#791 Random accents appear when typing

[Andreï Victorovitch Kostyrka]

TeXstudio 2.6.2 (SVN 4110M)
Using Qt Version 4.8.5, compiled with Qt 4.8.5 R
Windows 7 x64

The only reason that has been restraining me from using TS is a bug connected with keyboard input. No matter when—late 2011 or mid 2013—or with 32/64 bit Windows on various PCs, simple keyboard input turns into nightmare for me, a Russian user of TS, since it inserts random accent characters when I input some text from keyboard. No matter which layout—ru-RU or en-US—it tries to combine absolutely random stuff with letters, and if it doesn’t succeed (as with Russian characters), pastes them within text. Please see the screenshot for details. The last paragraph was input as plain text straigh from the keyboard, and, as you can see, random accent symbols were put randomly. In other editors, such as Notepad++ or WinEdt, this never occurs. No other text editor gives me that kind of mess with input characters.

This is really annoying: who wants to clean the text up when two extra characters are inserted in the middle of the word several times in a sentence?

[Tim Hoffmann]

This is really annoying: who wants to clean the text up when two extra characters are inserted in the middle of the word several times in a sentence?

Well, no one. Still you may imagine that TXS is not a small piece of software. All three main developers work on it in their free time and we don't have the capacity to test everything. That's particularly true for language/encoding/input stuff. We have to rely on support of the community here.

Moreover, it's likely not a bug in TXS itself, but in the underlying editor component (QCodeEdit).

I don't know how russian is typed on a keyboard. So we would need a little help from you to track down the issue. Does one use dead keys when typing russian?

There is a modified version of texstudio.exe here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/texstudio/files/texstudio/TeXstudio%20SVN/texstudio-keytest.zip/download

It records every key event into a file keylog.txt next to the exe. You could use this to generate a short example:
1. temporarily rename your current texstudio.exe
2. copy the above one in the original location.
3. Write a short text.
4. Report back the following things:
- the exact sequence of keys you pressed.
- the resulting text in TXS
- the keylog.txt file.

With that, we may be able to find out whats happening in your case.

[Andreï Victorovitch Kostyrka]

Thank you for your prompt reply! I really appreciate what the open source community does for us, end-users.

I will use your modified executable in order to obtain some results.
In Russian, no one uses dead keys, combines keys or that stuff. All 33 letters of Russian alphabet (including suspicious, but nevertheless single characters ё and й) are present. Some users (1­-2% or so, including me) use Birman’s Typographic Layout that converts AltGr to third-level selector when pressed until released (AltGr+Shift enables the fourth level). One may use Birman’s layout and never be aware of it; it has all default bindings, but just extends the layout with 3rd- and 4th-level characters (€®™ѣѵіѳ≈§°£ and like that with just AltGr+E, AltGr+R etc.). Besides, it provides the following trick: AltGr+Shift+/ combines acute accent with the next letter that is input after that combination is released; if the pre-combined variant does not exist, just puts the non-combining accent adjacent to the next input character (AltGr+Shift+` for grave and several more keys for various accents).
I can delete Birman’s typo layout from the PC, reboot and try again (however, it’s strange since these random accents appear when AltGr is not invoked; I write for LaTeX, not XeTeX, after all, with just ASCII, not that strange accented stuff).
Also, since it was me who started this bug, I will try to provide the KLC mapping for Birman's layout (used with MS KLC to create executable installers that install new layouts). That may be the cause...

[Alexander Peczony]

The same issue with me. I use custom layout based on Birman’s one.

It pertains to TeXmaker as well, so I second the guess that it’s QCodeEdit-related (Should I write to the QCE mailing list instead?)

