113846 - Accented characters work in URL bar, but not in HTML forms or mail

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: DOM: Editor, defect)

Description

[Pedro Timoteo]

This is a very strange problem; I'm not even sure that it is a Mozilla bug, but
I've only found it in Mozilla *and* Netscape 4.x (even weirder).

I'm using Solaris 8 10/01 on a Sparc Ultra 10, and I have a Portuguese keyboard.
I can type accented characters, either using dead keys or the Compose key,
perfectly in virtually everything, including X-Chat, Sylpheed, xedit, and about
any other X application I've tried, whether it came with the OS, was installed
from www.sunfreeware.com, or compiled (with gcc) by myself.

However, in Mozilla (tried both 0.9.6 and a build from December 5th), I can type
accented characters in the URL bar, but *not* in any form. That means, for
example, that I can't use accented characters in webmail services like Yahoo
Mail or Hotmail. 

The computer doesn't beep, and no gibberish appears; the character simply
appears unaccented. If I use the Compose key, the same thing happens; for
example, holding Compose and pressing A then ' should print an accented "a", or
"á". By the way, I could get that one here by *copy & pasting* it from the URL bar.

Also, when using Mozilla Mail, the accents work, for example, in the To,
Subject. etc. fields, but not in the message body.

This also happens in Netscape 4.76, which is quite strange, but not on any other
application I've tried. It *does* work in Opera 5.0b1 for Solaris, for example.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

editor.  What's up here?

Comment 2

[Arkadi Shishlov]

Recently we faced same problem and seems to track it down to Solaris patches #108773 (SPARC) and #108774 (x86). Try to apply latest revision of this patch (-13).

Comment 3

[Kathleen :Brade]

cc ftang so he's aware of issue and can cc others who should know about it

Comment 4

[hana.skoumalova]

I have the same problem with Solaris/Sparc 7. I tried to find a suitable patch
at SunSolve pages but I had no success. Do you know about a patch for Solaris 7?

Comment 5

[hana.skoumalova]

I've made some experiments with both Mozilla and Netscape and discovered that
the behaviour is not the same in Solaris 7. In Netscape (4.x), I am able to type
all accented characters, while in Mozilla I cannot type characters using dead
keys or Compose key. This behaviour occurs everywhere in Mozilla - URL bar,
address of an e-mail message, forms ...

I am using cz locale and iso-8859-2 encoding.

Comment 6

[Leandro Guimarães Faria Corsetti Dutra]

I have the same problem in Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 testing, also affecting Galeon.
 But I cannot even type accented characters or dead keys characters in the mail
headers, only in the URL bar.

Comment 7

[Damián Marqués Lluch]

I have the same problem with RedHat 8.0 and mozilla 1.3 I cannot use accented
characters anywhere (not even in the URL bar) If I want to use them (for
instance when composing a mail) I have to use the menu entry Insert->Characters
and Symbols...

Comment 8

[hana.skoumalova]

I upgraded my Solaris to 9 and the problem disappeared. It seems that Solaris 7
caused the problem - I had also other troubles with locales, that are now gone.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

closing WFM per comment 8