Dead-Character Messages

Some non-English keyboards contain character keys that are not expected to produce characters by themselves. Instead, they are used to add a diacritic to the character produced by the subsequent keystroke. These keys are called dead keys. The circumflex key on a German keyboard is an example of a dead key. To enter the character consisting of an "o" with a circumflex, a German user would type the circumflex key followed by the "o" key. The window with the keyboard focus would receive the following sequence of messages:

WM_KEYDOWN
WM_DEADCHAR
WM_KEYUP
WM_KEYDOWN
WM_CHAR
WM_KEYUP

TranslateMessage generates the WM_DEADCHAR message when it processes the WM_KEYDOWN message from a dead key. Although the wParam parameter of the WM_DEADCHAR message contains the character code of the diacritic for the dead key, an application typically ignores the message. Instead, it processes the WM_CHAR message generated by the subsequent keystroke. The wParam parameter of the WM_CHAR message contains the character code of the letter with the diacritic. If the subsequent keystroke generates a character that cannot be combined with a diacritic, Windows generates two WM_CHAR messages. The wParam parameter of the first contains the character code of the diacritic; the wParam parameter of the second contains the character code of the subsequent character key.

The TranslateMessage function generates the WM_SYSDEADCHAR message when it processes the WM_SYSKEYDOWN message from a system dead key (a dead key that is pressed in combination with the ALT key). An application typically ignores the WM_SYSDEADCHAR message.

Software for developers

Delphi Components
.Net Components
Software for Android Developers

More information resources

MegaDetailed.Net
Unix Manual Pages
Delphi Examples

Databases for Amazon shops developers

Amazon Categories Database
Browse Nodes Database