Layout Emulation No Longer Working

[adrienm7]

Description

The layout emulation feature no longer appears to function correctly. When a layout displays a letter that should be typed next, the cursor only advances if the corresponding key on the physical keyboard (based on the computer's default layout) is pressed, rather than the expected emulated layout behavior.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Select a French keyboard layout (e.g., Optimot, Ergopti, etc.).
2. Start typing according to the displayed layout.
3. Notice that the cursor only moves when pressing the key corresponding to the system's default layout, not the emulated one.

Expected Behavior

The cursor should advance when typing the letter shown in the emulated layout, rather than relying on the system's default keyboard mapping.

Additional Information

• Issue occurs consistently across multiple French layouts (Optimot, Ergopti, etc.).
• Tested on both Firefox and Edge with no extensions enabled.

Let me know if you need further details or testing!

[adrienm7]

Edit: I just saw one of your latest commits. It seems the problem happens when the layout has a dead key.
Could it be possible to fix it? Or at least make the emulation work by automatically deactivating the dead keys in emulation mode?
Most custom layouts use dead keys. In fact, even the standard AZERTY in France does…

[aradzie]

Yes, we don't emulate layouts with dead keys. It's difficult to do correctly due to incompatibilities between different browsers and OSes.
We take the user input from a hidden text input field. It's the only reasonable way to get accurate diacritical characters, as it's implemented by the OS. Layout emulation bypasses this hidden text input field and interprets key press events directly. It can decode only simple, "undead" characters.
However, what you say makes sense. I think we can try to emulate all layouts, by simply ignoring the dead keys. A half working feature is much better than no feature at all ;)

[alarsyo]

Another suggestion related to this problem:

Since the current behavior is to not emulate these layouts, maybe the greyed out check box used to enable emulation should be unchecked by default?

Currently this is what it looks like:

Which doesn't convey that emulation is actually disabled for the layout.