Various Bugs

Sorry if some of these bugs are already been looked into. I was prompted to add to this forum tonight urgently when I noticed the date had changed to 2010 from 2012 (I’ve just seen you are aware of this issue already).

I’m running 5.14 (22 Apr 09) on Ionyix.

An Adjust left click over a file to rename from a filer window does not work properly. If you insert a space into the filename the filename does not include the space. A rename from the middle menu button and space works fine.

I’m getting very strange results from the new Help application. When I hover over “Apps” Help says:

Click SELECT to Click SELECT to Click Select to.

• Click Select to…(as above for “Apps”)
• Click Select to…(as above for “Apps”).

• Click SELECT to ISClick Select to RAM Click Select to click select to.
• Click SELECT to ISClick Select to RAM Click Select to click select to.

If you open up an application, I’ve quickly gone to Edit and look at the messages some have missing spaces. I’m sure I’ve seen strange error messages in the various apps but haven’t had chance to knock together a comprehensive list tonight. Just try Paint or something it’ll probably come back with odd messages.

The Alarm application’s time display on icon bar when you have the time set to HH:MM shifts. When top dot in colon changes/flashes to dot i.e. 20:13 13 shifts one pixel to right. 20.13 13 shifts one pixel to left.

Sometimes when I cold start the machine, the screen displays white garbled characters, and I have to hit the reset button. My graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400. To reproduce the problem I just restart the machine about three times in a row.

That’s all I can remember but was sure there were other minor things that I’ve noticed since flashing the ROMS sorry I didn’t make a note of them but will do next realease. That’s no criticism I think you’re all doing a wonderful job and like I said before I’m extremly happy with machine and ROM update. Keep up the good work!

I was wondering is there a place where I can put ideas for desktop tweaks, I’ve noticed a numeber of very small improvements that could be made to the desktop which would really improve productivity further.

I’ve written some very, very basic code which when added to the Run in !boot on Ionyix (the run which loads the desktop applications which you drag into the app) seems to work okay for me to fix the time. I put it together quickly to diagnose the time issue, before I worked out it was a bug not a problem with watch battery on motherboard. The code corrects the year, plus the time and date.

PRINT “Checking Date…” A$=TIME$ PRINT PRINT “Time is set to:” PRINT A$ PRINT IF INSTR<>0 THEN PROCfixtime ELSE IF INSTR<>0 PRINT “Date is set CORRECTLY” ELSE PRINT ”!!!!!!!! something else, cmos battery?? Date is ” + A$ PROCend END

DEF PROCfixtime PRINT “Date is set INCORRECTLY” PRINT B$=LEFT$(A$,INSTR-5) + “2010” TIME$=B$ PRINT “Now set date to:” PRINT TIME$ ENDPROC

DEF PROCend PRINT PRINT “Completed” ENDPROC

Codes a bit of a joke but it does do the trick and should keep me going until the latest release of ROMs.

Thanks,

Happy New Year. Andrew.

Code didn’t format right.

PRINT “Checking Date…” A$=TIME$ PRINT PRINT “Time is set to:” PRINT A$ PRINT IF INSTR<>0 THEN PROCfixtime ELSE IF INSTR<>0 PRINT “Date is set CORRECTLY” ELSE PRINT ”!!!!!!!! CONSIDER CHANGING CMOS BATTERY! Date is ” + A$ PROCend END

DEF PROCfixtime PRINT “Date is set INCORRECTLY” PRINT B$=LEFT$(A$,INSTR-5) + “2010” TIME$=B$ PRINT “Now set date to:” PRINT TIME$ ENDPROC

DEF PROCend PRINT PRINT “Completed” ENDPROC

That should be okay. Will the latest rom updater remind users to replug in there modules, when rom order is changed by flash?

Please ignore above code, I wasn’t able to paste it into the forum correctly. There’s a brief bugs list at top of this post. Thanks, Andrew.

Hint: try using @code@ on each line.

[Edit: Or, better still, <pre> </pre> tags.]

An Adjust left click over a file to rename from a filer window does not work properly.

I assume you mean an ALT +SELECT click?

The Alarm application’s time display on icon bar when you have the time set to HH:MM shifts. When top dot in colon changes/flashes to dot i.e. 20:13 13 shifts one pixel to right. 20.13 13 shifts one pixel to left.

True. I had to use CloseUp to see this initially. But now I can (just about) see it with my naked eye. You realise that this may not be fixable; Alarm is just doing a Wimp_TextOp 2 on the strings “20:13” and “20.13”. Personally I was happy that the numbers didn’t move. I may try character &B7 instead of &2E, although that corresponds to the upper dot of the colon.

You realise that this may not be fixable; Alarm is just doing a Wimp_TextOp 2 on the strings “20:13” and “20.13”.

Might it be possible by splitting into two strings at :. and then using R0 to right justify the left string?

It may be possible, but am I going to waste my time doing it? Probably not. It’s an incredibly ugly hack for just one case.

I agree: probably not worth you wasting your time on. But someone else may want to try (e.g. me, perhaps).

Does a less ugly hack exist as an option? (An even uglier one than that suggested would be writing just 20.13 and adding the top of the : directly!)

The less ugly hack is removing the flashing :/. option altogether.

I think the only sensible way of supporting the flashing :/. is to split the string in two halves as Trevor suggests. After all, you can’t guarantee that the user is using a font where : and . are exactly the same width.

The less ugly hack is removing the flashing :/. option altogether.

Of course. Nice simple solution. But some purists (I don’t include myself as one) may want it automatically retained if the System font is chosen!

I think the only sensible way of supporting the flashing :/. is to split the string in two halves as Trevor suggests. After all, you can’t guarantee that the user is using a font where : and . are exactly the same width.

