10.5.6 breaks Dvorak keyboard shortcuts in Eclipse

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Level 1

16 points

10.5.6 breaks Dvorak keyboard shortcuts in Eclipse

I just confirmed this on two separate machines. After installing 10.5.6 the keyboard shortcuts in the Eclipse Java development environment don't work properly. It seems that they are interpreted as QWERTY (with some exceptions, like Cmd-Q and Cmd-,). It's extremely frustrating to try to work with all the keyboard shortcuts moved around. Does anyone NOT have this problem, or have a solution for it? I tried putting back a few suspicious files to the pre-update versions, but with no success. I also tried some other Java applications and they seem to work fine. (And of course I've reinstalled Eclipse.) This is a very strange and irritating problem.

Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 15, 2008 4:46 PM

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Answer 1

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Dec 15, 2008 4:52 PM in response to masto

It could just be an Eclipse issue. Are they compatible with 10.5.6?
I would check with Eclipse to see if they tested their software with 10.5.6.
Until the issue is resolved, you should consider reverting back to 10.5.5

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Answer 2

Dec 17, 2008 3:25 PM in response to masto

It's definitely a problem. I've opened bugs with both Eclipse (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=258877) and Apple.

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Answer 3

Dec 17, 2008 9:27 PM in response to ossmkitty

It's not just Eclipse. Office 2008 is also affected, as are Thoth's keyboard shortcuts without the modifiers.

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Answer 4

Dec 18, 2008 10:11 AM in response to masto

I have confirmed this problem on eclipse and ms word 2008. I agree this is very annoying. I have found a few eclipse bug reports that there are similar issues with unicode keyboard layouts. Does anyone know if 10.5.6 switched from an older layout format to a unicode layout?

I also noticed that in eclipse and word they some times respond to both Dvorak and QWERTY modifiers. For example, in word paste can be done using both "Cmd-V" and "Cmd-."

QWERTY seems to take precedence when there are conflicts.

Does anyone have a workaround until an official patch is available?

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Answer 5

Dec 18, 2008 1:11 PM in response to masto

Same issue here in MS Word 2004 and Adobe Fireworks CS3. Does the Java VM use the Carbon libraries?

I wish I had heard about this sooner, I upgraded my MBP at home to 10.5.6 before leaving this morning and I use Eclipse on it. Argh.

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Answer 6

Dec 19, 2008 11:00 AM in response to Jerry Kindall

Yep. Just wanted to confirm that I'm having the same problem with Office. What's even stranger is that the shortcuts seem to be a moving target. Sometimes they'll work as if it's a QWERTY keyboard and sometimes as the Dvorak keyboard.

Strangely Save (Cmd-S) seems to always work as it should for the Dvorak layout, but others seem to come and go. Like sometimes Copy works properly and sometimes Cmd-C switches back to Cmd-I (QWERTY), just to give one example.

Seriously annoying.

~G

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Answer 7

Dec 19, 2008 11:02 AM in response to Grey Drane

Sorry, just noticed you said Office 2008. All of the above for me is actually for Office 2004. Both Word and Excel are giving me problems.

~G

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Answer 8

Dec 19, 2008 11:53 AM in response to masto

I am experiencing broken shortcuts in Maya 2009, Flash CS4, as well as Eclipse (Flex builder). Pretty annoying, I really hope we see a fix for this soon. This seems really out of character for apple, I can't remember every having a problem like this with a system update.

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Answer 9

Dec 19, 2008 8:53 PM in response to masto

This is also broken in World of Warcraft, of all things. Is it Carbon apps, in particular? WoW is a Carbon application and uses Carbon events for keybindings.

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Answer 10

Dec 20, 2008 8:18 AM in response to Dave Bolme

If you're willing to live on the bleeding edge, Eclipse 3.5M4 Cocoa (not Carbon) works on 10.5.6. This is labeled early access, and has numerous other problems of its own, so it may not be suitable for everyone, but at least keybindings work.

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Answer 11

Dec 20, 2008 9:04 AM in response to Grey Drane

Grey Drane wrote:

Strangely Save (Cmd-S) seems to always work as it should for the Dvorak layout

Scratch this. Cmd-S just now reverted back to the QWERTY keyboard in Word 2004, whereas it had always worked properly before.

Weird... and, of course, annoying!

~G

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Answer 12

Dec 22, 2008 1:33 PM in response to masto

I found one way to hobble along until there's a fix...

Go into System Preferences>International>Input Menu and add the Dvorak-Qwerty [command symbol] to your list of keyboard layouts. When that keyboard layout is selected, your keyboard will type Dvorak keys until the command key is pressed. When the command key is pressed, it sends Qwerty letters. It means going back to the Qwerty key commands but at least the responses are predictable.

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Answer 13

Dec 22, 2008 2:05 PM in response to johncarync

Good one! Hadn't thought of that. As you say, not ideal, but at least predictable.

I was afraid I was going to have to retrain myself to type Qwerty. (Not really, but I was getting real tired of going to my mouse all the time just to do italics or to close a window. An RSI waiting to happen....)

Still, I real hope a fix is on its way soon!

Cheers,
~G

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Answer 14

Dec 22, 2008 2:27 PM in response to masto

I am having the same problem, specifically with Word 2008. Ugh.

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Answer 15

kzettel

Level 1

0 points

Dec 22, 2008 2:29 PM in response to johncarync

That seems to affect all applications, including the ones that work correctly. Is there a way to just change Eclipse to us Dvorak - Qwerty?

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