Antal Szabó
15580a867b
The previous modifier detection treated `AltGr` presses as `Ctrl+Alt`,
which broke entering characters produced by AltGr. For example, on a
Hungarian layout `{` is typed with `AltGr+B`; our code saw that as
`Ctrl+Alt+B` and the keybind took precedence, so the character couldn’t
be entered.
On Windows, AltGr isn’t a first-class modifier. It’s emulated as a
combination of `Right Alt (VK_RMENU)` plus a synthetic `Left Ctrl
(VK_LCONTROL)` press. When users press AltGr, `GetKeyState` reports both
Ctrl and Alt as down, which makes AltGr indistinguishable from a real
`Ctrl+Alt` chord if we only look at aggregate modifier state.
Fix: detect the AltGr pattern by checking `VK_RMENU && VK_LCONTROL`.
When that pattern is present, treat it as text-entry intent and suppress
`control` and `alt` in `current_modifiers()`. This prevents
AltGr-produced characters from colliding with `Ctrl+Alt` keybinds while
keeping other modifiers intact.
Limitation: there is no Windows API to tell whether the active layout
actually has AltGr. As a result, on non-AltGr layouts (e.g. US),
pressing `Right Alt + Left Ctrl` will be interpreted as AltGr and will
not trigger `Ctrl+Alt` keybinds. This is an acceptable trade-off to
ensure AltGr layouts can reliably enter characters; users can still
invoke `Ctrl+Alt` keybinds using `Left Alt` or by choosing bindings that
avoid common AltGr pairs.
I based this on https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/pull/36115 after
trying other different approaches, but this one is a bit more specific.
Does this approach make sense, or is slightly breaking US input in favor
of fixing international input a no-go? I think the benefit - being able
to type certain characters _at all_ - outweighs the shortcomings.
Otherwise, there's a way to detect if the keyboard layout uses AltGr or
not, but it's quite hacky, and involves reading the registry to find the
current layout dll's name, opening that dll, manually declaring struct
layouts that it uses, then parsing out the AltGr flag from a function
call result. I don't think that's worth it, but if needed, I can give
that a shot, let me know.
Release Notes:
- windows: Fixed handling of AltGr to avoid keybinds preventing
character input
Zed
Welcome to Zed, a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.
Installation
On macOS and Linux you can download Zed directly or install Zed via your local package manager.
Other platforms are not yet available:
- Windows (tracking issue)
- Web (tracking issue)
Developing Zed
- Building Zed for macOS
- Building Zed for Linux
- Building Zed for Windows
- Running Collaboration Locally
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways you can contribute to Zed.
Also... we're hiring! Check out our jobs page for open roles.
Licensing
License information for third party dependencies must be correctly provided for CI to pass.
We use cargo-about to automatically comply with open source licenses. If CI is failing, check the following:
- Is it showing a
no license specifiederror for a crate you've created? If so, addpublish = falseunder[package]in your crate's Cargo.toml. - Is the error
failed to satisfy license requirementsfor a dependency? If so, first determine what license the project has and whether this system is sufficient to comply with this license's requirements. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer. Once you've verified that this system is acceptable add the license's SPDX identifier to theacceptedarray inscript/licenses/zed-licenses.toml. - Is
cargo-aboutunable to find the license for a dependency? If so, add a clarification field at the end ofscript/licenses/zed-licenses.toml, as specified in the cargo-about book.