Hello all,
For some reason, I cannot use the Delete key when working with the IDE. All previous versions did work fine in this respect.
Am I missing something??
Tim
I donāt have anything nice to say about the history behind this change, so Iāll just leave the ticket where an actual Windows user on staff noticed how dumb it was: #74461 - Windows IDE: the default shortcut key for Delete is mapped to Ctrl+Bksp which makes little sense
4 Likes
Yes, it really is. Too many assumptions and not enough testingā¦
Tim
Happens to the best as well:
To celebrate my lost youth where I had been roleplaying D&D each weekend, I had to buy a copy of Baldurās Gate 3 recently. And was angry about the game quitting regularly and unexpectedly on my MacBook M1. Until I realised āQā for camera rotation does not go along very well with CMD for highlighting valuable items. 
2 Likes
On the Mac I now do cmd-bksp to delete anything other than text. This is a good thing. Too often I thought I was deleting text, only to find Iād deleted a whole control or class because focus wasnāt where I thought it was. Further, this sometimes took a little while to become apparent, requiring careful undo to restore the status quo ante.
Needing to qualify delete is a good thing.
1 Like
Glad to see this thread and that itās not just me. I recently created a whole bunch of keyboard macros and thought I had broken something.
On Mac I understand the modifier key since itās the same as backspace and can do something completely unintended depending on which control has focus.
On Windows itās separated from the main keyboard layout so itās less likely to be pressed accidentally.
Not on my Apple keybaord. Thereās the backspace key, above the Return key, which deletes to the left and now needs to modifier to delete such as a control. Then thereās the Delete key, which does forward delete, over with Home and End, above the arrow keys.
And even on a small keyboard, function+backspace produces the delete key; theyāre still 2 distinct ācharactersā.
The bindings are wrong and asked to be fixed.
The delete key doesnāt work in the code editor
If you search for delete key, you see plenty of other people complaining.
Whether it is backspace or delete key, I expect the IDE to handle the key directly and delete the selected item without me needing to assign a key to do this.
4 Likes
Personally Iām quite happy with now it now works:
- bksp - deletes text to the left.
- cmd-bksp - deletes selected control
- delete - deletes text to the right
Iām in the camp that
ābackspace or delete should delete whatever I have selectedā,
whether that is text or a control.
And if the cursor is in a text field without any actual selection,
backspace goes <<<< thataway,
while delete eats characters on >>>> that side of the cursor
7 Likes
+1 
Ah, Iām in the opposite camp then. But I would not object to a preference for this. It seems that Delete only affects text, does nothing about removing controls. Since I never tried to use it for that until yesterday (experimenting in the context of this thread), I wss unaware that it didnāt. However, I wouldnāt object if it did, provided again it was subject to a modifier under a preference.
Edit: part of the issue here is that having selected something in the navigator, it seems itās not possible to unselect it. Oh wait - I see that cmd-click unselects it. Well - how about them apples?
For some reason the forum software will only let me click the heart (like) once, it wonāt let me click it AND count it the 50 or 60 times I want to it to.
Tim, I am also in the camp that delete on Windows should work the way Windows users expect.
Now, it is an annoyance that can be fixed (and re-fixed with every new install of Xojoā¦)
1- Go to the Edit/options menu
2- click on āEdit Menu Shortcutsā
3- Expand the āEditā section
4- On the Delete line, click on āBckspā, hit the āDeleteā key and unselect āCtrlā on the same line
5- Click on Apply
Now, Delete works as expected on Windows.
Hope this helps. LD.
1 Like
Errm, Iām not on WIndows.
A clear reminder that one should never assumeā¦ Still, you can have the Delete key work the way you prefer, regardless of the OS. 
Thanks Louis D.
That will provide a work around for the moment.
Tim