Forums Bug Reports Ctrl-Break caught when intended for other windows

mIRC catches these key combinations when they are intended for other windows. I'm not entirely sure if this is a bug or a "feature" but i couldn't find any documentation saying it was a feature.

OS: Windows XP Pro
mIRC Version: 6.16

Instructions on how to repeat.

1. Launch mirc
2. Set a command on a timer so you can see whether you get a break. "/timertesting 0 1 echo -a test"
3. Open a command window(cmd in Windows 2k/XP) and start a ping (ping -t www.google.ca)

4. Move the windows so you can see the mIRC window, and the cmd/command window is active. Press/hold ctrl-break. the Ping will print out statistics, and mIRC should print "* Break: command halted"


In 6.16 (which I just installed clean to test this) I had to hold the ctrl-break down for a few seconds, all the time with the ping window selected, for mirc to pick up on it. In fact similar behaviour exhibited itself when i had the mirc window selected.

Like I said earlier, I don't know if this is intended or a bug, and was unable to find documentation clarifying that so I figured i would bring it up..

jmlsteele

Can't confirm here.

miRC 6.16, XP Home - SP2.

-Andy

Cannot confirm. XP Pro - mIRC 6.16

Cannot confirm here either. Maybe a DLL loaded like sendkey.dll or something?

v6.16 - XP Pro SP2

Confirmed here, Winxp pro SP2, mIRC 6.16.

Better way to test is this:
1) type //while (1) { echo blah } in a mIRC status window (preferrably one that isn't connected or doing important stuff)
2) activate another program (browser, cmd, calc, office)
3) hit ctrl-break
=> you'll hear the standard mIRC toink and when you activate it again see
* Break: command halted

It is intentional. If Ctrl+Break works only when mirc is active, the problems that arise are bigger than the ones solved. The exact reason is that when mirc is not the active app and at some point freezes (not responding), it cannot be activated again by Windows (you can set focus on the frozen mirc window but Windows somehow won't register it as active). Since it cannot be made active before it 'unfreezes', Ctrl+Break won't work, which means there's no way to unfreeze it.

Now that I re-read your post and noticed the part about holding down the key for a few seconds, I CAN confirm this (took about 2secs).

Bug or not (I'm inclined to agree with qwerty), mIRC doesn't stop the keypress from reaching other applications so it's not really a problem.

I would have to agree. I've had our trivia bot decide to freeze due to a change I made without really testing it well. Because I have that bot set to minimize into the tray, I would end up having to kill the process for it if I couldn't press Ctrl-Break without it being the active app.

Such behaviour would have to be intentional.

Registering a global hotkey is much different than just catching the key combination locally.