Ctrl+` doesn't work on Japanese layout

[thany]

Issue Type: Bug

When the keyboard is set to English UK language&locale with Japanese layout, the Ctrl+` shortcut to show or hide the terminal, no longer works. It just simply doesn't do anything. This bug also occurs when on the Microsoft Japanese IME, but also when using the "regular" Japanese layout without IME.

Switching back to English UK language&locale, and US-international layout, the Ctrl+` shortcut works again.

Should it matter, my physical keyboard is the US-layout version of a Dell XPS 9570.

This problem also happens with all extensions disabled.

VS Code version: Code 1.32.1 (05f146c, 2019-03-08T00:51:49.278Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17763

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK CPU @ 2.90GHz (12 x 2904)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled checker_imaging: disabled_off flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: disabled_software rasterization: enabled surface_synchronization: enabled_on video_decode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Memory (System)	31.74GB (14.73GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	67%

Extensions (21)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
better-comments	aar	2.0.3
overtype	ada	0.2.0
Bookmarks	ale	10.2.2
html-class-suggestions	And	1.0.7
color-info	bie	0.5.0
mustache	daw	1.1.1
vscode-eslint	dba	1.8.2
vscode-babel-coloring	dza	0.0.4
EditorConfig	Edi	0.13.0
file-icons	fil	1.0.16
auto-close-tag	for	0.5.6
duplicate	gee	1.0.1
beautify	Hoo	1.4.9
docthis	joe	0.7.1
vscode-duplicate	mrm	1.2.1
vscode-subword-navigation	ow	1.2.0
vscode-docker	Pet	0.6.0
vscode-versionlens	pfl	0.22.0
vscode-sort-json	ric	1.13.0
code-settings-sync	Sha	3.2.7
vscode-svg-previewer	vit	0.5.0

[vscodebot]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Terminal shortcut on Japanese IME not working (#67839)

[thany]

To re-emphasize: this issue also occurs without the Japanese IME. Having a Japanese keyboard layout on an otherwise English UK language, also triggers the bug. So I believe this is not a true dupe of #67839.

[alexdima]

The Backtick key (left of `) appears to be a special IME key:

If you look carefully at the last frame, you will see the keyCode we receive has a value of 229. The value 229 is defined to be the value for unknown when using IME: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-dom/2010JulSep/att-0182/keyCode-spec.html

Therefore, unfortunately, the Backtick key is unusable in VS Code when using Japanese IME, sorry about that!

[thany]

This may be too simplistic on my end, but is it not possible to listen for keyCode 229 then?

[alexdima]

I'm sorry, but that is not possible, because keyCode 229 is a catch-all value... Pressing . also produces 229, etc. Unfortunately, that is how this keyboard layout works and I think this is not a limitation specific to VS Code...

[thany]

Then maybe it's possible to assign a different hotkey (by default at least) when a Japanese IME is detected? I dont think it's right the default to certain keys that aren't usable because of a keyboard layout.

We also don't default anything to the Ğ key, because it only exists on a Turkish F-keyboard. This is an extreme example of course, but the point is that default hotkeys, IMO at least, should "just work" regardless of keyboard layout, even if it means some exceptions for some hotkeys.

This seems pretty hard to accomplish, so I understand if this would get a slightly reduced priority.

[alexdima]

@thany 👍 It is possible to change absolutely any keybinding on your side. You can remove everything we ship with and add your own from scratch or just tweak the defaults here and there... Just open the keybindings editor and reassign or edit directly in keybindings.json. See https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings

By default, we ship with good default keybindings for the US keyboard layout. All other keyboard layouts are not optimized and it is a best-attempt situation. You can upvote this in #1240