Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[exits funnel]

Hello,

I've been using the native windows Emacs (21.3.1) one Win2000 for 
several months and there has been one intermittently recurring problem. 
  Every once in a while, I encounter a situation where the key I press 
and the letter which appears on the screen aren't the same.  For 
instance, I might press the 'a' key and see a 'q' or I might press the 
'z' key and see a 'w'. I'm not sure if the same keys are affected each 
time or even if the 'replacement' letters are the same.  The only 
solution I've found is to shutdown Emacs altogether and restart it. 
This can be more than a bit annoying if I have a lot of buffers open or 
if I'm in the middle of, for instance, a debugging session.  Has anyone 
else experienced this or know what the problem is?  Is there some 
solution short of restarting Emacs?  Thanks in advance for any help 
anyone can offer.

-exits

RE: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Drew Adams]

    I've been using the native windows Emacs (21.3.1) one Win2000 for
    several months and there has been one intermittently recurring problem.
      Every once in a while, I encounter a situation where the key I press
    and the letter which appears on the screen aren't the same.  For
    instance, I might press the 'a' key and see a 'q' or I might press the
    'z' key and see a 'w'. I'm not sure if the same keys are affected each
    time or even if the 'replacement' letters are the same.  The only
    solution I've found is to shutdown Emacs altogether and restart it.
    This can be more than a bit annoying if I have a lot of buffers open or
    if I'm in the middle of, for instance, a debugging session.  Has anyone
    else experienced this or know what the problem is?  Is there some
    solution short of restarting Emacs?  Thanks in advance for any help
    anyone can offer.

Hmm.. q for a and w for z? Sounds like your keyboard got switched to French
to English or vice versa. In Windows, you can change languages (keyboards)
easily, though I've forgotten the keyboard shortcut. Your task bar might
indicate the current language as Fr or En.

If my guess is right, this has nothing to do with Emacs, and you can get
back to the language you want by clicking the task-bar menu (Fr or En). How
the language got changed might have something to do with Emacs; I don't
know.

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[exits funnel]

Drew Adams wrote:
>     I've been using the native windows Emacs (21.3.1) one Win2000 for
>     several months and there has been one intermittently recurring problem.
>       Every once in a while, I encounter a situation where the key I press
>     and the letter which appears on the screen aren't the same.  For
>     instance, I might press the 'a' key and see a 'q' or I might press the
>     'z' key and see a 'w'. I'm not sure if the same keys are affected each
>     time or even if the 'replacement' letters are the same.  The only
>     solution I've found is to shutdown Emacs altogether and restart it.
>     This can be more than a bit annoying if I have a lot of buffers open or
>     if I'm in the middle of, for instance, a debugging session.  Has anyone
>     else experienced this or know what the problem is?  Is there some
>     solution short of restarting Emacs?  Thanks in advance for any help
>     anyone can offer.
> 
> Hmm.. q for a and w for z? Sounds like your keyboard got switched to French
> to English or vice versa. In Windows, you can change languages (keyboards)
> easily, though I've forgotten the keyboard shortcut. Your task bar might
> indicate the current language as Fr or En.
> 
> If my guess is right, this has nothing to do with Emacs, and you can get
> back to the language you want by clicking the task-bar menu (Fr or En). How
> the language got changed might have something to do with Emacs; I don't
> know.
> 

Hi Drew,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm pretty sure that your theory isn't altogether 
right because when I switch applications, there are no problems so the 
issue seems to be limited to Emacs.  Still, it might be a step in the 
right direction.  One thing which makes the problem difficult to solve 
is that I can't reproduce it, it just (seems) to occur randomly.  It's 
possible that it results from my fat fingering of some key combination. 
  I wonder if there is an emacs command to change the keyboard layout to 
French?

-exits

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: exits funnel <exNOitsfunSPAMMYnel@yahoo.com>
> Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:02:59 -0700
> 
> > Hmm.. q for a and w for z? Sounds like your keyboard got switched to French
> > to English or vice versa. In Windows, you can change languages (keyboards)
> > easily, though I've forgotten the keyboard shortcut. Your task bar might
> > indicate the current language as Fr or En.
> [...]
> Thanks for the reply.  I'm pretty sure that your theory isn't altogether 
> right because when I switch applications, there are no problems so the 
> issue seems to be limited to Emacs.

Please note that input language is a per-application setting on
Windows.  So, if you inadvertently switch the language while typing
into Emacs, only Emacs will be affected.

> Still, it might be a step in the 
> right direction.  One thing which makes the problem difficult to solve 
> is that I can't reproduce it, it just (seems) to occur randomly.

