Cannot use AltGr+u with U.S. International keyboard

[aeschli]

From @GeorgeHernandez on October 26, 2017 19:9

• VSCode Version: Code 1.17.2 (b813d12980308015bcd2b3a2f6efa5c810c33ba5, 2017-10-16T13:59:46.104Z)
• OS Version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.15063
• Extensions:

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
yaml	ada	0.0.9
Bookmarks	ale	0.17.0
alignment	ann	0.3.0
vscode-markdownlint	Dav	0.11.0
vscode-eslint	dba	1.4.0
githistory	don	0.2.3
ftp-sync	luk	0.3.3
mssql	ms-	1.2.0
csharp	ms-	1.12.1
java	red	0.12.0
code-spell-checker	str	1.4.10
json2yaml	tux	0.2.0
vscode-java-debug	vsc	0.2.0

---

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Turn on U.S. International keyboard in Windows.
2. Open file in Visual Studio Code.
3. Type AltGr+u

Reproduces without extensions: No

Issue does NOT occur without extensions. However searching keybindings for Alt+u does not find anything.

Issue does NOT occur for the other Spanish characters (¡¿ÁáÉéÍíÑñÓóÚÜü), just ú when entered as AltGr+u.

Issue does NOT occur when entering ú via '+u.

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#37002

[aeschli]

From @dbaeumer on October 26, 2017 19:39

@alexandrudima do you have an idea why this could happen even if no extension defines the short cut.

@GeorgeHernandez can you check the contribution for each of your extensions to see whether they do define such a short cut. And can you selectively disable ( can be done in the extension viewlet) the extensions to see if we can find the extension that causes the problem

[aeschli]

From @GeorgeHernandez on October 27, 2017 17:38

TLDNR: I've isolated it to the "Language Support for Java(TM by Red Hat" extension, but cannot be sure about the "Debugger for Java" extension.

Given [all, debug, java] where:

• all: Enabled status of all extensions except for the Debug and Java extensions.
• debug: Enabled status of the "Debugger for Java" extension.
• java: Enabled status of the "Language Support for Java" extension.

I have tested the permutations for the issue:

• [0,0,0] -> No
• [0,0,1] -> Yes
• [0,1,0] -> N/A. The Debugger is dependent on the Java extension.
• [0,1,1] -> Y
• [1,0,0] -> N
• [1,0,1] -> Y
• [1,1,0] -> N/A. The Debugger is dependent on the Java extension.
• [1,1,1] -> Y

As you can see it only happens when the Java extension is on. Since the Debugger extension is dependent on the Java extension, I could not determine if the former would also cause the issue if the Java extension were fixed.

[aeschli]

From @alexandrudima on October 30, 2017 10:8

This is indeed caused by redhat.java. From their package.json:

 "keybindings": [
      {
        "command": "java.projectConfiguration.update",
        "key": "ctrl+alt+u",
        "mac": "cmd+alt+u",
        "when": "editorFocus"
      } 

---

@GeorgeHernandez I wonder why ctrl+alt+u did not show up when you searched for alt+u. Did you use the keybindings UI for searching or did you open the keybindings.json. Both should have shown in this case the ctrl+alt+u binding when searching for alt+u.

P.S. AltGr == Ctrl+Alt+

[aeschli]

From @dbaeumer on October 30, 2017 10:8

@aeschli do you have an idea.

@GeorgeHernandez please file the issue against the vscode java extension GitHub repository.

[GeorgeHernandez]

@alexandrudima

I've searched both the keybinding UI and keybindings.json:

• A search for alt+u turned up nothing useful but several instances of alt+up.
• A search for ctrl+alt+u turned up nothing useful but 1 instance of ctrl+alt+up.

However, Red Hat's package.json does indeed have "key": "ctrl+alt+u",. I temporarily changed it to "key": "ctrl+alt+b",, enabled the Red Hat extension, and the issue DOES NOT occur!

To summarize, there are 2 parts to this issue:

1. Red Hat SHOULD NOT use ctrl+alt+u since it interferes with an AltGr shortcut. A search in the keybindings for ctrl+alt reveals no other shortcuts that would trigger an AltGr shortcut such as ctrl+alt+u. There several letters available that do not trigger an AltGr shortcut: [b, f, g, h, j, k, v, x]. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltGr_key.

2. Why does Red Hat's keybinding NOT turn up in either the keybinding UI or JSON file?

[fbricon]

I was not aware of the Ctrl+Alt/ Altgr equivalence. Good to know :-)

PR #349 changes the offending shortcut to Shift+Alt+u

[GeorgeHernandez]

Part 1: The workarounds (of either using '+u instead of AltGr+u or modifying the package.json file) are tolerable, now that I understand why AltGr+u did not work. However, an uninformed user might find the the dysfunctional AltGr+u issue intolerable.

BTW: I see that the Bookmarks extension also has a shortcut with an AltGr trigger: ctrl+alt+l, so it's not just Red Hat.

Part 2: I had the Red Hat extension disabled, when I searched the keybindings. When enabled, the Red Hat shortcut shows on the list.

[GeorgeHernandez]

@fbricon ricon I see that you've changed it from ctrl+alt+u to shift+alt+u. What a nice community! Thanks!