mbed compiler should not use ctrl+alt shortcuts, as it prevents typing [] and {} on some keyboards

02 Aug 2015

Dear mbed compiler developers,

the mbed compiler uses Ctrl+Alt+... keyboard shortcuts. This is problematic, because the ctrl+alt key combination is a substitute for the second alt, the altgr key, which is used by many keyboard layouts, like Belgian, French, Hungarian, Polish etc. This makes it impossible to type [] and {} on several keyboards. For example, on a Hungarian keyboard, AltGr-F is used to type the opening bracket [. However, Windows treats AltGr as a simultaneous press of Ctrl+Alt, therefore AltGr-F is equivalent to Ctrl-Alt-F, and it opens the Find in Files dialog.

The problem is also discussed on Wikipedia, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltGr_key#Control_.2B_Alt_as_a_substitute .

The solution is to simply change all Ctrl+Alt shortcuts to some other ones.

The following bugreports are related: - https://developer.mbed.org/forum/mbed/topic/263/ - https://developer.mbed.org/questions/4700/MBED-online-compiler-ALT-GRF-or-G/