311540 - I can't enter special characters anymore using the 'ALT' key

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, defect)

Description

[Sacha Prins]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
Build Identifier: Firefox 1.5 Beta 2

Usually (before the Beta 2 release) I could enter special characters like ü and
é using the ALT- key. On beta 2 that doesn't work anymore.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Find a form
2.Try to enter "ü" using the ALT key
3.

Actual Results:  
Nothing

Expected Results:  
ü

This worked in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1

Comment 1

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20051006
Firefox/1.6a1 ID:2005100607
WFM

Comment 2

[Thierry Pon]

Since I upgraded to ver 1.5 when I type in any field in a firefox window. If I press (Alt+any key) the curser is teleported to the google plugin field and in (select all) mode. It is a big problem to me because I type a lot in french and I am used to type international characters using their code with the alt key (é=Alt+130). Try it and you will see this character appear in the google plugin field. Then you'll have to go select it and copy-paste it in the intended field.

Is there a way to shut this off? I hed no problem before 1.5

Windows XP

Comment 3

[Rex Grigg]

Ok, I'm having the same exact problem with 1.5 on Windows.

In the forums I'm active in I use a lot special characters.

ALT+0176
ALT+0188
ALT+0189

Those are the most common.  When I'm in a text input box and use the key combo they show up in the Google Toolbar text entry area

Comment 4

[Ancey Jean]

Attachment: I can't enter special characters anymore using the 'ALT' key

Dear sirs.
I have a PC with Windows XP+SP2 french, 1GB Mem, Proc AMD Athlon 1800. Usualy i used FireFox 1.0.7 french version, without Problem. I write in french language, with a US keyboard, and i make my special characters by typing the alt+characters code, and all works properly. I live in Thailand, and i can't find a french keyboard.
2 days ago i installed FireFox 1.5 french version, and now, it's impossible to write the special characters. When i push the alt key, the cursor desapears,and if i type the code 130,(é) the character is written in the Google search box. All special characters i try to write in my E-mail, or to answer at a question in a forum goes on the Google search box.

Comment 5

[RenegadeX]

Sounds like Bug 257478, which was reported on Windows XP
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=257478

Bug has been around for 1.5 years.

Seamonkey 1.0a beta uses the 1.8 trunk, as does Firefox 1.5 and so both are affected. Firefox wasn't affected by this Bug prior to v1.5.
Seamonkey / Firefox - whatever - it's really annoying to have special characters typing broken!

Comment 6

[zug_treno]

*** Bug 322864 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[zug_treno]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Ok, I'm having the same exact problem with 1.5 on Windows.

-> Hardware: All, OS: All.

(In reply to comment #5)
> Seamonkey 1.0a beta uses the 1.8 trunk, as does Firefox 1.5 and so both are
> affected. 

So I guess this should be in Product: Core, Component: Event Handling.

Comment 8

[zug_treno]

*** Bug 324691 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

So can someone figure out when this regressed on Windows?

Comment 10

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

(In reply to comment #9)
>
No numpad here.

Comment 11

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Martijn, can you reproduce this?

Comment 12

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

No, this is worksforme, with FF1.5.0.2 and 2006-04-10 trunk build.

Comment 13

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

OK.  Someone who does see this -- do you see it on all web sites?

Comment 14

[Thierry Pon]

I installed Firefox 1.5.0.2 and it fixed it.

Comment 15

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

OK.  Marking worksforme; please reopen if this is still an issue with current trunk builds.

Comment 16

[Kees de Kooter]

Sorry guys, still not working for me, even with version 1.5.0.2.

Comment 17

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

Kees, maybe you could find the regression range by trying out various older builds of Firefox?
http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/
And do you see it with all websites?
Also, could you try out current trunk build to see whether it's an issue there?
http://ftp.scarlet.be/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 18

[Kees de Kooter]

Martijn, tried the latest "minefield" trunk. Alt key is working as expected there.

Comment 19

[Sacha Prins]

Well, I'm still having problems with the (currently) latest Firefox on Mac OS X:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060821 Firefox/2.0b2

When I start Firefox everything works fine, however along the way (when Firefox App is open for a couple of hours, sometimes days) the special characters I can normally enter with the 'alt' key don't work anymore.

I haven't found a determined point where it stops to work (e.g. a specific site), it seems to be randomly.

On a different note, I don't keep other apps open so long to experience similar faults so in theory it may or may not be a Mac OS X bug (currently mine is 10.4.7).

Comment 20

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2)

That's the 1.8 branch.  Is this a problem on trunk?

Comment 21

[Sacha Prins]

I've had this exact problem on the 1.5 versions and the new 1.8 branch.

Comment 22

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Yes.  But that's not what I'm asking about.  Does http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/firefox-3.0a1.en-US.mac.dmg show the problem?  You might want to create a new profile for it so it won't mess up your existing bookmarks, etc.

Comment 23

[Sacha Prins]

I shall give it a spin. It may take a couple hours even days for the bug to manifest itself. I'll be sure to post problems if I find them.

A practical question: Should I regularly download the nightly builds or should I stay with the one I downloaded? This question for (my) usability purpses and (our) bug-detection purposes.

Comment 24

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

(In reply to comment #23)
> A practical question: Should I regularly download the nightly builds or should
> I stay with the one I downloaded? This question for (my) usability purpses and
> (our) bug-detection purposes.

If you want to help us even more, then you should regularly download nightly builds and test with those, although those might not be always usable to you.

Comment 25

[Frankie]

There is no ALT key on a Mac, and you do not enter special characters via numeric code. That is a Windows-specific process. On Mac you use option+vowel+vowel to generate accents such as é î ü.

Since the methods to produce special characters on different OSes are different, it doesn't make sense to lump them together in the same bug. Closing this bug report, about problems on Mac, as WFM.