Re: [AD] Problem with key_shifts on Windows.

[Andrei Ellman <ae-a-alleg@xxxxxxxxxx>]

aj wrote:
> i know its a bit annoying, but can you  modify   /examples/exkeys.c   
> to  GFX_AUTODETECT_WINDOWED
> and try the tests again,  also  GFX_AUTODETECT   (fullscreen)  and  do 
> the tests again..

I've run exkeys.exe with GFX_AUTODETECT changed to 
GFX_AUTODETECT_WINDOWED , and also the original exkeys.exe (fullscreen). 
So far, I've only tested this on Windows 2000


> - OS

Windows 2000 (SP4 + SP4 Rollup 1 + latest patches)


> - allegro version

4.2.0 - compiled with gcc 3.4.4 (Cygwin)


> - fullscreen or windowed  and the driver (as listed on the top of exkeys 
> when you run it)

fullscreen and windowed:
Driver: DirectInput keyboard


> - keyb driver..  in device manager, under Keyboards..  mine says 
> "Standard 101/102-Key or MS Natural PS/2 Keyb"

Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natrual PS/2 Keyboard


> - in accessability options (control panel),  keyb tab..  are any of 
> those ticked ?

None of these are ticked.


I've done the tests. The results were basically the same as what I 
mentioned in my previous email.

Like the last time, pressing CTRL, releasing CTRL and then pressing ESC 
does not register the press of the ESC key. However, pressing ESC while 
CTRL is held down switches focus away from the app and brings up the 
start menu. When I switch back to the app (with ESCAPE not pressed), it 
scrolls through all the "Press ESC to continue" messages and then exits 
as if the ESCAPE key was held down continuously (although this behaviour 
is probably due to the release of ESC not being registered while the app 
was switched out). I've tried this in both windowed and fullscreen, and 
the same results are produced.

Also, when I press ALT+SPACE the app continuously prints the message 
"readkey() returned 19200 (0x4B00)". This happens despite the app not 
losing focus. While this is going on, the indicator for the SPACE key on 
the right remains on (the indicator for the ALT key is updated correclty 
though). However, if I press another regular key, the app just prints 
the scancode and stops the continuous scrolling of messages. Also, If I 
change focus to another app, the indicator for SPACE turns off and the 
scrolling stops (even when I switch back to the app). If I press SPACE 
on it's own, I get "readkey() returned 19232 (0x4B20)". Again, the 
behaviour is identical under both windowed and fullscreen.


> control-esc  and alt-esc  are trapped by  win32, i dont know you can do 
> much about that.

Fair enough. However, I think there should be a warning in the docs 
mentioning that you cannot use the CTRL-ESC combination under Windows, 
and using it on other platforms will mean that the app will produce 
unexpected results when CTRL-ESC is pressed when ported to Windows. In 
fact, there should be a listing somewhere of the forbidden key-combos.

Anyway, exkeys.exe is not a particularly good example to demonstrate the 
problem of the stuck SHIFT/CTRL/ALT keys (which is what prompted me to 
report this behaviour in the first place). For that, there is the 
test-program I posted earlier. I've tried this in both Windowed and 
fullscreen, and the problem is demonstrated in both W2K and W98.

AE.