Inspiron 17R: Daily life made simple
Mail.app: Control-T key combination causes instant quit without warning
As first noted by MacFixit reader Jean-Denis Muys and confirmed in-house, entering the keyboard command "Control-T" when composing a message (with the cursor in the message text field) in Mail.app will cause an immediate quit without warning.
Jean-Denis writes:
"When typing a new mail in Apple Mail version 2.03 (734) under MacOS X 10.4.2 (build 8C46), if I inadvertently push down the Control key and I happen to type a 'T', then Mail suddenly and immediately quits, without any warning, nor any system crash report.
"Unfortunately, this happens quite frequently, because on the Apple white keyboard, the Control key is at the bottom left corner, and the palm of my left hand often pushes the control key down. Since I type rather fast, very soon the 'T' letter is likely to be pressed and 'Boom'...
"Needless, this is infuriating because the mail I was typing is lost, and you have to type it again."
The "Control-T" keyboard combination is used in some text editors (like BBEdit) to invert letter ordering.
We've yet to discover a viable workaround for this issue.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Resources
I was able to reproduce this bug. Move the cursor to the email text field then
chit Control-T. Apple knows about this bug, and it WILL be fixed in the
upcoming 10.4.3 release.
I tried the Cntrl - T combo and could not produce the bug either.
You should scan your fonts with Font Doctor and remove damaged fonts. You
might also try clearing your font cache with any of the numerous utilities
available to do so.
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-d
You're thinking Command-T, not control-T.
Actually, isn't Command-T what brings up the font panel. When I enter control-
T, the attachment button (paperclip) is highlighted, but mail does not quit
without warning.
cursor has to be in the message box, not in the address, cc or bcc fields.
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Thanks,
Allan Marcus
box is pulled up by COMMAND-T, not control, so the font issue isn't an issue.
roog
cursor jump from the message box up to the To: field.
* Steps:
0. MacOS 10.4.2 (8C46)
1. Launch Mail.app
2. File -> New Message (or Cmd-N)
3. Click in the body area of the new message
4. Type "foo is bar", then position cursor just after second 'o', showing "foo|
is bar"
5. Type Control-T seven times. Note how cursor moves forward with the 'o'
dragging after it. Text should now read "fo is baro|" (cursor at very end).
6. Type Control-T once more.
* Expected: no change in text; no crash.
* Observed: Crash with SIGABRT
Backtrace from gdb:
Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted.
0x9004a12c in kill ()
(gdb) where
#0 0x9004a12c in kill ()
#1 0x90120954 in abort ()
#2 0x95d95b7c in __cxxabiv1::__terminate ()
#3 0x95d95bc0 in std::terminate ()
#4 0x95c6ae98 in __cxa_throw ()
#5 0x95c8daac in DOM::Range::Range ()
#6 0x95c8d990 in DOM::Range::Range ()
#7 0x95d8e8bc in khtml::makeRange ()
#8 0x95cbfebc in -[WebCoreBridge rangeOfCharactersAroundCaret] ()
#9 0x9598c964 in -[WebHTMLView transpose:] ()
#10 0x959712ac in -[WebHTMLView(WebNSTextInputSupport)
doCommandBySelector:] ()
#11 0x93714e04 in -[NSKeyBindingManager
(NSKeyBindingManager_MultiClients) interpretEventAsCommand:forClient:] ()
#12 0x93713500 in -[NSTSMInputContext interpretKeyEvents:] ()
#13 0x937128e0 in -[NSView interpretKeyEvents:] ()
#14 0x95970a94 in -[WebHTMLView _interceptEditingKeyEvent:] ()
#15 0x95970978 in -[WebHTMLView keyDown:] ()
#16 0x9368e0d8 in -[NSWindow sendEvent:] ()
#17 0x001514c4 in ?? ()
#18 0x93636bfc in -[NSApplication sendEvent:] ()
#19 0x000e6594 in ?? ()
#20 0x9362e090 in -[NSApplication run] ()
#21 0x9371e8bc in NSApplicationMain ()
#22 0x00002bcc in ?? ()
#23 0x000a57f4 in ?? ()
running around asking for more details (imagine my surprise to see a poster say
that they know about it and will have a fix in 10.4.3!).
I used iKey to remap Control-T to a sequence of operations that _does_ swap
the characters before the point, and the problem went away.
You could presumably do this with any keyboard macro utility.
signature first. So using a signature can stop this happening.
After the crash the message is in the Drafts folder, so I don't have to re-type
everything.
- by WhiteDog October 5, 2005 2:21 AM PDT
- Another, indirect solution would be to get a chair with arm rests that support
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(15 Comments)your forearms and raise your wrists higher over the keyboard. This would also
help prevent wrist and shoulder stress and strain. I was having a lot of trouble
with this sort of thing before getting a better chair. The arm rests on my chair
are adjustable for height and they can swivel in toward my body to follow the
direction of my forearms toward the keyboard. As a result, I don't have to
bend my wrists up from the desk to the keyboard, which is the kind of
position that would bring the heel of your hand into contact with the Control
key. Of course, if you are using a laptop computer then this might not help
much as people often use a laptop on a desk top, at a higher level than the
separate keyboard with a desktop computer, which may be lower to begin
with on a keyboard tray under the lip of their desk. But, then, a laptop
computer is an ergonomic disaster waiting to happen, anyway.
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Don't anthropomorphize computers.
They hate that.