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Typing '$' in Prop Tool gives '¥$' — Parallax Forums

Typing '$' in Prop Tool gives '¥$'

godzichgodzich Posts: 74
edited 2011-12-21 17:46 in Propeller 1
Hi,

Running the latest Propeller Tool on a WIN7 Professional 64-bit PC...

Using my FI (nnish keyboard) I type in all applications 'Alt_Gr' + '4' to get a dollar sign ($). However, when typing 'Alt_Gr' + '4' the Propeller Tool gives instead of just the dollar sign two symbols: '¥$'

WHAT IS WRONG ? This makes writing hexadecimal values a real chore. I have to manually delete from the front of each dollar sign the extra symbol. Is there somewhere a setting that is wrongly set? I get the dollar sign without error by pressing 'shift' + 4 if I switch to the US keyboard setting in Windows. However, I cannot use the US keyboard setting in Windows with my Finnish keyboard, since all punctuation and special symbols move to awkward keys!!!

Is this a recognized problem - and if not - how do I report about this to Parallax ??!!

Best regards,

Christian

PS: The same problem was already in the Propeller Tool 1.2.7. I had high hopes this would have been fixed in the newest release...

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-12-20 03:53
    No idea about Windows or the Prop Tool on Windows but have you tried alternatives?
    There is:

    BST from here: http://www.fnarfbargle.com/bst.html

    or PZST from here: http://code.google.com/p/pzst/

    Both are very good and have not given me trouble with Finnish keyboards. PZST use the BST compiler as a back end so you get some nice extra features with both of them.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-12-20 04:47
    The problem may be rather horrific as these days all OSes tend to have default currency displayed dependent on your geographic location. In other words, your Windows7 could be making some wrong assumptions about what you want based on the global currency configurations.

    You happen to be thinking 'hexadecimal' and the OS maybe thinking a currency.

    ASCII is a wonderful programing tool, but these days your OS is really trying to ignore it and go to the much more sophisticated Unicode. You may have the OS actually emulating ASCII inside a UNICODE display and a bug sneaked in.

    You may need to find a way to create your own 'hot key combination for the "$" or and alternative means to designate hexidecimal. Since the Propeller IDE was originally written when only XP existed, Window7 64bit might be a bit far away from doing a correct emulation of XP.

    It looks as though this is particular to Windows7 OS and the keyboard driver for your particular language and geographic location. Sad to say, but the fix should come from MS as Parallax doesn't have the resources to stay on top of all the various languages, related keyboards, and locality setting for the entire world.

    Linux would be much easier to look under the hood and find a fix for the problem.

    You can always contact Parallax Customer Service, they might protest to M$. It wouldn't hurt to do so.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-12-20 05:16
    I would imagine that the Propeller Tool is now dead in the water. It's closed source, it's Windows only, it uses components that are out of Parallax's control. Parallax has realized all these deficiencies and is working hard on the next generation cross platform, open source Prop compilers and IDE's. So I would not wait for these issues to be fixed whilst there are very fine alternatives to be getting on with.
  • godzichgodzich Posts: 74
    edited 2011-12-20 07:55
    Hi All,

    Thanks for your comments. Hm... if Parallax does not support WIN7 so then what? XP has no more support, and one would assume that there is a working official tool from Parallax for an existing operating system. I would understand that if I asked for support for Windows 98 - or something similar - that I would get rejected.

    This is - according to my understanding - a problem in the Parallax code. Each and every one application I run (and there are plenty of them) never has shown any similar behaviour or problems with non US keyboards. This is probably just something Parallax has never noticed, I have my doubts that they do test their software using foreign language packs or keyboards. Key codes using Alt_Gr+ something can be quite tricky in the MS word. But this time it is not MS to blame...

    I would like to use the official tool from Parallax. Using a third party program is not (at this moment) very tempting. Neither would I like to get an US keyboard just for Parallax sake. I just send a question to Parallax and they probably will answer promptly. However, I don't bet on it that this problem will get fixed anytime soon and I (and the rest of us non US keyboard users) will silently suffer and try to cope with this frustrating anomaly. But never have I before experienced that an Windows application does not receive correctly the keys I'm pressing... Well, there is also something spooky in the Parallax font when used in other applications, but that's not a big issue.....

    I assume that Parallax wants to support it's international customers, otherwise why would there be Spanish, Russian and even Chinese translations of the Prop documentation... ?

    Christian
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 15,003
    edited 2011-12-20 08:03
    Try using the ALT code...
    1. Make sure num-lock is on and you have a keyboard with a numeric keypad
    2. Hold down the ALT key and don't let go
    3. type 3 then 6 on the numeric keypad
    4. Let go of the ALT key.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-12-20 09:11
    If your keyboard does not have a dollar sign, just use your local currency symbol and do a global replace before compiling.

    -Phil
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-12-20 09:23
    A Finnish keyboard does have a dollar sign.
    Casting my mind back I'm pretty sure this also did not work under XP.
    Why the insistance on the Parallax tool? BST generates identical binaries to the Prop Tool for the same source. Plus one can enable some nice features that the Parallax tool lacks like unused method removal, some optimizations and conditional compilation. No need to suffer with this problem.
  • godzichgodzich Posts: 74
    edited 2011-12-21 00:45
    Hi,

    @Heater

    I'm reconsidering BST, will download it during the holiday - thanks for letting me know about it. Good to have alternatives... Can you additionally recommend a SPIN / PASM simulator software so that I could run/debug/singlestep prop progams on the PC?

    Otherwise I don't get it, why should I undergo lots of acrobatics (only a problem in the Propeller Tool) just to be able to type the $ character? Yes, the finnish keyboar has the $ character, as well as any other characters you have in your US keyboards, just arranged differently. Additionally weh have scandinavian chars like
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-12-21 00:58
    godzich,

    I can't be sure but I suspect there will never be another major release of the Spin Toll as we know it now.
    As far as I understand the original Spin compiler is written in assembler language and the IDE in Pascal. It's all closed source and not cross platform so no Mac or Linux versions etc.
    There is a rewrite of the compiler going on, this time in C so that it can be compiled for use anywhere. There will be a new IDE to go with it and I believe the whole lot will be open sourced.

    This is all good news and a welcome development but does not really help with your problem in the short term. Hence my suggestion to try out BST.


    As for simulation there is SpiSim by Dave Hein http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?127976-Spin-Simulator
    Can't say much about it but I did use it to step through some PASM code once.
  • pedwardpedward Posts: 1,642
    edited 2011-12-21 17:46
    Another idea would be to remap a key on your keyboard so that it does input a $ sign. I'm sure you can find a free windows program that will allow you to map a less-used key to do $.
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