Word Delimiters or Separators. Where defined?

When CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT is pressed in a program (such as notepad or
indeed this newsreader, Forte Agent) the cursor moves to the previous
or next word.

Obvious stuff. Except on some systems I use there appear to be
different delimiter characters in operation.

On some systems the "hyphen" is taken as a separator, on others it
isn't.

e.g. on one system it would take two ctrl-lefts or rights to skip
past the char sequence "one-word".

On another the hyphen is assumed to be part of the word and it
only requires one ctrl-left/right to hop over it.

I prefer the 2nd behavior and it appears given the way the same
software behaves on two different machines that it is configurable.

Any idea how? What windows dll handles standard key presses?

Note all systems are set to UK. There are no regional differences.

MTIA

Windows passes what keys are pressed along to the application and it is up
to the application to decide what to do with the information.
If I press Ctrl + Left arrow for example, the application in focus gets that
information, it does not get told what to do with that information, for
example it isn't told to move a cursor.

"SteveL" <> wrote in message
news:...
> When CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT is pressed in a program (such as notepad or
> indeed this newsreader, Forte Agent) the cursor moves to the previous
> or next word.
>
> Obvious stuff. Except on some systems I use there appear to be
> different delimiter characters in operation.
>
> On some systems the "hyphen" is taken as a separator, on others it
> isn't.
>
> e.g. on one system it would take two ctrl-lefts or rights to skip
> past the char sequence "one-word".
>
> On another the hyphen is assumed to be part of the word and it
> only requires one ctrl-left/right to hop over it.
>
> I prefer the 2nd behavior and it appears given the way the same
> software behaves on two different machines that it is configurable.
>
> Any idea how? What windows dll handles standard key presses?
>
> Note all systems are set to UK. There are no regional differences.
>
> MTIA

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:58:19 -0700, "Gary Mount"
<> wrote:

>Windows passes what keys are pressed along to the application and it is up
>to the application to decide what to do with the information.
>If I press Ctrl + Left arrow for example, the application in focus gets that
>information, it does not get told what to do with that information, for
>example it isn't told to move a cursor.

I think you must be wrong about that or have misunderstood my
question. The application wouldn''t directly handle stuff like that. A
file search program's developer hasn't had to work out algorithms for
handling editing keys and cursor move keys. The program surely calls
common library functions to do all that. Only when enter is pressed
(or the "OK" button clicked) does it get the filename to search for
(in this example)

Besides this question came about because precisely the same software
running on different machines gives different results for
CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT.

This is why I'm asking the question.



>
>"SteveL" <> wrote in message
>news:...
>> When CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT is pressed in a program (such as notepad or
>> indeed this newsreader, Forte Agent) the cursor moves to the previous
>> or next word.
>>
>> Obvious stuff. Except on some systems I use there appear to be
>> different delimiter characters in operation.
>>
>> On some systems the "hyphen" is taken as a separator, on others it
>> isn't.
>>
>> e.g. on one system it would take two ctrl-lefts or rights to skip
>> past the char sequence "one-word".
>>
>> On another the hyphen is assumed to be part of the word and it
>> only requires one ctrl-left/right to hop over it.
>>
>> I prefer the 2nd behavior and it appears given the way the same
>> software behaves on two different machines that it is configurable.
>>
>> Any idea how? What windows dll handles standard key presses?
>>
>> Note all systems are set to UK. There are no regional differences.
>>
>> MTIA

"SteveL" <> wrote in message
news: ...
> On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:58:19 -0700, "Gary Mount"
> <> wrote:
>
>>Windows passes what keys are pressed along to the application and it is up
>>to the application to decide what to do with the information.
>>If I press Ctrl + Left arrow for example, the application in focus gets
>>that
>>information, it does not get told what to do with that information, for
>>example it isn't told to move a cursor.
>
> I think you must be wrong about that or have misunderstood my
> question. The application wouldn''t directly handle stuff like that. A
> file search program's developer hasn't had to work out algorithms for
> handling editing keys and cursor move keys. The program surely calls
> common library functions to do all that. Only when enter is pressed
> (or the "OK" button clicked) does it get the filename to search for
> (in this example)
>
> Besides this question came about because precisely the same software
> running on different machines gives different results for
> CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT.
>
> This is why I'm asking the question.

The software developer programs the kind of key press or delimiter actions a
program will act upon. You have no control of this, and you cannot set-up
something that's going to be generic. It's internal to each program solution
as to what actions a program will do when key press combinations are used in
a given program. Program exe(s) and DLL(s) pass and receive program
information to/form other DLL(s) and exe(s).

You can't control this or manipulate communications of data between
programs, in the manner you're looking to do, particularly a system DLL.


>>
>>"SteveL" <> wrote in message
>>news:...
>>> When CTRL+LEFT or RIGHT is pressed in a program (such as notepad or
>>> indeed this newsreader, Forte Agent) the cursor moves to the previous
>>> or next word.
>>>
>>> Obvious stuff. Except on some systems I use there appear to be
>>> different delimiter characters in operation.
>>>
>>> On some systems the "hyphen" is taken as a separator, on others it
>>> isn't.
>>>
>>> e.g. on one system it would take two ctrl-lefts or rights to skip
>>> past the char sequence "one-word".
>>>
>>> On another the hyphen is assumed to be part of the word and it
>>> only requires one ctrl-left/right to hop over it.
>>>
>>> I prefer the 2nd behavior and it appears given the way the same
>>> software behaves on two different machines that it is configurable.
>>>
>>> Any idea how? What windows dll handles standard key presses?
>>>
>>> Note all systems are set to UK. There are no regional differences.
>>>
>>> MTIA

> Besides this question came about because precisely the same software
> running on different machines gives different results for
> CTRL+LEFT/RIGHT.

Gary is right - keypresses are sent as Windows messages to the application
which currently has the focus. What the application does with it is up to
the application writer.

> The application wouldn''t directly handle stuff like that. A
> file search program's developer hasn't had to work out algorithms for
> handling editing keys and cursor move keys.

Yes, but that is because modern software is written using "components",
which are usually implemented as DLLs. For instance, lots of applications
that offer text editing use a standard RichEdit component, which is
implemented by the Windows API. Likewise there are standard Open and Save
dialogues, colour pickers, and so on.

RichEdit has handlers for a great range of key presses (as do most of the
other components), and this default behaviour is "programmed in" to RichEdit
by Microsoft. However, the application programmer who uses a RichEdit can
override the default behaviour by capturing key strokes and processing them
within the application.

In summary then, a component such as a text edit box, a File Open dialogue,
or any of the other standard bits and pieces that make up a Windows
application, has a default behaviour for each key press, programmed in my
Microsoft. The application programmer can override them.

The components are, in effect, built in to Windows and largely implemented
as DLLs, I believe. The only explanation for the behaviour you are seeing
is that the application must be running on two different operating systems
(or different updates of the same OS). It is feasible that older versions
of Windows implement some of the component behaviours differently.

In any case, I don't think there is anything you can do about it directly.
Mixing and matching system DLLs would be a recipe for disaster. You would
have to do a proper OS upgrade.

I can't think of any other explanation for the strange effect you are
seeing.

SteveT