InputField does not accept all single-character expressions

When I enter ESCinfESC or \[Infinity] into an InputField, such as that below, the input is rejected when I hit tab or return.

Dynamic@foo
InputField[Dynamic@foo]


The same thing happens if I enter Greek characters, such as ESCeESC or \[Epsilon].

However if I enter 1 + \[Infinity] it is accepted, evaluates to Infinity, and is displayed as ∞. Odd that ∞ is supported as output but not input. Also entering Infinity works. Likewise, 0 + \[Epsilon] is accepted and evaluates to ϵ. The input \[Epsilon]\[Epsilon] is also accepted.

No doubt it happens for other characters such as ESCeeESC, although E is accepted. Again, if ESCeeESC is part of a longer expression, it works fine.

Is this a known limitation? I did not find it in the documentation. Or is it a bug?

Note: This seems to be a problem on V11.0.0 and V10.4.1 (and perhaps earlier). Mac OSX 10.11.6, MacBook Pro.

• Must be OS dependent? I can enter esc e esc and other Greek letters, as well as Infinity, esc inf esc, and [Infinity] and they all seem OK. Mac OS 10.11 V 11.0.0 – bill s Sep 8 '16 at 3:20
• Appears to work fine on Win7 V11.0.0 – Kuba Sep 8 '16 at 5:50
• @bills I'm on MacOSX 10.11.6, MacBook Pro, V11.0.0. The problem persists after rebooting the computer. – Michael E2 Sep 8 '16 at 10:34
• I can replicate this weird behavior (Mathematica 11.0.0.0 on OS X 10.11.6) – Sascha Sep 8 '16 at 10:44
• If no one can reproduce the problem, I guess I'll delete the question after a while. This works fine for me: InputField[Dynamic@foo, Hold[Expression]] (probably not important). – Michael E2 Sep 8 '16 at 10:45