucarda so does this mean that you have now found a way to type ~ without having to resort to ALT+126?

[umlaeute]

@millerpuckette since the problem affects portuguese, spanish and french (these i have confirmed) and probably others (which i have not confirmed), i don't think that the trivial hack in 65d1dcb suffices to fix the problem.

i'd suggest to either use "this nice complicated rewrite" or switch back to the ::pd_bindings::sendkey implementation as found in Pd-0.49-1.

switching back to the original implementation will of course revert to the old inconsistent behaviour between KeyPress and KeyRelease messages (which is what the new ::pd_bindings::sendkey implementation was trying to fix in the first place)

[Lucarda]

@Lucarda so does this mean that you have now found a way to type ~ without having to resort to ALT+126?

• With "Spanish (Latin American)" is simply Alt Gr + +. This works on all Pd versions and was not affected because it is not a dead key.

• With "Spanish (Spain)" the dead key Alt Gr + 4 , space was affected in Pd 0.50 but works with this PR.

[millerpuckette]

OK... I pulled my workaround and merged this. If it doesn't seem to be broken it will be time to put out 0.50-1 soon :)