Re: FW: problem: occasional keystroke doubling (a known issue?)

[Harold L Hunt II <huntharo at msu dot edu>]

David,

No need to CC me on replies.  Please don't.

Fries, David D wrote:
> The correct solution if you asked me is to ignore the windows repeat
> events and use this X "feature" that is causing the problem.  I
> would say this is the correct thing to do because of the very reason
> that the feature was included in X in the first place (at least I
> assume it is the reason).  It gives you rates and delays the hardware
> doesn't provide, especially lower delays than 250ms and 30cps on
> pc hardware.  If you use, `xset r rate 150 80` you can see it work
> under cygwin.

We take the approach that we are a Windows application, which means that 
 we act like other Windows applications with respect to key repeats.  I 
believe we would get more complaints about Cygwin/XFree86 not responding 
to the Windows Control Panel settings than we will ever get about 
Cygwin/XFree86 not responding to the X key repeat settings.

In fact, the evidence so far is that the only people complaining are the 
ones that are being stung by the X key repeat system, not anyone that 
doesn't want Windows to handle the keyboard settings.

> One note though if you fiddle with the rates even on a Linux computer
> that is heavily loaded it can duplicate keys when you didn't actually
> hold it long enough for the delay to kick in, so it isn't always
> foolproof even on Linux.

Right, and Cygwin/XFree86 introduces more delays into the system that 
cause inadvertant key repeats to happen more often than they do on 
Linux.  A lot of people use Cygwin/XFree86 over RDP (Remote Desktop 
Connection/Terminal Services), which introduces a lot of lag in the 
keystrokes that Windows handles just fine, but which causes X to think 
that a key repeat has occurred.  In that case, the X key repeat system 
does nothing but get in the way.

> I've noticed that the modifiers under cygwin (control, alt, shift etc)
> show that they repeat under xev just like other keys where they don't
> on Linux.
>
> While input is the topic is it possible to claim the alt and window keys
> in cygwin?  I have fvwm setup to use them a ton and it works great under
> Linux, but not at all in cygwin.  I was debating if it would be useful to
> let windows still control alt-tab or not.  I've seen other programs
> take control of the window and alt keys, so it is possible, but I have no
> idea what it would take.

It may be useful or it may not.  It is most certainly possible on 
NT-based platforms, but the debate won't get us anywhere.  Someone can 
submit a patch and we can try it out.  Until then it is just idle chatter.

Harold