Topic Keyman 3.2 or Keyman 6 with Firefox?

Hello.

I was happily using a very old version of Keyman (3.2 I think) with my own homemade "european" Keyboard on my Win 98 SE system until the beginning of February when a sudden glitch with some files on my hard drive meant that Windows stopped working properly and I had to re-install it.

Since re-installing Windows 98, and updating my browser to Firefox 1.5, I found that Keyman 3.2 wasn't working properly any more. Specifically, it was failing to load at Windows startup, and when manually loaded, if I typed the key combination a" in Firefox, which in my keyboard should have produced ä, it actually produced aä. These errors persisted despite me re-installing Keyman 3.2.

After much fiddling without effect, I decided to try updating to the new version of Keyman, and try converting my "european" Keyboard to a version 6 compatible Keyboard file.

I have managed this, and the new Keyboard works fine in applications such as Word 97 on my system.

However, there is absolutely no response from Keyman when typing in Firefox on a website such as Google Mail, or indeed this very forum - or even when typing in the address bar. It is as if Keyman were not even present, but it definitely is present and switched on with the correct keyboard loaded.

Have I missed something, or is this a known incompatibility? Any suggestions on how I can make things work like they used to up until the beginning of last month?

Thanks

MQ

[quote="martinquested"]Hello.

I was happily using a very old version of Keyman (3.2 I think) with my own homemade "european" Keyboard on my Win 98 SE system until the beginning of February when a sudden glitch with some files on my hard drive meant that Windows stopped working properly and I had to re-install it.

Since re-installing Windows 98, and updating my browser to Firefox 1.5, I found that Keyman 3.2 wasn't working properly any more. Specifically, it was failing to load at Windows startup, and when manually loaded, if I typed the key combination a" in Firefox, which in my keyboard should have produced ä, it actually produced aä. These errors persisted despite me re-installing Keyman 3.2.

After much fiddling without effect, I decided to try updating to the new version of Keyman, and try converting my "european" Keyboard to a version 6 compatible Keyboard file.

I have managed this, and the new Keyboard works fine in applications such as Word 97 on my system.

However, there is absolutely no response from Keyman when typing in Firefox on a website such as Google Mail, or indeed this very forum - or even when typing in the address bar. It is as if Keyman were not even present, but it definitely is present and switched on with the correct keyboard loaded.

Have I missed something, or is this a known incompatibility? Any suggestions on how I can make things work like they used to up until the beginning of last month?

Thanks

MQ[/quote]

Hi Martin,

I have not tested Firefox 1.5 on Windows 98 - so am unable to give a definitive answer - but quickly - are you using a Unicode keyboard or a legacy codepage based keyboard?

I will try and have a look at Firefox 1.5 on Windows 98 when I have some spare time.

Kind Regards,

Marc Durdin
Tavultesotf Pty Ltd

I am using what I guess would be called a legacy keyboard. It's Keyman 3.2 and I wrote the .kmn file using a simple text editor and it runs in Keyman. None of this complicated modern compiling and suchlike! When I upgraded to Keyman 6 I modified the file so that it would compile, and tried it both using Unicode and the other option (can't remember what that was called now).

As I mentioned, the problem with Keyman 3.2 seems to have coincided with both my upgrading to Firefox 1.5 (under Windows 98SE by the way, not 98) and also the crash I had at the start of February. So a number of (unknown) files were lost and it's hard to know if Keyman depends on any of them being correctly loaded. I have now got Windows back to the state where everything else works...

So you may find that it works fine with you and the problem is not incompatibility but my dodgy old computer.

Grateful for any light you can shed.

Martin Quested

I have the same problem with Firefox 1.5 with Windows XP; this is with a Unicode keyboard - Keyman is totally unresponsive. It works with Internet Explorer, though, and it also works with Firefox 1.0.7 which I coincidentally still have installed on one of the PCs I tend to use.

Kellner - I run Firefox 1.5.0.1 on Windows XP and have not experienced this issue - Keyman works fine... If you are running the Standard Edition of Keyman, could you create a Diagnostic Report and send it through to Tavultesoft, so we can find out what might be interfering with Firefox and Keyman?

Does Keyman work properly with other applications on your system? Do you have any plugins or extensions installed in Firefox?

Marc Durdin
Tavultesoft Pty Ltd

Marc,

Keyman works fine with other applications, not just Internet Explorer, but also Microsoft Word and Open Office.

I have a few FireFox Plugins: DownThemAll!, Adblock, Tab X and HTML Validator.

It just occured to me that I'm using version 6.0.140.0 of Keyman, so I'll install the latest version and let you know when the problem persists.

Best regards,

Birgit Kellner

OK, after the update to the latest Keyman version, the problem persists. I sent in a diagnostics report.

The diagnostics function informed that a dll belonging to Synaptics' Progressive Touch conflicted with Keyman. I disabled the program, but the problem remains.

I have reviewed the diagnostic report - I don't think the Synaptics' Progressive Touch app is an issue - the diagnostics identifies it only as a potential conflict.

I can't see any other obvious issues in the report. Some other questions:

Are you using a Unicode or ANSI keyboard - which keyboard?
When you try using Keyman in Firefox, does it just come out with German letters, or do you get no response at all?
Does the Keyman keyboard work in the address bar or search box?
Does the Keyman keyboard work when you select File->Open File?

Marc Durdin
Tavultesoft Pty Ltd

1) I'm using a Unicode keaboard.
2) When I hit the customized key combinations (like ALT + a for ā), nothing happens - no response at all.
3) No, nothing happens in address bar or search box.
4) Oh, it actually works in the Open File menu!

(By the way, it also works with Firefox 1.0, in case I hadn't mentioned this before, to be precise, with: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de-DE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041122 Firefox/1.0)

[quote="kellner"]1) I'm using a Unicode keaboard.
2) When I hit the customized key combinations (like ALT + a for ā), nothing happens - no response at all.
[/quote]

I have now managed to reproduce this issue here in my office - the issue is with Ctrl and Alt modifiers. I have logged an issue document in our system and we will find a resolution for this, hopefully in the next patch release.

Marc Durdin
Tavultesoft Pty Ltd