[TSE Linux] Horizontal split screen doesn't work holding ctrl key

[Guy Rouillier]

I just upgraded to tse-4.50.23 on my physical Linux system (as opposed to a VM): Ubuntu MATE 24.04.4 LTS; my terminal is MATE Terminal I can split the window using the menus without issue, both horizontal and vertical. I can split the window vertically using the keyboard ctrl-o ctrl-v again without issue.

However, if I attempt to split the window horizontally using the keyboard ctrl-o ctrl-h, nothing happens. But, if I use ctrl-o, by itself, which brings up the Ctrl O popup, then let go of the ctrl key and then tap the h key, the window will successfully split horizontally.

This isn't new to this version. I just tried 4.50.20, and the same thing is happening there.

Hmmm, I have a Windows 11 VM in VirtualBox, and just tried the same thing there. Using g32, everything works as expected. However, if I use e32, split horizontal from the keyboard works fine, but split vertical does not; it ends up inserting "trl-o ctrl-v" on the cursor line.

Finally, I rebooted into a physical Windows 7.  Using e32, everything works as expected.  So, I guess this boils down to Linux keyboard handling.

-- 

Guy Rouillier

Virus-free.www.avast.com

[Carlo Hogeveen]

Your indirect method is inconclusive because it depends on key definitions being the same across TSE variants and on them having the same .ui defined and installed.
In TSE's Help About menu you can see which .ui file is installed.
In that .ui file you can see which keys are defined for which actions.
You can directly and independently test which keys TSE recognizes in which environment with its ShowKey tool, which is selectable from TSE's Potpourri menu.

Carlo

[Carlo Hogeveen]

Using ShowKey from TSE's Potpourri menu reveals that my Linux sees <Ctrl H> as <Backspace> and <Ctrl I> as <Tab>.
The following is not a general solution, but it can harmlessly be applied to two of the key combinations in tse.ui.
Duplicate and change the lines:

<Ctrl o><h> HWindow()
...
<Ctrl q><i> mToggleAutoIndent()

To:

<Ctrl o><h> HWindow()
<Ctrl o><Backspace> HWindow()
...
<Ctrl q><i> mToggleAutoIndent()
<Ctrl q><Tab> mToggleAutoIndent()

Definition order matters: The first key combination for a same command will be shown in TSE's menus.
Sammy can harmlessly make these specific two cases part of tse.ui's general distribution to enhance Linux compatibility a bit.

Carlo

[Guy Rouillier]

Thank you, Carlo. I use tse.ui as my base UI file. Your changes enable
successful horizontal split with the keyboard.

Regarding ctrl-o ctrl-v resulting in a paste in a VirtualBox Windows 11 VM,
some additional testing revealed that Ubuntu MATE itself is sending two
separate commands for these keystrokes; I'm concluding this based on what I'm
seeing in other applications. For example, in Firefox, if I put the cursor in
the address bar, ctrl-o ctrl-v will (1) open the Open File dialog, and then
(2) paste the contents of the system clipboard.

This is all very confusing. I find it difficult to predict when a keystroke
will get passed to a client application, vs. when the system keyboard handler
will intercept it.

--
Guy Rouillier

[S.E. Mitchell]

This is a good workaround.
I will add these additional keystrokes.to the ui files.
Thanks!

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[S.E. Mitchell]

Hi Guy,

In some terminal emulators, there is a command to disable system
keybindings which might help with the issues you are experiencing.
Might be worth a search!
--

On Tue, May 19, 2026 at 4:28 AM Guy Rouillier <guy.ro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[Guy Rouillier]

Thanks for the suggestion, Sammy. For anyone else who may be using the MATE
desktop and the MATE Terminal app, here is how I fixed this.

(1) In the MATE terminal, select Edit -> Keyboard Shortcuts.
(2) Scroll to the bottom, where you will see the shortcuts for the View
options.
(3) Note the "Normal Size" setting is "Ctrl+O". I changed that to
"Shift+Ctrl+O".
(4) While I was in there, I also changed Zoom In to "Shift+Ctrl++" and Zoom
Out to "Shift+Ctrl+-". I don't know why, but these changes only appear to
affect the numeric keys along the center top of the PC keyboard; the keys in
the numeric keypad were not affected. I've *never* zoomed in or out of the
terminal in 30 years of using Linux, so I didn't pursue this any further. I
just wanted to make those keystrokes available to TSE.
(5) With these changes, I am now able to use ctrl-o-h and ctrl-o-v to split
the TSE editing window horizontally and vertically, respectively.

--
Guy Rouillier