different keyboard layouts on MacOS

[BlackCoyote]

Hey,

I'm hoping anyone can share some advice on how to handle the simulation of keystrokes on MacOS on different system keyboard languages that move the keys around.

For example, if you simulate a W, but set the language on MacOS to one where the keyboard has an AZERTY layout (like Belgium), where the Z and W change places, apps on MacOS will receive a Z instead, even though SharpHook is explicitly told to simulate a W.

to replicate, you can do EventSimulator.SimulateKeyPress(KeyCode.VcW) with the input language set to Belgian (BE)

The result will be a Z being entered in an app like TextEdit.

On Windows however, this doesn't happen. The key you pass through SharpHook is always going to be the keycode that apps on Windows receive, no matter the input language.

I'd love to hear any tips on how to handle that, or perhaps this is something that could be accounted for within SharpHook?

Thanks!

[TolikPylypchuk]

Hi! Thanks for asking!

This is expected behavior though. eventSimulator.SimulateKeyPress(KeyCode.VcW) - this means that the simulator will simulate the W key from the QWERTY layout (third key from the left in the second row), irrespective of the current keyboard layout.

Taking the current layout into consideration is difficult because keyboard layouts can in general produce any Unicode characters. For example, the Ukrainian layout produces Cyrillic letters. It's just not feasible for a low-level library like SharpHook to implement this and expect users of the library to consider the current layout when simulating text.

If you want to simulate text entry, then you should do this instead: eventSimulator.SimulateTextEntry("w"). This works regardless of the current layout. If you really want to simulate the W key from the current layout (if the current layout has one, that is), then for macOS, you should use the text input system (TIS) to get layout-related information.

I've actually implemented getting characters that are produced by various keys in various layouts in Keyboard Switch, an application which gave rise to SharpHook itself, and here's what it does on different systems (spoiler: none of it is pretty):

• on Windows, it uses ToUnicodeEx
• on macOS, it uses TIS
• on Linux (X11) it uses the XkbKeycodeToKeysym function from Xlib.

Regarding Windows - I actually didn't know that this is the current behavior, and I expected it to work the same as on macOS. Hopefully, I'll have time in the nearest future to align this behavior.

[BlackCoyote]

Thanks for the info!

[TolikPylypchuk]

@BlackCoyote I've just released version 6.1.2 which changes the Windows behavior to be the same as on macOS and Linux. Hopefully, this change doesn't get this reaction from users :D

[BlackCoyote]

I'm experiencing some unexpected behaviour on Windows with these changes.

For context; when I have an app simulate the Q key on the US keyboard layout, it will print a Q, and when I then switch to the BE (belgium) keyboard, it will print an A, because of the azerty layout, as expected.

However, if I launch the app with the BE keyboard already selected, and then simulate a Q key, it will print a Q, and then when I switch to the US layout, it will print an A. Seemingly as if the operating system switched the two layouts around.

I don't imagine this is an issue with SharpHook or libuiohook, but I was wondering if you experienced the same behaviour, and if you may have any clue as to what is going on here.

[TolikPylypchuk]

Hm, that is certainly weird. I will look into it.

[TolikPylypchuk]

Hi @BlackCoyote! I've tried to reproduce the issue you've described, and couldn't 😅

Everything works as expected for me, I've tried it both with Belgian and French keyboards (both AZERTY), and when the AZERTY layout is selected, the simulator still correctly simulates the Q key (which prints A).

I did notice that there was an issue with the global hook though - it reported that the A key was pressed when the Q key was pressed on an AZERTY layout. I will fix this in the upcoming version 7.0.0.

[BlackCoyote]

I appreciate that you took the time to try it out!

It might just be something weird going on that's unique to my system. I'll just wait and see if any of my users ever report the same behaviour.

Thanks!