That’s what I got in the log (I pressed Ctrl-F and tried to find a word in the text, but got ¨ and ˜ inserted (see «67 '?'» and «68 '?'»)). I didn’t press : and ~, which are bound to produce the mentioned accents in the layout.

press 16777249 ' ' 1 67108864
release 16777249 ' ' 1 0
release 70 '' 1 0
press 16777249 ' ' 1 67108864
press 16777248 ' ' 1 100663296
release 16777248 ' ' 1 67108864
release 16777249 ' ' 1 0
release 76 'д' 1 0
release 84 'е' 1 0
release 81 'й' 1 0
release 0 'с' 1 0
release 67 '?' 1 0
release 78 'т' 1 0
release 0 'в' 1 0
release 68 '?' 1 0
release 66 'и' 1 0
release 78 'т' 1 0
release 84 'е' 1 0
release 75 'л' 1 0
release 77 'ь' 1 0
release 89 'н' 1 0
release 74 'о' 1 0

(I guess the log isn’t much informative though :( )

I guess it’s related to Ctrl some way, as they appear only after switching layouts (Ctrl-Shift in my case) or copypasting

Here’s another example

press 16777249 ' ' 1 67108864
press 16777248 ' ' 1 100663296
release 16777249 ' ' 1 33554432
release 16777248 ' ' 1 0
release 16777249 ' ' 1 0
press 68 'd' 1 0
press 70 'f' 1 0
release 68 'd' 1 0
press 85 'u' 1 0
press 72 'h' 1 0
release 85 'u' 1 0
press 83 's' 1 0
release 70 'f' 1 0
press 68 'd' 1 0
release 72 'h' 1 0
release 83 's' 1 0
press 75 'k' 1 0
press 74 'j' 1 0
press 70 'f' 1 0
release 68 'd' 1 0
release 75 'k' 1 0
release 74 'j' 1 0
release 70 'f' 1 0
press 83 's' 1 0
press 68 'd' 1 0
release 83 's' 1 0
press 32 ' ' 1 0
release 68 'd' 1 0
release 32 ' ' 1 0
press 87 'w' 1 0
press 69 'e' 1 0
release 69 'e' 1 0
press 68 'd' 1 0
press 72 'h' 1 0
release 68 'd' 1 0
release 72 'h' 1 0
release 87 'w' 1 0

here, I switched layout in the beginning and then started typing some bullshit. It printed as «dfuhsdkjfsd wēdh»

(in my layout, Shift-AltGr-W (or Shift-Ctrl-Alt-W, since AltGr=Ctrl-Alt) is the dead key producing macron: Shift-AltGr-W-A produces ā)

Here’s the layout installer for you to play it around: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24653887/layouts/linglay032.exe
It’s made with KbdEdit, not MSKLC, so I recompiled it with MSKLC in case you need it, here’s the MSKLC version, the problem persists with it as well
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24653887/layouts/32klc.7z

[Alexander Peczony]

Further investigation showed that there exists some system in the inserting of symbols: e. g. when I type something in russian, then press Ctrl-Shift to switch to the english layout and type \textsc{}, it ALWAYS prints as follows:

`textsc{ʾ}

(the grave accent in my layout is set to Shift-AltGr-\, and the right half ring to Shift-AltGr-{ )

I’ve tested it for a while with various combinations and it appears that the bug is triggered only by Ctrl-Shift, Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V do not trigger the insertions

[Tim Hoffmann]

It pertains to TeXmaker as well, so I second the guess that it’s QCodeEdit-related (Should I write to the QCE mailing list instead?)

If it pertains to TeXmaker as well, it is not QCE related, because TeXmaker does not use it.

Then I'd rather suspect that it's a Qt thing. You can also check this by typing into a normal textbox, e.g. the description box in File -> Make Template. Does the effect also happen there?

[Alexander Peczony]

Yep, you’re right.
I tried it in Make Template and the accents appeared
and then tried in SoulseekQt and they appeared as well

[Tim Hoffmann]

You may try this experimental Qt5 build. Does it still happen there?

[Alexander Peczony]

The new build is so experimental it doesn’t even start.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: texstudio.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 533b1817
Fault Module Name: texstudio.exe
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 533b1817
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00006f9e
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1049
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

[Tim Hoffmann]

Migrating to Qt5 is harder than it seemed. Here is a new build.

[Alexander Peczony]

this build is a bit laggy, but solves the issue

[Tim Hoffmann]

What exactly is laggy?

[Alexander Peczony]

when i press f1, instead of displaying messages like «Process started: xelatex.exe .. » it just freezes for some time before opening pdf

[Tim Hoffmann]

Ok, this seems to be the same as https://sourceforge.net/p/texstudio/bugs/839/ (maybe Qt5 related). Since that behavior is already tracked in the above report and the original issue solved, I'll close this report.