KeyListener with Control key

[Jack Lord]

Hi,
I'm trying to create a text input field with keyboard shortcuts to write non-standard characters: 'a' adds an a, 'ctrl+a' adds an a with an accent, 'alt+a' and 'ctrl+alt+a' add different accents etc. This works fine for the alt modifier but I get no response from the control key, or I press 'ctrl + a' and it selects the whole text. I'm guessing that the control key gets monopolised by some other component but I don't know how to disable it. I'm sure I've seen a post title on this very topic either here or elsewhere but I can't find it now. Thanks for any help!
Jack

My code:

 import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
 
public class HInputField extends JTextField{
HListener key = new HListener();
public static final int LOW = KeyEvent.CTRL_DOWN_MASK;
public static final int LONG = KeyEvent.ALT_DOWN_MASK;
 
HInputField() {
super();
this.addKeyListener(key);
 
}
 
class HListener implements KeyListener{
 
public void keyTyped(KeyEvent k) {
HInputField field = ((HInputField)k.getComponent());
 
switch(k.getModifiersEx()) {
case LOW:
switch(k.getKeyChar()) {
case 'a':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u00E0');
break;
case 'e':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u00E8');
break;
case 'i':
field.setText(field.getText()+"\u00EC");
break;
case 'o':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u00F2');
break;
case 'u':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u00F9');
break;
}
break;
 
case LONG:
switch(k.getKeyChar()) {
case 'a':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u0101');
break;
case 'e':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u0113');
break;
case 'i':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u012B');
break;
case 'o':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u014D');
break;
case 'u':
field.setText(field.getText()+'\u016B');
break;
}
}
 

}
 
public void keyReleased(KeyEvent k) {
}
 
public void keyPressed(KeyEvent k) {
}
}
} 

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Let's move this to the Swing/AWT forum.