Portuguese accented characters

[hroque]

Description:
===========
During data input in character fields it is impossible to write accented characters using the normal keyboard action (accute and grave accents, tilde and circunflex.
However 'c with cedilla' and all other special characters used in Portuguese are correctly written. Also, if the field is memo or rich text memo ALL special characters used in Portuguese work as expected, i.e. WELL.
This problem did not occur with version 4.5, which I extensibly tried before upgrading.
What I have tried:
=================
Experimenting with several types of fields showed that the problem is exactly the same when designing or when operating an application.
Also, some special key combinations solve part of the problem:
Tilde and circunflex accent will be correctly written if the user uses, instead of only the tilde and circunflex key, both Alt Gr and the aforementioned key
However,
The same trick will not work completely well for accents (accute and grave), because a ']' (ASCII 93) will pop; however, following this character the correct character will be generated, forcing the user to go back and delete the wrong ']'
If the record is saved, then I was not able to identify further problems, the data seems to be correctly saved and reproduced in forms or other layouts.
Environment:
===========
I am working with Windows 2000 SR3, regional settings correctly set.
Alph Five version 5, build 1491-1048
All other software, not only from Microsoft, is working perfectly well.
===========
Am I missing anything ?
Is there any Alpha Five general setting to adjust?
Thanks !

[whanigsberg]

RE: Portuguese accented characters

Humberto,

Because I live in a multilingual city I have an interest in this issue. Have you searched on "accented characters"? If not, do so as you will get some hits.

However, I have not yet seen the difference you note between version 4.5 and 5 but then I haven't tested for this issue. So I must do so and I thank you for pointing this out.

Bill

[hroque]

RE: Portuguese accented characters

Bill,
Thanks for your suggestion
Yes, I have searched, but didn't find anything useful. I find some problems related to not to recognise keyboards or indexing problems.
I am perfectly able to write all characters if the field type is memo or rtfmemo (so, the system configuration seems to be OK). The problem only exists with data fields and the so called 'dead keys': when one of that key is pressed, the system will wait for the next one to decide what to consider to write. It seams that Alpha Five in this version just ignores the dead key. I have tried with different machines and different keyboards always with the same result. Just now I think this is a problem with the routines that handle input.
Thanks anyway,
Humberto

[martinwcole]

RE: Portuguese accented characters

Humberto, this is a shot in the dark, but if any of the key combinations (and maybe even the leading key) that you are using to create the accented character, happen to fire one of Alpha's built-it key combinations, this may be the problem.

take one of the combinations -say it is alt-m
you could try saying something like this in the onkey event for the form where you are working

if a_user.key.value="{%m}"
a_user.key.handled=.t.
'this would disable Alpha's handling of the keys
end
end if

here is an example I tried, successfully:

if this.active()="address"
if a_user.key.value="{^z}"
a_user.key.handled=.t.
end if
end if

[Leroy Jones]

RE: Portuguese accented characters

Tudo bem Humberto,
Ainda voce trabalhando com Alpha?