Send() can't send Unicode characters.

[anonymous]

I'm trying to send
ChrW(0x03B8) which is θ ( small theta), but even in notepad, it's not shown up correctly:

$process = Run("notepad.exe")

$NotepadHWND = "Untitled - " ; EN
;~ $NotepadHWND = "Unbenannt - " ; DE

WinActivate($NotepadHWND)
WinWaitActive($NotepadHWND)
$text = ChrW(0x03B8)
Send($text,1)

InputBox("It should be:","It should be this char: Copy it to Notpad and see, that it is accepted",$text)

I think Sned doesn't support Unicode and that should be changed.

[Valik]

You can't possible care about sending UNICODE characters. If you really cared, you would have bothered to read the documentation.

Closing as no bug.

[sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…]

Sorry, but I consider this a valid bug, even if it's documented. It could be considered a non- bug only if the name of the function would be SendAscii.

In fact there is a solution for solving this: we need to parse the string and for every character(including ASCII ones!) we can generate "ALT+" unicode sequences.

Unicode text input it's a problem and the only way I see this resolved and not depending on the current keyboard layout is to use Alt+numpad sequences.

Example:
Let's say we have the Unicode+0219 (hex) character. This can be entered using:
Send("{ALTDOWN}{NUMPADADD}{NUMPAD0}{NUMPAD2}{NUMPAD1}{NUMPAD9}{ALTUP}")

• Remember to allways put a numpad0 after the plus so Windows will know not to generate keyboard events when pressing ALT-A/B/C/D (when entering hex numbers).

For more information consult: ​http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm

PS. If you do not have time to implement this, please give a hint on where the code should be included and I might find some time to write this code.

[Valik]

You're an idiot and I wouldn't take any code from you. Why do I call you an idiot? Because I told you to read the documentation - Something you did not do or you would encounter this informative little piece of text:

To send UNICODE characters enter the character code (decimal or hex), for example this sends a Chinese character
    Send("{ASC 2709}") or Send("{ASC 0xA95}")

Well look at that! You can send UNICODE characters. And you can find that information in the documentation - exactly like I said.

Next time somebody tells you to read the documentation - read it.

[sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…]

It will try to skip over you language and try to show you that you are really wrong.

0xA95 is not a Chinese character, in fact it is GUJARATI LETTER KA - you can check at: ​http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0a95/index.htm

Or better you could use the free software named BabelMap for navigating the Unicode Character Map.

I will attach a test file that contains the same text introduced in 3 methods: clipboard(works), ASC(doesnt), ALT(works).

[Valik]

Wow, there actually is a bug, it's just not being reported very well. It's taken over 5 months for it to come out what the real issue is. Bravo.

Anyway, it appears that for whatever reason only the last two characters of Send()'s ASC are actually being used. Simple script that reproduces the problem:

Send("{ASC 0x41}")	; Send A
Send("{ASC 0x1141}")	; Sends A, too, though it shouldn't

[Jon]

Two issues here:

1. Send indeed doesn't send Unicode characters easily - you have to use the ASC sequences instead. This is mentioned in the limitations section about unicode at ​http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/intro/unicode.htm - I'll try and make it more clear in the Send() documentation as well. It's been on my "to do" list to make it work perfectly for a while so I'll change this bug into a feature request. I usually suggest that Send() is a last resort and you should use ControlSetText() wherever possible which works perfectly with Unicode characters.

2. The ASC code was a bit broken in that I was always adding a leading 0. So if you specified 0x41 (Dec:65) then this was actually sent as "ALT+065". This is incorrect so I've fixed this and the change will be in the next beta.

[Sorin Sbarnea <sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…>]

Please take a look at my article from ​http://blog.i18n.ro/automation-and-unicode-text-input-under-windows/

I would really like to see AutoIt being able to convert any Unicode character that cannot be converted using VkKeyScan to a keystroke intro a ALT+number sequence.

This would make Send() Unicode compatible and will help make people testing the input of foreign characters.

Also: can you enable account creation on Trac? It's really bad that I cannot receive a notification on a response.

[sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…]

I have bad news regarding this bug - I think there are two of them.

I've extended a little bit the test by adding ASC-decimal version and the result is not well. Also I will attach the new script and a screenshot of the results. Normally it should display the same thing between [].

[Jon]

I can't even reproduce the characters when doing it manually with ALT. I certainly don't get the characters you describe at the top of the script.
I get: ↓♥←

[TicketCleanup]

Automatic ticket cleanup.

[sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…]

I've added to the comments inside the test files that you need to install European Union Font Expansion Pack if you are running XP.
​http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0EC6F335-C3DE-44C5-A13D-A1E7CEA5DDEA&displaylang=en

This is because two of the 3 characters tested here are not included in default fonts from Windows XP.

[sorin.sbarnea+autoit@…]

Oops, something had happened. Now it doesn't work on my computer!

I will investigate this further. Anyway: the clipboard part of the test should look fine if you install the font patch.

It's clearly that we have here a Windows issue (something worked, as you see in the screenshot and after few days it doesn't).

Anyway I would recommend you to use the ​http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html for testing Unicode related issues.

I will come back with new information.

[anonymous]

A bit difficult to chat easily on here. I've created this thread for further talk:

​http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86602

[Jon]

That was me, btw :)

[Jon]

I've done an update to this in the 3.3.5.1 beta that may either help or break everything. Have a look.