Next time it happens look at the language indicator in your system
tray.

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Dieter Wilhelm]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: exits funnel <exNOitsfunSPAMMYnel@yahoo.com>
>> Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:02:59 -0700
>> 
>> > Hmm.. q for a and w for z? Sounds like your keyboard got switched to French
>> > to English or vice versa. In Windows, you can change languages (keyboards)
>> > easily, though I've forgotten the keyboard shortcut. Your task bar might
>> > indicate the current language as Fr or En.
>> [...]
>> Thanks for the reply.  I'm pretty sure that your theory isn't altogether 
>> right because when I switch applications, there are no problems so the 
>> issue seems to be limited to Emacs.
>
> Please note that input language is a per-application setting on
> Windows.  So, if you inadvertently switch the language while typing
> into Emacs, only Emacs will be affected.
>
>> Still, it might be a step in the 
>> right direction.  One thing which makes the problem difficult to solve 
>> is that I can't reproduce it, it just (seems) to occur randomly.
>
> Next time it happens look at the language indicator in your system
> tray.

Lately I caught a similar problem on XP.  Ansys WorkBench (a finite
element program) has in it's latest version big problems with
adjusting legends. I got a hint from the support hot-line to change
the input language (from German to Swiss German).  From then on my
CVS-Emacs takes trips from time to time (seemingly at will) into
Switzerland and I have to toggle the input language in the system tray
back to the German keyboard layout.  Needless to say that its not
possible to switch off this behaviour completely in the language
section in the system folder, I tried but didn't succeed.

-- 
    Best wishes

    Dieter Wilhelm
    Darmstadt, Germany

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Slawomir Nowaczyk]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 22:17:48 +0200
Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de> wrote:

#> Lately I caught a similar problem on XP. Ansys WorkBench (a finite
#> element program) has in it's latest version big problems with
#> adjusting legends. I got a hint from the support hot-line to change
#> the input language (from German to Swiss German). From then on my
#> CVS-Emacs takes trips from time to time (seemingly at will) into
#> Switzerland and I have to toggle the input language in the system
#> tray back to the German keyboard layout. Needless to say that its
#> not possible to switch off this behaviour completely in the
#> language section in the system folder, I tried but didn't succeed.

It should be possible... Check in "Language and Regional Options",
"Language", "Details...", "Key Settings" -- you can change a key for
switching languages there.

-- 
 Best wishes,
   Slawomir Nowaczyk
     ( slawomir.nowaczyk.847@student.lu.se )

To a man standing on the sun, everything looks like a conic section.

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Jason Rumney]

Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de> writes:

> the input language (from German to Swiss German).  From then on my
> CVS-Emacs takes trips from time to time (seemingly at will) into
> Switzerland and I have to toggle the input language in the system tray
> back to the German keyboard layout.  Needless to say that its not
> possible to switch off this behaviour completely in the language
> section in the system folder, I tried but didn't succeed.

It is possible, though perhaps not easy to find:

1) Open Regional and Language Options from the Control Panel.
2) Go to the Languages tab and press the Details... button.
3) Press the Key Settings... button.
4) For any Actions that have "Hot keys" assigned, select them from the
   list and press Change Key Sequence.
5) Untick both checkboxes.
6) Press OK on all the dialogs that you have opened.

If you have the Language Bar displayed, you can still switch keyboard
layouts with the mouse, but you avoid accidentally doing it while
using Left Shift and Left Ctrl together (which I think is a default
language change hot key).

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[exits funnel]

> Please note that input language is a per-application setting on
> Windows.  So, if you inadvertently switch the language while typing
> into Emacs, only Emacs will be affected.

Thanks Eli, that's good to know.

> Next time it happens look at the language indicator in your system
> tray.

I had never really looked at the keyboard settings but I just popped 
them up and noticed these three things:  (1) The only choices for input 
locales were french (I have no idea why) and english (US).  (2) The 
'system tray indicator' check box wasn't selected which is why there was 
no language indication in my system try.  (3) The key combo to switch 
locales is Left-Alt + Shift which I could easily imagine my 
inadvertently keying while using emacs.

So, I'm pretty sure that Drew was right and now I know how to fix it. 
Thanks to both of you.

-exits

Re: Strange Problem with keypresses on Win32

[Mathias Dahl]

exits funnel <exNOitsfunSPAMMYnel@yahoo.com> writes:

> The key combo to switch locales is Left-Alt + Shift which I could
> easily imagine my inadvertently keying while using emacs.

I know I sure did until I turned that combo off. It was extremely
annoying before I found out what it was.