Lost Cursor control -- Steps to reproduce -- please confirm.

[FreakyJellyFish]

First, thanks for the new version. For the most part, I like the new features.

I have noticed that the cursor keys will sometimes produce "unexpected results" (as in, they will cause the document to scroll up regardless of which direction I am pressing with the keyboard arrows.) Additionally, other keys on the keyboard may or may not work.

I finally figured out how to reproduce this condition:

1) Open an instance of TextPad 5.0 and open two documents ( I have only tested this with "C" document types.)
2) Arrange both document windows so you can see both within the TextPad frame.
3) Put your cursor, somewhere in the text of document 1.
4) Run another application, ( I ran another instance of TextPad, you just need to bring another app to the foreground.)
5) Ok here is the fun part... Click into the text of document 2. (Remember that you lost focus in document 1.)
6) Now try the cursor keys on the keyboard, to move around in document 2, does strange things happen? If so, then please reply post to this thread to confirm.

[Boris]

Mmm, strange.

A couple of questions:

What version of Windows are you on: Vista, XP, 2000, 98 ?

Is the "Scroll Lock" key on or off ? (Not that I ever saw any use for it, but it may have a residual effect here).

When you say "the cursor keys" you mean the arrow keys, or the numeric pad on the right ? If so, is NumLock on or off ?

[FreakyJellyFish]

Boris:
Thanks for the quick reply.

> What OS? Windows XP, SP2
> Scroll Lock state? Off
> Cursor Keys? Num lock is on, I am using the arrow keys between the main keys and the numeric pad.


More details:
-- I have two instances of TextPad 5.0 running. One (lets call it "A") with 2 documents open, the other (lets call it "B") with 1 document open.

-- I mouse click (1 click) into document 1 of TextPad "A". I move around using the arrow keys, modify text, etc.
-- I mouse click (1 click) into document 2 of TextPad "A". I move around using the arrow keys, modify text, etc.
-- I mouse click (1 click) into document 1 of TextPad "B". I do not touch the keyboard.
-- I mouse click (1 click) back into document 1 of TextPad "A". I see that the title bar of document 1 is "active" and document 2 is "inactive". I see that the line highlighter in document 1 is where it should be. But the blinking cursor is actually where I left it in document 2 before I switched to TextPad "B".
-- Now, if I try to move the cursor (thinking I am where I clicked in document 1), using the arrow keys, document 1 scrolls down, regardless of the direction I am pressing. Also, I cannot type any letters or numbers into document 1.
-- If I click TWO times into document 1 of TextPad "A", then the focus is restored correctly, and all keys work as expected.

Hope that helps describe the problem. I will post a picture of my screen if that will help?
FJF

[ak47wong]

FreakyJellyFish, I couldn't reproduce the problem following your procedure, but I did just encounter this problem myself. It occurred immediately after switching to TP from another application. Pressing any arrow key would scroll the document upwards (without moving the cursor, I believe). I regained control of the cursor by switching to another application and back to TP again.

So I would agree this is a problem, but I'm afraid I cannot reproduce it reliably.

To answer Boris's queries: scroll lock is off and I'm using the dedicated arrow keys. TP v5.0 on XP Pro SP2.

Andrew

[colinmain]

I have seen this sort of behaviour when using cheap keyboards in the past (and very occasionally when using decent ones).
The problem, in my case, was that the keyboard sends a code to the computer when a key is pressed down ("keydown") and another when it is released ("keyup"). If the keyup for the control key is missed the computer can think that the button is still pressed. This would have the symptoms you mentioned.

The cure is simple: press and release all buttons that could be at fault. Usually that means both control-keys, both shifts and both ALTs.

Hope this is of help!

Colin

[FreakyJellyFish]

Since upgrading to 5.0.2, I am not able to reproduce this issue. THANKS!