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Edited: Dec 10, 2021

non-US keyboard

It looks like only US keyboard is usable, in fact my italian keyboard is not recognised while writing a message and this is annoying because you have to pay much attention to avoid errors. I think that software should recognise OS installed keyboard automatically, I don't know why this is not happening.

Best 73 de Phil iz1fks

13 comments

13 Comments

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irad d

Dec 28, 2021

Thank you @do7ke and @iz1fks for your information.

I have managed to reproduce and solve.

I will release a fix in the upcoming version (V3)

73s!

do7ke

Dec 28, 2021

Replying to

That's great news! Thanks so much for your work and the software itself, happy to use it!

73s

Kevin

do7ke

Dec 28, 2021

@iz1fks I've made a dirty workaround for this on my end: In windows' localization settings, I've added the german (or in your case italian) keyboard layout to the english localization (for windows 7 it should kinda look like this: https://thetypingcat.com/howto/change-your-keyboard-layout-win7 but of course you will add italian instead of dvorak) and removed the US keyboard layout out of it. So now, even though windows will switch to the english localization, it still uses my german keyboard layout. It's a bit dirty and of course it would be nicer if the programm wouldn't do it in the first place but for now it works for me.

iz1fks

Dec 28, 2021

Replying to

@do7ke Great workaround Kevin, I have removed the US keyboard installed and left the italian one only. I really don't need US keyboard and I don't remember why I prevoiusly installed it. Anyway in order to give a feedback to @irad d we can say that the issue appears only if multiple keboards languages are installed in windows at the same time; probably VarAC trigger to select the US keyboard as default as it's installed even if it's not the OS selected "in use" keyboard language. 73 and thanks

do7ke

Dec 28, 2021

I have noticed that everytime I start (or switch to) VarAC, my windows keyboard scheme changes automatically to ENG (as seen in the taskbar). If I manually switch it back to my localization (German), everything is fine again. However, this happens everytime I start the programm or Alt+Tab out of it and in again, while this doesn't happen with any other programs.

Is there some part of the runtime that tells Windows it prefers the english keyboard layout over any other so Windows feels obligated to switch to that?

iz1fks

Dec 28, 2021

Replying to

@irad d It's the same issue I have described before, I think it's not ASCII issue even if the extended ASCII codes used by other languages like italian, german or french would not be implemented, the issue is about keys displacement on the keyboard. I use only english characters for qso's in VarAC but punctuation keys are different in different keyboards. anyway I have asked to Kevin which OS he's using because it could be the reason. 73 de Phil

do7ke

Dec 28, 2021

Replying to

@irad d Thanks for checking it out! I've just recorded a quick and dirty video of this behaviour, so it's better visible what happens: https://youtu.be/G9R4veXanQc (it's not publicly listed, just for the sake of showing it here).

Take a look at the localization setting next to the clock in the taskbar as it changes everytime, VarAC get's the focus.

Most likely, this really is Phil's problem as well. Whenever the localization changes from a localized keyboard to english, some key's are (virtually) placed elsewhere even though both languages have them in common (most popular is the switch between Y and Z but also all sorts of punctuation is on a different position then).

@iz1fks I'm using Win10 x64, so I guess it's not about the windows version but some call that VarAC does whenever it get's focus.

Kevin

iz1fks

Dec 28, 2021

Replying to

@do7ke ok Kevin, thanks for the reply about OS so we can discard this hypothesis. 73

Zeev Stadler 4X5ZS

Dec 14, 2021

It seems to me that the request is to support non-English text. Currently, non-English/non-ASCII characters are shown as "?" on the receiving side. For example:

irad d

Dec 13, 2021

Hi Phil. can you please tell me what keyboard you are using that does not work ? I want to try and simulate it. a screenshot of your keyboard configuration would be helpful. Thank you.

iz1fks

Dec 14, 2021

Replying to

Hi Irad, nothing special at all. Italian keyboard have same ascii western characters of course but some of them are in different key position, in addition some keys are designed for characters peculiar to italian (and french) language; 99,9% of pc and laptop keyboard in Italy have been of this type since early '90's or even before. Even in other european countries (Germany, France) there are national keyboards, Windows recognise them with no problem at all and it can be set from keyboard properties. I don't know why VarAC doesn't recognise it, perhaps there is something to set in the compiler of the programming environment you are using to recognise keyboard as set in windows. you can find all info about italian keyboard here: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Italian_Keyboard_layout.svg

Let me know if I can give you other info

73 de Phil, iz1fks