Find out the character pressed key - apache-flex

If I add a listener to KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, I can find out the keyCode and the charCode.
The keyCode maps to a different character depending on the keyboard.
The charCode is just as useless, according to the help:
The character code values are English keyboard values. For example, if you press Shift+3, charCode is # on a Japanese keyboard, just as it is on an English keyboard.
So, how can I find out which character the user pressed?

You left out a pretty important part of the quote or it was missing where you found it:
For example, if you press Shift+3, the
getASCIICode() method returns # on a
Japanese keyboard, just as it does on
an English keyboard.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/201/langref/flash/events/KeyboardEvent.html
This is probably more helpful:
The charCode property is the numeric value of that key in the current character set (the default character set is UTF-8, which supports ASCII).
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/2/docs/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00000480.html
Your application determines what characters set is used, meaning that the even if you have to use separate keys of different keyboard locals to produce the same character, it will have the same charCode.

NOTE: (This is about keyboard messages in general and does not apply to actionscript alone. I misread the question and provided a deeper answer then was helpful)
Really, the path from keyboard to windows char is a VERY complex one, it goes something like this:
Keyboard send scancode to Keyboard device driver (KDD).
KDD sends a message to the system message queue.
The system then sends the message to the foreground thread that created the window with the current keyboard focus.
The thread's message loop picks up the message and figures out the correct character translation.
The 'real' char that was typed is not calculated until it finishes that whole process, as each window and thread can be on a different locale and you can't really 'translate' the key without knowing the locale and key buffer history.
The "WM_KEYDOWN" and "WM_KEYUP" messages cannot just be converted with MapVirtualKey or something because you don't know how many key presses make up a single char. The simple method is just handle the 'WM_CHAR' event and use that. Consider the following:
en-US locale, you press the following keys a + ' + a, you get the following output "a'a"
pt-BZ locale, you press the following keys a + ' + a, you get the following output "aá"
So in both examples you would get 3 KEYDOWN, KEYUP messages, but in the first you get 3 WM_CHAR and in the second you only get 2.
The following article is really good for the basic concepts:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646267(VS.85).aspx

You cannot effectively use charCode or keyCode to determine the character that was entered. You must compare strings only. The KeyboardEvent does not give you the entered text, which is also silly.
In my case I implemented a KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN event in addition to a TextEvent.TEXT_INPUT event. In the handler for the latter I implemented all functionality where the charCode was needed and didn't vary per keyboard locale (eg. space bar or enter). In the the former I checked for the text property of the event to compare what I needed locale independent.
Forgot to mention that this post hinted me to that solution: How to find out the character pressed key in languages?

Typing Japanese hiragana etc characters often require several keystrokes and sometimes even selecting the appropriate character from a drop down menu. You probably want to listen for a different event, something like a textfield's change event.

Related

input of an arbitrary number by the user without long waiting for the extension

Please tell me how to choose a template for the user to enter any number. Perhaps the only option is to show Asterisk the end of the set with a grid.
.#!
X! is one digit template(X=[0-9]) without search for more input ("!")
There is no patern for #. It just end input in some apps, see app documentation.

Atom doesn't replace on auto complete

I don't know if this is a bug or something wrong i am doing but when ever i type something and press enter to select from the auto complete menu it leaves whatever is written before... or specifically the # symbol for now
here a picture demonstration
enter image description here
enter image description here
So more to the question, Atom does replace whatever you type if you chose to auto-complete in contrary to what Brent said below. In an html file try typing dv or btn and select to auto-complete you'll then see that it replaces what you've typed. So this behavior is only (as far as i am concerned) replicable with symbols
From the Autocomplete section of the Atom Flight manual:
By default, the autocomplete system will look through the current open file for strings that match what you're starting to type.
If you've typed in part of a keyword that Atom doesn't recognize, and then autocomplete the rest of the phrase, Atom will not erase what you've previously typed. I used to do this a bunch when I first started using Atom. The solution is simple: just type the part of the keyword that Atom recognizes before auto-completing the rest of it. So in the case of your first example image, you just have to start typing the phrase media and then press enter; no need to include the preceding # symbol. This ultimately means that you just have to type less to get your desired code, which I think is pretty sweet.

Unix: what modifier key does "M-" refer to (e.g. M-C)

I'm trying to do a case-sensitive search in Nano. The help menu at the bottom of the screen says I can toggle case-sensitivity by typing M-C.
^G Get Help ^Y First Line ^T Go To Line ^W Beg of Par M-J FullJstify M-B Backwards
^C Cancel ^V Last Line ^R Replace ^O End of Par M-C Case Sens M-R Regexp
I'm not sure how to do this. Does M- refer to a modifier key that should be held while I type C? Or does M- mean I should press some key or key combination before hitting C?
M refers to the meta key, which is not present on most keyboards. (Its use in software is for primarily historical reasons.) Usually, the meta key is emulated by another key on your keyboard. On Windows and Linux, it is usually the Alt key. On Mac OS X, that key (aka Option) already has other uses, and so Escape is used instead.
Esc
For instance, if you wanted to go to the end of the file press
Esc then /
You don't need to hold down Esc as if it were Shift.
I do not know for nano, but for emacs, M- stands for the Meta key, which can mean pressing the Alt key simultaneously with the letter key or by pressing Esc key before the letter key. Alt generally only works when using an X version of the application, so when using a dumb terminal, only Esc will work.

Asp.NET Filtered TextBox Extender - Invalid Char Sequence?

Is it possible to put a character sequence in a Filtered TextBox Extender in Asp.NET? My guess is no, but I'm curious. I want the user to be able to enter the characters (such as & and #), but not enter the invalid sequences (such as &#).
Why not just use a regular expression? Because when the form is submitted, all the fields are passed to the server...including fields that are not part of the validation group. These fields do not get checked and may trigger the "A potentially dangerous Request.Form value…”, aka the HttpRequestValidationException. And preventing that message is the whole point of this. I'd rather tell the user, with a regex validator, what they are doing wrong...but I will settle for preventing them from typing the bad chars (&#, <, >).
Edit: sort of an afterthought, but if there's a better way to prevent ALL TextBoxes from including the characters, that'd be great!
You can just have a function onkeydown for all your text boxes and that checks the character pressed and if it's invalid just remove that last character. Also for your combination strings you can just check to see if the previous characters make it invalid then remove all of them.
An example of that type of function is:
function checkKey(event) {
var code = event.keyCode;
// code is the ascii number of the key.
}

Convert CharCode to Char?

What I need
ok I googled this and there are many tutorials on how to get the charCode from the character but I cant seem to find out how to get the character from the charcode.
Basically I am I am listening for the KeyDown event on a TextInput.
I prevent the char from being typed via event.preventDefault();
Later I need to add the text-char to the TextInput.
I can get the charCode via event.charCode so if I can turn that into a string I can save it for later user.
Why I need it
Basically I am making a TextInput, that that I can set to display default text in it. When A user types into it, I want to remove the default text first then add the user typed text.
Currently I am either removing it all, or ending up with both.
It's simple:
var yourNewChar:String = String.fromCharCode(event.charCode);

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