How to disable script debug? Alt key brings debugger window.

[Guest]

Here is detailed problem description:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2678671

In short.

When batch is being processed in background (photoshop window is inactive) pressing the Alt key brings the debugger window (ExtendScript Toolkit - Fit Image.jsx).

Steps to repro:

1. Create some action (must include Fit Image script from File->Automate)

2. Apply this action to a folder.

3. Switch to another window (not photoshop)

4. Hold the Alt key for a little why.

Current workaround:

1. Do not do anything while processing batch. Just sit and look at the screen several hours.

or

2. Process batches under separate user (use WinKey+L to switch).

Another (related) problem. When batch is being processed (in background) the Esc key doesn't work at all! Just switch to some application where you can use the Esc key, hit Esc - and it won't work!

OS: Windows XP

Photoshop CS4, CS3

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I tested it and produced the same result.

What astounds me though is that the continuous-alt-key also triggers debugging when happening in non-Adobe-applications, so I wonder what role the System plays in this?

[Guest]

Well, the debugger I'm having deal with is an Adobe product (Adobe Extendscript Toolkit).

The only case when I see it is background batch processing in photoshop.

For all other cases I'm free to use both Alt and Esc keys.

[arnak007 · Accepted solution]

I found a way to bypass this. All you have to do is to move your "ExtendScript Toolkit CS4" folder out of your "AdobeUtilities" folder.

[Guest]

Nice, thanks, Alt-problem resolved!

But Esc still doesn't work

Can someone repro this?

[tjhb]

All you have to do is to move your "ExtendScript Toolkit CS4" folder out of your "AdobeUtilities" folder.

I hope someone from Adobe can point to a more elegant way to disable this behaviour. There has to be a registry fix.

About the Escape key, I tend to have the opposite problem (which I dare say is well known). If I leave Photoshop doing something heavy (in the GUI or via an action, rather than a script), and then I press the Escape key in another application, Photoshop steals the keypress and aborts. (I've lost a lot of time to this, and have just managed to train myself to avoid that part of the keyboard.) The dead Escape key and the hair-trigger Escape key might be different aspects of the same problem.

[xbytor2]

I hope someone from Adobe can point to a more elegant way to disable this behaviour. There has to be a registry fix.

Ideally, it would be a setting in a preference panel somewhere.

[Guest]

Photoshop steals the keypress

And, what is interesting, that comes from much older versions. I remember this problem in CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4.

[Tom Ruark]

Ha, we fixed this for CS5 and guess what. I've got complaints about the Alt key *not* working.

It was a handy feature for us script writers that wanted a quick way to debug. As we add more and more features as scripts it just gets in the way.

[xbytor2]

Ha, we fixed this for CS5 and guess what. I've got complaints about the Alt key *not* working.

It will make life more difficult for script writers, that's for sure. Why couldn't you have just added a preference with the default to be to ignore the Alt key for scripts?

Now, when I need to debug a script in ESTK, I have several intermediate steps to go through rather then just hold the Alt key and go. Coupled with the fact that ESTK

occasionally ignores break points and the '$.level = 1; debugger;' idiom doesn't always work either, it makes debugging more of a chore than it needs to be especially

in large script-based apps that are made up of multiple scripts in Bridge and PS.

[Guest]

It was a handy feature for us script writers that wanted a quick way to debug.

But why do you need the Alt key when PS window is not active?

Alt key is ok when you work in Photoshop trying to debug your scripts. But when you keep PS working in background, it is extremely inconvenient when suddenly at the mid of the work debugger window pops up so you have to interrupt your work, goto photoshop and restart the batch processing.

Who possibly could need this??

[xbytor2]

But why do you need the Alt key when PS window is not active?

Nobody did, as far as I know. You only needed it when a script is launched from in PS and then only when PS had focus. I have no clue why they were looking at the Alt key when PS didn't have focus. Instead of fixing what I would consider a bug, the removed a very useful feature.

The only case I could see it being useful is if you were running a script in Bridge and that calls a script in PS and you wanted the debugger to fire up when the PS script was launched. That's a rare enough situation that inserting a debugger; call in the PS script would be a reasonable alternative and is the one I use. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work.