Something's up with repetitive keystrokes

[Will]

This is situ-independent, so pick any situ, like for example Basic 004.


I just upgraded my Mac iOS to Sierra (version 10.12.1).


Now, when I press and hold the "i" or the "o" key to increase or decrease the MCP altitude, the keyboard quits working except for the spacebar.


More details: it doesn't happen with discrete key presses. I can press "i" or "o" individually as one-off keystrokes and there won't be a problem. The problem comes after holding the "i" or "o" key down so that multiple keystrokes are sent. As soon as the key repeats and multiple strokes are sent and the key is released, the keyboard quits working until I exit PSX and restart it.


Interestingly, holding down 6 and 7 (for MCP speed) or 8 or 9 (for MCP heading) doesn't cause any problems. I can hold them down for a long time, and the keyboard continues to function normally.


However, holding down "y" and "u" (for MCP vertical speed) causes the same problem as with "i" and "o", namely, as soon as multiple keystrokes are sent, the whole keyboard quits working except for the spacebar.


This makes me wonder if it has to do with how iOS Sierra handles letter keys, versus number keys?


I did go into Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard and I played with the "Key Repeat" and "Delay Until Repeat" sliders, but there's no effect. The 6 and 7, and 8 and 9 still work normally no matter what the settings on that page are, while "i", "o", "y", and "u" still all crash the keyboard after multiple strokes are sent.


Ideas?

[Will]

Update: Solved!


Holding down a key doesn't automatically make it repeat, but instead brings up special characters. So for example, holding down "o" brings up the option to choose ö, ø, ô, œ, õ, and so on.


Setting Key Repeat completely OFF will disable that feature, and makes PSX operate normally.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Well, you solved it yourself already.

I think this feature existed in some previous OSX versions as well, and is enabled by default.

PSX itself doesn't use the key repeat signals from the OS. PSX just detects the one-time events "key_pressed" and "key_released", and uses its internal repeat system (it's the same that is used by "mouse_button_pressed" and "mouse_button_released").


Regards,

|-|ardy

[Will]

Well, setting Key Repeat to OFF has brought some problems. It turns out that I really like being able to hold down the backspace key and the arrow keys and get multiple strokes sent.

Hardy, I'm guessing you're not seeing the problem I originally described. Any ideas why I'm seeing it? Just to refresh your memory, when a letter key (but not a number key) is held until it starts to repeat, from that moment on, the keyboard (except for the space bar) quits working in PSX until I exit and restart PSX. (The keyboard continues to work outside of PSX however.)

[Hardy Heinlin]

This is outside the scope of my control, unfortunately. PSX just sees the key events it gets from the OS.


|-|ardy

[Hardy Heinlin]

I remember, after an OSX update, I saw this: When I held the A key, for example, the A didn't repeat but a menu popped up showing special variants of the A character of other languages. This feature was set by default and I can't remember where I disabled it. I just checked the OSX preferences, but couldn't find it. Anyway, this feature was independent of the repeat rate setting. It disabled the repeat system completely.


|-|ardy

[Will]

Yes, that seems to be an innovation with iOS Sierra. When you hold down a key, a menu pops up with alternative characters, like ö, ø, ô, œ, etc.


Somehow, my guess is that this new feature does something with PSX's ability to cleanly detect a key-press and key-release event.


If you have a moment, could you run the following test:


1. In your iMac > System Preferences > Keyboard, make sure you have Key Repeat turned ON.
2. In PSX, press and hold "I" for about three seconds. Watch the MCP altitude go down. Then let go of "I."
3. Don't do anything for about one second.
4. Then press "I" again.


Does that second press of "I" (in step 4) leas to a change in MCP altitude? For me, the keyboard is locked out at that point.

[Hardy Heinlin]

I always have key repeat on in OSX, and I hold all the keys in PSX a thousand times every day. No problem here.

I don't get pop-up menus anymore. I got them some years ago for a few hours until I disabled them. Just can't recall where that disable switch was hidden. Perhaps it was a "Terminal" command?


|-|ardy

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

This?

http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/04/enable-key-repeat-mac-os-x-lion/

https://infinitediaries.net/os-x-choose-between-the-character-accents-popup-and-key-repeat-when-holding-down-a-key/

Me no Mac person, just googled it.

[Will]

Thanks for the tips. I'll check and report back tomorrow.

[Hardy Heinlin]

Yes, this. Thanks :-)

[Will]

Problem solved. Thanks, Jeroen, that did the trick.