Navigation arrows on keyboard not working in script editor

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Hi:

When I am typing in the script editor I'll often make a spelling mistake. Naturally, I want to go back a char or two and put it right. If I press the navigation / arrow keys at the bottom right of my keyboard, they have no effect on where the cursor is in the script editor. What is truly odd is that I've had this problem for over 2 years, across multiple versions of livecode, across multiple computers AND my business partner has the same experience.

Just to be absolutely clear, I am talking about the same arrow keys you would use in a word processor to navigate up down lines and left and right through the keyboard.

What have I done to fix the problem?
I've pressed command, shift, option, control and all combos thereof and just the keys alone
I've deleted my preferences and had them recreated for me

Research
It appears there are very few people with this problem as I have seen and heard nothing about it.

I'm totally stuck. Any suggestions? It is an absolute pain in the bum and slows me down every time I code

Bruce

[richmond62]

This wouldn't be in 9.6.2 RC 3 would it by any chance?

Because it should NOT be a Release Candidate at all after a Bug turned up which freezes the IDE everytime anyone wants
to resize the scriptEditor.

Personally I think 9.6.2 RC 3 should be removed from the list of downloads.

[bn]

That sounds odd. You could try to remove the LC preferences from the preferences folder of your system while LC is closed. Then restart LC and see if it works now. LC rebuilts a new preference folder if there is none.
On a Mac LC preferences are
⁨Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨user ▸ ⁨userxyz ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Preferences⁩ ▸ ⁨RunRev⁩⁩ ▸ ⁨livecode7.rev

Other things that come to mind could be a plug-in that traps for the arrowKeys. But I can not think of any plug-in that would do that. To be sure you could move your plugin folder from "documentation" -> "myLivecode" to a different folder or just rename the plug-in folder temporarily to something else.
Again restart LC to see if arrowKeys work.
the plugin folder is
Documents ▸ ⁨My LiveCode⁩ ▸ Plugins

Kind regards
Bernd

[richmond62]

I've had this problem for over 2 years, across multiple versions of livecode

I owe you an apology for not having read this part of your posting.

It would seem to suggest it is "you", or rather something installed on your system that is trapping the arrowKeys
before they manage to ge through to LiveCode.

Bye-the-bye: which operating system are you using?

Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨user ▸ ⁨userxyz ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Preferences⁩ ▸ ⁨RunRev⁩⁩ ▸ ⁨livecode7.rev

Not quite:

Macintosh HD⁩ ▸ ⁨Users ▸ ⁨userxyz ▸ ⁨Library⁩ ▸ ⁨Preferences⁩ ▸ ⁨RunRev⁩⁩ ▸ ⁨livecode7.rev

[richmond62]

It might not be a bad idea to see if your Arrow Keys function in other ways in LiveCode:
-

SShot 2021-03-22 at 13.45.10.png (10.26 KiB) Viewed 7001 times

-
This little stack is saved in LC 7 format.

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Thanks Bernard:

Interestingly, I followed your instructions deleting my preferences and when I relaunched LC it worked for a moment in the message box but by the time I tried to edit the stack the behaviour had returned to the usual of ignoring my navigation keys. But there was an instant when it worked in the message box and that I have not seen before - which might tell a person of sufficient experience what is going on.

I checked in my extensions / plugins folder. There is nothing in there. I have zero extensions installed.

A worthy attempt but my problem remains. Thanks for the time and effort.

Bruce

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Richmond62 - that was useful thanks. Downloaded the stack and yes, pressing my arrow keys illuminates those arrow squares giving them an attractive if temporary green colour. So the keys themselves are alive and not trapped by some extension when in LC.

The mystery continues.

Bruce

[bn]

Thanks Bernard:

Interestingly, I followed your instructions deleting my preferences and when I relaunched LC it worked for a moment in the message box but by the time I tried to edit the stack the behaviour had returned to the usual of ignoring my navigation keys. But there was an instant when it worked in the message box and that I have not seen before - which might tell a person of sufficient experience what is going on.

I checked in my extensions / plugins folder. There is nothing in there. I have zero extensions installed.

Did you delete while no instance of LC was open? If not LC will recreate the faulty preferences in a blink.

Could you please indicate your setup: operating system and version, LC version

Other than that I run out of ideas.

Kind regards
Bernd

[SparkOut]

The only idea I can think of that just might have even a slim chance of helping is to check for, and turn off any script editor "helpers" (bracket closers, quote closers and so on) in the script editor preferences.
Those are notorious for causing script editor performance issues and just might have some relevance to the arrow key problems you face. But I would not be very confident about that.

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Bernd:

Yes, the app was completely closed when I deleted the prefs. And it worked for an incredibly short period of time.

LC 9.6.2-RC-1
Big Sur 11.2.3

Gents - I have sort of good news! I spend my life working on a single app at the moment and in THAT app the navigation keys don't work. I just thought I'd make a new app for a second while testing this and the nav keys worked. So I got one of my other older apps and the nav keys work in that.

So it would appear that this non working nav keys problem is SPECIFIC to one app. Somebody else worked on the code once. I can't imagine why someone might want to stop the nav keys from working but what would I look for that might trap navigation keys and stop them from working? It would have to be in the stack or a background script wouldn't it? To effect everywhere in the app.

Thanks for your help so far - we are getting somewhere at last. And while I was in that new app and using the NAV keys - well what a joy it was to have that ability.

Bruce

[Davidv]

Look for 'on arrowkey' or just 'arrowkey', anywhere in any script

Also, check under General in Preferences. The checkbox for "arrowkeys navigate through cards" should be off.

edit: clarify first line

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Thanks. I have to go to the dentist now but when I return with less face but less bad guys in my teeth I will try looking for this right away.

Appreciate your help.

Bruce

[bbalmerTotalFluency]

Guys! Success!!!!!!!

It turns out that it was only true in one app, my main app and once I new that I looked for arrowKey stack wide and found an empty arrowKey routine in a backscript - so it was working app wide. What a JOY!!! Thanks for your help. So logical now I know the answer.

[richmond62]

So logical now I know the answer.

Isn't that always the case!

Very happy to know you have sorted that out.