P: Shortcuts using Alt key aren't working correctly (e.g. Alt-Backspace)

I've found that in use with other modifier keys, Alt must be pressed last before pressing whatever letter key is required. Ex: For multiple Undos I must press Ctrl before Alt, then press Z. If I do that, it always works.

(I usually press Ctrl-Alt more or less simultaneously, and I'm finding out that I hit Alt first at least 75 percent of the time. Moomph.)

There was a mention of the Windows Fall Creators Update. I have not yet installed that update.

Howdy Scott,

Thanks for your feedback and your understanding.  One of the reasons I do so much work on the forums is to specifically hear what our users are saying and bring that back to the team.  I mean, Agile development is based on iterative feedback and evaluation, right?

While it is true that we do manual testing, there's actually a huge and elaborate suite of automated tests each of us have written as well.  Such scripting is actually a requirement for every new feature.  Heck, no build is even released to QE until it's passed a fairly thorough automated smoke-test.  My international file I/O script is a bit of a behemoth, for instance...  Unfortunately, certain bugs seem to be only triggerable via actual use -- scripting does not reveal the problem.  Keyboard shortcuts is one of those.  I totally agree with you that automation is awesome and we try to use scripting to validate everything we can.  But there are, unfortunately, limits to what it can uncover despite multiple, high-level inquiries into this specific topic.  8-(

Thanks,
David

Howdy Jordan and Marissa,

If you'd like to join our prerelease program, we'd love to have you.  Motivated people with real world workflows have a much needed place on prerelease.  Just please look at the builds...8-)

Ping me here or email me directly at david <dot> mohr <at> adobe [DOT] com and I'll happily hook you up!

Thanks,
David

p.s. -- nice work, BTW...!  8-)

it ́s a bug!

I need to press Alt-Backspace two times in a row to get it to fill foreground color after updating to CC 2018 this morning. Is there a setting change I need to make or is this a bug? Thanks for a quick reply. This is a big part of my job as a comic book colorist and driving me nuts today.

I think one of us colorists definitely needs to be on some sort of pre-release testing team. Even though a lot of our workflows differ, there's a huge overlap of essential tools and shortcuts we all rely upon hundreds of times a day, and, like Marissa, this particular issue is really causing me a lot of grief and lost time.

Also just adding to this thread, that this bug is crippling my work flow. Also hello other comics colorists!! 

David,

I absolutely believe that Adobe did not deliberately release this version knowing of the bug.  And that is exactly the problem.

It sounds from your testing descriptions that Adobe is still doing manual testing of each release.  Photoshop is a behemoth application, used in literally millions of different ways by millions of different people.  As you correctly point out, there is no way possible for humans to test all of the functionality in every release.

Consequently, it's very hard to believe that Adobe has not implemented extensive test automation.  Having been a software manager for over 30 years, to the VP level, it's obvious to me that that is what is needed here.  As an example, it would be extremely easy to develop software to inject every possible keyboard input; single keys, double keys, holding each key down for a specific amount of time before the next key is pressed, in any combination, order, etc., etc.  and verifying correct Photoshop behavior.  Clearly this level of testing is not possible for a human, but is very easy for a program written to test Photoshop (and incidentally, every other Adobe app with keyboard input).

Test automation is difficult and expensive to implement the first time.  But it has been proven over and over to save significant costs in the long run.   There is an old software adage that in my experience rings quite true... It is at least 10 times more expensive to fix a bug found by customers after release as it is to fix it before release.  Not to mention the loss of customer satisfaction and damage to user-base good will that this kind of issue creates.  The key is knowing about the bug so you have the opportunity to fix it.

This problem does not lie with the individual developers or testers.  I have no doubt that every one of them is doing the best they can in the time allotted.  This is an Adobe management problem.

David, feel free to message me with details.  As long as you understand that I only run CC at work... philosophically, I am against the concept of subscription-only software and I choose to run with my permanent license of CS5 on my personal computers for my own projects and my own design work.   But as far as my day job goes... if I can run beta/pre-release versions alongside stable mainstream releases, then sure, I can test when I can.   

Wow, in the time I wrote that, a number of other posts came up.  I'd like to reply to a couple of you, in the interest of being transparent, informative, and just to say "thank you."  Let's see, so as not to be disjointed...

Ursula, thank you and you are correct.  This bug seems to be tied to the timing of when you hit the ALT key compared to other key strokes.  If it's NOT the first key and you have another modifier, it will NOT happen.  Moreover, I do not get this all the time on my Win10 machine but it does happen on all versions of Windows.  8-(

Josh, you are correct.  Not all users have the same workflow.  Generally, I don't fill a whole layer, so it's not something would regularly test.  Similarly, testing the whole app takes a remarkably long time.  <please read this next sentence with a jovial, playful voice in mind>I'd love you to join the prerelease team and put your money where your mouth is!  8-)  Seriously, would you want to try this out for yourself?  I know it sounds really easy, but I honestly believe you'd see that there are literally thousands of workflows out there and one persons critical path is another persons "what, you can DO that?  Why would you even WANT to do that?"
     As for the Leading bug you mentioned, that's another one of the major issues we're working on.  It's tied to the display of ONLY transformed type and the failure came out of left field (more like Pluto!) and was broken at the 11th hour before shipping -- the math isn't being done right due to a change to another widget.

Thank you, Mastey; I'll follow up with you via email.

And John, I so wish that this could be automated!  We tried a few years back, but the problem is that actual keystrokes are the only solid way to test.  8-(  You should've seen the drama when we added all the Eastern European keyboard layouts...!  =8-O

Thanks,
David