Ctrl+W stops working after changing the input language to Hebrew

[tst]

Note - unless you have an OS with Hebrew support (or at least another dual-langauge setup) you can probably stop reading right now.

There's a small bug which has been in LV for a long time (at least since 7.0) and keeps annoying me. Whenever I switch to Hebrew input, Ctrl-W stops working and will only resume working after restarting LabVIEW. Other shortcuts are not affected.

Reproducing this is easy -

1. Get a computer with Hebrew support (Win XP in my case) and any version of LV >=7.0.
2. Open a VI.
3. Change the input language to Hebrew (alt+shift or right-ctrl+shift).
4. Attempt to close the VI using Ctrl+W. It doesn't work even when changing the language back to English.

What seems to happen is this:

w is 119 ASCII.

In Hebrew, the W key produces an apostrophe ('), which is 39 ASCII.

Before switching to Hebrew, Ctrl+W always results in 119 (I used the Key Down? event to check).

After switching, Ctrl+W always results in 39, even after switching back to English.

Naturally, this is annoying because if you're used to closing VIs using the Ctrl+E, Ctrl+W method, having the second part not work is a bit of a problem.

[Kameralina]

Hello tst,

I am not using a Hebrew OS, but I am using an OS that has French support.  I actually tried this test on 8.6 and 8.5.1 and I was not able to reproduce this issue.

To describe what I am doing in further detail:

When you are in "French mode" indicated by an "FR  in the Windows XP toolbar below, you can predict what characters will appear when you press on different keys. In other words, when I have FR on my toolbar and press "w" on my French keyboard I get a "Char" value ASCII 119.

I then press Alt+Shift to switch the keyboard to english which is then "confirmed" by an EN in the Windows XP toolbar.

Pressing the same W key of my French Keyboard will then give me a "Char" value ASCII 122. Therefore I am not seeing this behavior because I am getting the expected value from that key based on the OS' language setting. 

What you are describing seems to be more of  Windows issue rather than a LabVIEW related issue, and I highly doubt that it should only occur with Hebrew and not with other languages.  One thing to note is that if you switch between different applications on a Windows XP PC with many regional settings configured, the keyboard setting seems to follow the application for the most part. Perhaps a specific version of a Windows update has fixed a behavior where the keyboard gets switched at some point within the same application (in this case different LabVIEW windows). 

Message Edited by FieldKam on 09-16-2008 11:44 AM

[tst]

I think the key issue here is that when switching to Hebrew the W key produces an ASCII character (') which is not part of the English alphabet. You would need to find a similar situation in French to be able to simulate this (for example, the alignment grid is toggled by using Ctrl+Shift+3, which on a French keyboard should result in an accented character. When people tried typing something using that character their text would not appear and LV R&D had to change the code to accommodate this).

By the way, the Q button in Hebrew also uses a non-alphabet char (/), so I tested it as well and it does the same thing - after changing once to Hebrew, pressing Ctrl+Q always results in ASCII 47, which maximizes the window, instead of closing it.

While it is possible that this will happen only in Windows, you should also note that Windows itself is not necessarily to blame - other application manage to get the Ctrl+W shortcut just fine, whether they're in Hebrew mode or not. Maybe they're using the scancode and LabVIEW doesn't. I don't know. In any case, this happens both in XP SP2 and SP3.

If memory serves, LabVIEW is simply getting the Window message from the OS, so it's possible that this is a Windows bug, but other applications seem to work fine. In any case, someone who knows the relevant code can tell for sure.

[Sappster]

Hi tst,

I don't have the ability to test this on my current computer, so can you try other characters that aren't found in the english language to verify that the problem is not specifically linked to just that character?

Also, have you tried changing the settings for your regional options to the corresponding locale. I think that the characters should show up correctly after windows interprets them as such.

Let me know your results.

[johnsold]

tst,

I tried to duplicate your earlier report on my PowerPC  Mac (Dual G5, OS X 10.4.11, LV 8.5).

w produces 119 ASCII.  In Hebrew typing w produces apostrophe ('), 39 ASCII. 

Attempt to close using Cmd+W (Mac uses the Apple or  Command key, not Control) results in closing and no character. This is the same in US English or Hebrew.

Ctrl+W produces a 5-sided box with an x inside and 23 ASCII in both languages. 

Lynn 

[tst]

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Sappster wrote:

can you try other characters that aren't found in the english language to verify that the problem is not specifically linked to just that character?

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As I mentioned, it also happens with the Q key. The only other keys which produce a non-letter in Hebrew are ' (which outputs a comma in Hebrew and does nothing) and / (which outputs a period in Hebrew, but which does actually continue to function as expected after changing to Hebrew, i.e. it maximizes the window instead of stopping the VI).

This happens both on the Hebrew and the English versions of Windows. In the English version, I changed both the locale and the input language for non-Unicode programs as well the as the formats language to English and it didn't help. It looks as if as soon as Hebrew is installed it happens whenever you change to Hebrew input. Note that to do this I'm pretty sure you have to check the right to left support checkbox in the Languages tab.

[tst]

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johnsold wrote:

Attempt to close using Cmd+W (Mac uses the Apple or  Command key, not Control) results in closing and no character. This is the same in US English or Hebrew.

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Thanks. I guess that means it's an OS issue, which was my previous guess, since I believe the OS handles sending the input from the keyboard to the applications.

[tst]

Mark, any news on this?

[Sappster]

Hi Tst,

I have created a Corrective Action Request (#129676) to informed the development team of the issue. I will try to keep this forum updated with the results as I receive them.

Thanks

[tst]

I can say that this issue has been at least partially resolved in LV 2009 - Ctrl+W still doesn't work in Hebrew, but at least it does work when switching back to English. Thanks.