Pharo/Seaside for Windows: Cannot type Latin č, Č, ě or Russian Ё, Л, М, Н, О, П characters in Workspace/Playground or System Browser

The Question

What can I do to be able to type Latin č, Č, ě or Russian Ё, Л, М, Н, О, П into Pharo and/or Seaside on Windows?

Note: This affects both Pharo and Seaside on Windows.

I have an answer. I'll post it later.

The Problem

Steps to reproduce

On Windows with a Czech keyboard (keyboard layout for the Czech Republic), in Pharo 3, 4 or 5 in a Workspace/Playground, try the following.

First, make sure caps lock is off and you have Czech keyboard active.

• Type '2'. This should insert the character ě, lowercase e with caron. Instead it does 'nothing'. The cursor stays where it was before you pressed the key and no character is inserted.

• Type '4'. This should insert the character č, lowercase c with caron. Instead it does what the enter key does, inserts a new line.

Now make sure caps lock is on and you have Czech keyboard active.

• Type '4'. This should insert the character Č, uppercase c with caron. Instead, it does what the page down key does.

On Windows with a Russian keyboard (keyboard layout for Russia), in Pharo 3, 4 or 5 in a Workspace/Playground, try the following.

First, make sure caps lock is on and you have Russian keyboard active.

• Type '`'. This should insert the character Ё. Instead it does what the home key does.
• Type 'K'. This should insert the character Л. Instead it does 'nothing'. The cursor stays where it was before you pressed the key and no character is inserted. Sometimes it pops up the code completion menu.
• Type 'V'. This should insert the character М. Instead it does what the left arrow does.
• Type 'Y'. This should insert the character Н. Instead it does what the right arrow does.
• Type 'J'. This should insert the character О. Instead it does what the up arrow does.
• Type 'G'. This should insert the character П. Instead it does what the down arrow does.

This problem exist only in Pharo for Windows. It does not occur in Pharo for Mac OS X or Linux.

The specific versions tested are Windows 10 Home 64bit, OS X El Capitan v10.11.5, Ubuntu 16.04 64bit.

Most recently found on

• Pharo 5.0 (update #50760) 50760.zip from http://files.pharo.org/image/50/

running on the virtual machine 483.zip from http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo-spur32/win/ for Windows.

Also affected are

• Pharo 4.0 (update #40627) 40627.zip from http://files.pharo.org/image/40/

• Pharo 3.0 (update #30864) 30864.zip from http://files.pharo.org/image/30/

running on the virtual machine 511.zip from http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo/win/ for Windows.

• Seaside One-Click Experience 3.2/Pharo 4.0 (update: #40618) http://files.pharo.org/seaside/Seaside-3.2-portable.zip from http://files.pharo.org/seaside/ on Windows.

• Seaside One-Click Experience 3.1/Pharo 4.0 (update: #40618) http://files.pharo.org/seaside/Seaside-3.1-portable.zip from http://www.seaside.st/download/pharo on Windows.

• Seaside One-Click Experience 2.8.4/Pharo 0.1 (update #10343) http://www.seaside.st/distributions/Seaside-2.8.4.app.zip from http://www.seaside.st/download/pharo on Windows.

NOT affected are

• Pharo 2.0 (update #20628) 20628.zip from http://files.pharo.org/image/20/

• Pharo 1.4 (update #14458) 14458.zip from http://files.pharo.org/image/14/

running on the virtual machine 511.zip from http://files.pharo.org/vm/pharo/win/ for Windows.