Words are splitting at the end of line

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Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 5:04:03 AM12/8/24
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Hi, new Ukelele user here! Created a new layout, starting from Spanish (ISO). I've attached it. All the letters are working fine, but I've encountered a strange problem: the behavior in many apps, such as TextEdit, has changed when I reach the end of a line.

If I start a new text file in TextEdit with a standard mac language (such as Spanish (ISO)), the behavior is such that at the end of a line, the words are not cut.

If I start a new text file in TextEdit with my language, the behavior is such that at the end of a line, words that don't fit are cut. For example, the word "example" at the end of a line may be split into "exa" and then "mple" in the next line.

This behavior is reproduced in some other input situations, such as Facebook's messenger in Brave browser, but it's not reproduced for example in this very input window in Google groups in the same Brave.

How can I fix this?

I'm using a Macbook Air 2013 with macOS Big Sur (11.7.10). Thanks!
Espolaco.bundle.zip

Sorin Paliga

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Dec 8, 2024, 5:10:59 AM12/8/24
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Hello
You mean this happens with this keylayout only? Have you tested with other keylayouts as well? Is the bahaviour the same?
I guess this has to do with app settings, not with your custom keylayout. 

On 8 Dec 2024, at 12:04, Bruno S <brun...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, new Ukelele user here! Created a new layout, starting from Spanish (ISO). I've attached it. All the letters are working fine, but I've encountered a strange problem: the behavior in many apps, such as TextEdit, has changed when I reach the end of a line.
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<Espolaco.bundle.zip>

Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 5:15:04 AM12/8/24
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Yes, this happens with this keylayout only.

Having Spanish (ISO) selected, I open a new TextEdit document, and words don't split at the end of a line. I get "example" in the second line.

Having my custom language selected, I open a new TextEdit document and words split at the end of a line. I get "exa" in the first line, "mple" in the second. I don't want it to be like this.

Tom

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Dec 8, 2024, 7:40:03 AM12/8/24
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In your .bundle file, make sure the language is set to spanish and not nothing.

Sorin Paliga

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Dec 8, 2024, 7:42:52 AM12/8/24
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Obviously, there is an issue with the internal information regarding this keylayout only. Language may be the cause.

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Gé van Gasteren

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Dec 8, 2024, 10:35:08 AM12/8/24
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On Sun, Dec 8, 2024 at 11:04 AM Bruno S <brun...@gmail.com> wrote:
If I start a new text file in TextEdit with my language, the behavior is such that at the end of a line, words that don't fit are cut. For example, the word "example" at the end of a line may be split into "exa" and then "mple" in the next line.
 
Hi Bruno,

Do you by any chance use a custom font for your Espolaco language?

Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 1:29:07 PM12/8/24
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I set the language to Spanish but it didn't help. (It still shows under "Others" when I add it as my Input Source, though, for some reason. But in the tutorial it says "If you have not assigned a language (which we have not done in this tutorial), your new keyboard layout will be under Others in the list.", so I guess this shouldn't be a problem...?)

I haven't set a custom font. Under "fonts", it's set to Lucida Grande, Regular, 22,5.

FWIW the only changes I made to the Spanish (ISO) layout were fairly simple, just changing the output of some keys...

Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 1:53:10 PM12/8/24
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Here's a short screen recording to showcase what's going on. (What goes on "behind the scenes" at 00:20 is just me opening a new textedit window and dragging it to the part being recorded.) I uploaded it to my mega.nz cloud drive because I couldn't attach it here, though it's just under 10MB:

Gé van Gasteren

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Dec 8, 2024, 2:03:46 PM12/8/24
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Thanks for the video.

I can’t put my finger on it yet, but I feel it has something to do with macOS’s language recognition losing its footing.
I just typed a sentence (with a macOS keyboard layout, not with yours) consisting of some loose Spanish words, then some English words, and TextEdit didn’t want to break the English sequence of words when I reduced the window width to force a line wrap.
But when I typed those same words again, it readily recognized the word breaks.

Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 2:42:49 PM12/8/24
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Thanks for the feedback, hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.

For what it's worth, I've been using the Spanish (ISO) and the Polish (Pro) keyboard layouts for years now in this computer, and typing with them Spanish, French, English and Polish (the first three using the Spanish layout!), and I've never run into this problem.

Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 2:49:34 PM12/8/24
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Here's another video: https://mega.nz/file/76oyxbBB#uAMRDJnwEARGFhVbj-ntVq9qc2uaFQ_7LSrvYzX7JWE

Here you can see that the problem is not only in typing, but in displaying! I type the same word over and over and it doesn't break well when typing, but also when -displaying- the message... The word "example" is not a word in Spanish, in case that's useful.

Sorin Paliga

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Dec 8, 2024, 2:53:47 PM12/8/24
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I cannot reproduce your issue with the keylayouts installed here, not yours. What you describe is unusual. If it happens with some apps only, e.g. TextEdit, may be connected to the app. Anyway, TextEdit is not exactly a good option for writing, it is mainly an app for programmers or for simple texts. Of course, this note does not solve your issue.
Try to regenerate the keylayout. Before that, check all the settings for that keylayout, including language. I have older keylayouts without a language specifically associated to it, and the behaviour is OK.


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Bruno S

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Dec 8, 2024, 3:14:06 PM12/8/24
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What do you know! I started from scratch and now it works great! I totally don't understand, but... I'm happy because it works.

Awesome, I managed what I wanted for years and was too lazy to try: to have a keyboard layout that lets me input Spanish, English, French and Polish without any problems :D

Thanks everybody for your help!

Gé van Gasteren

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Dec 8, 2024, 4:45:13 PM12/8/24
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You may not have "solved the problem", but who cares, as long as you got rid of it :-)

I just discovered this anomaly in the layout you uploaded earlier:
image.png

Key Code 49 is the space bar, so there may well be a connection with the strange line breaks you witnessed. 
Normally, the space bar should have a normal space assigned to it:
image.png


Gé van Gasteren

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Dec 8, 2024, 5:43:00 PM12/8/24
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And now the "solution" to the behavior is:

When you were typing with the old version of the Espolaco keylayout, there were no normal spaces in the output, only non-breaking ones.
Meaning that some wordprocessors see the string of characters as one long word.
And when that one word gets longer than the line, the app has no choice: it has to break the word after the last letter that fits on the line.
Humans see the non-breaking spaces, and maybe some apps see it that way too, so they can break the line properly.

Sheik Yerbouty

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Dec 31, 2024, 7:01:36 AM12/31/24
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Gé, I think you found the issue. I noticed 2 things.
1. In  Bruno's video, TextEdit behaved as if it did not recognise the word 'example', as if it was just a long string of random characters and had no idea how to break it, no hyphenation.
2. With his layout, command+spacebar did not bring up spotlight. Which made me think there was an issue with the spacebar.
You were quicker :)

Sorin Paliga

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Dec 31, 2024, 7:14:42 AM12/31/24
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The shortcuts may be customised, I usually modify them. Go to Keyboard/shortcuts in sys prefs and check whether spotlight is triggered by this shortcut or there is another one. 


On 31 Dec 2024, at 14:01, Sheik Yerbouty <sheik...@gmail.com> wrote:

command+spacebar did not bring up spotlight.
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