Although in the window you have a choice HH:MM or HH:MM:SS internally these convert to format strings in exactly the same way as the user defined format.

The string that will be rendered into the icon is decided based on this long before we get to the point where it is displayed:

cur_clock$ =FNcur_time
t$ =FNconverttime(cur_clock$,format$)

 ...

SYS "Wimp_TextOp",&00000002,t$,-1,-1,20,(68 -fontysize%) /2

Of course. Nice simple solution. But some purists (I don’t include myself as one) may want it automatically retained if the System font is chosen!

Are there any Iyonix users that use the non-proportional system font as their desktop font? Really?

cur_clock$ =FNcur_time
t$ =FNconverttime(cur_clock$,format$)
...
SYS "Wimp_TextOp",&00000002,t$,-1,-1,20,(68 -fontysize%) /2

I’ll try to have a look at this before the end of the month, if no one objects.

I presume the latest !Alarm will run OK on a Kinetic-RPC but if not then I’ve been told the EBVBeagleBoard will be with me before the end of the month (will have to borrow a DVI-D monitor)!

All the development I have done to Alarm has been with RO402 on an old RPC, so a Kinetic should be fine.

Everything in “Apps” should work on all machines with at least RO4 (maybe older, but let’s not get into that discussion ;-), so most people could potentially do work on this stuff.

This is the best I can produce just using the standard character set. Is it good enough?

This is the best I can produce just using the standard character set. Is it good enough?

Seems to do the job nicely, although I’m afraid that some users may prefer the previous pixel-shifting version.

...Talking of which, I couldn’t reproduce it when I tried earlier, but must’ve been in the wrong screenmode or something. (Ditto with ROL version, which ISTR produced the same effect last time I looked.) Anyway, unfortunately I then got distracted by installing !CVS instead of just browsing the live sources, so still haven’t looked myself yet.

However, another option (which may have already been considered) would be to use a monospaced outline font instead of the desktop font. What do you think?

Seems to do the job nicely, although I’m afraid that some users may prefer the previous pixel-shifting version.

That’s fixable, in the format string ˜IN specifies the currently fixed seperator. This could be extended to have following it the two desired characters. So ˜IN:. would produce the standard version.

...Talking of which, I couldn’t reproduce it when I tried earlier, but must’ve been in the wrong screenmode or something.

Have you tried using CloseUp?

However, another option (which may have already been considered) would be to use a monospaced outline font instead of the desktop font. What do you think?

I’ve been using Wimp_TextOp up to now, if we were to change to the fontmanager’s own API (which I don’t have experience with) then maybe. Except we then have the problem that the other text in the Alarm icon may look unnatural.

It probably sounds sad but when I saw that the Alarm had now got an anti-aliased font I decided to upgrade the rom immediately. The fact that the clock was using the system font has been annoying me for many years. I could never understand why the font wasn’t anti-aliased. Not sure why anyone would want the ugly system font? The moving dot can be seen fairly easily on my system(I noticed it was moving when I checked the time) BUT I’m using a large wide screen. As more people get wide screens isn’t it going to become more of an issue in that more people will notice it.

To confirm I meant the ALT key + SELECT mouse button to rename a file. When you do ALT+Select and insert a space into a filename the file doesn’t get renamed. However, the rename option selected from the middle button menu works fine when you add the space, and the file is renamed correctly. Some applications don’t let you have spaces in the filenames when you save (fireworkz32), but it’s easy to rename the files from the filer.

Thanks, Andrew.

Have you tried using CloseUp?

Thanks. Makes it much more obvious, although just visible to the naked eye anyway.

Are there any Iyonix users that use the non-proportional system font as their desktop font? Really?

You’re right. I doubt it very much.

The less ugly hack is removing the flashing :/. option altogether. ...in the format string ˜IN specifies the currently fixed seperator.

Probably simplest is to disable it by default, as suggested, with ˜IN use for those who want it back.

cur_clock$ =FNcur_time
t$ =FNconverttime(cur_clock$,format$)
...
SYS "Wimp_TextOp",&00000002,t$,-1,-1,20,(68 -fontysize%) /2

I’ve had a look at PROCgettime, FNconverttime and PROCclock. I’ve also watched the minutes “dancing” when the desktop font’s set to Trinity. I think the flashing is a nice touch (not too visually distracting compared to the : simply flashing on/off as per a bedside clock) which would be good to reimplement for proportional fonts in the future.

After all, you can’t guarantee that the user is using a font where : and . are exactly the same width.

(Try using Selwyn for some cheap entertainment!) Using info from Wimp_TextOp 1, the : and . could be centred between right-justified HH and left-justified SS. As James indicated before, this is no small task. Unfortunately I don’t personally think my current knowledge of developing for RISC OS would enable me to tackle this quickly in my available spare time at the moment. However, I’d like to think I’ll be able to offer some help with it in the future. Sorry. (And thanks for all the updating work, James.)

It probably sounds sad but when I saw that the Alarm had now got an anti-aliased font I decided to upgrade the rom immediately. The fact that the clock was using the system font has been annoying me for many years. I could never understand why the font wasn’t anti-aliased.

I choose to update Alarm precisely because I hated the system font too. However it turned out to be more complicated than I expected, you can’t just substitute Wimp_TextOp for PRINT. The old version uses a mode 15 sprite and then uses the OS to plot and translate it to the right size. This works great for making the system font appear at the right size. But looks terrible if you plot in the desktop font instead. After updating to use a sprite at the desktop resolution I then had to code a new routine to plot the two colour border exactly the same as it was before. The next problem was how Alarm erases the time before re-plotting, it plotted the time again in white (or EORed it, I can’t remember). As the desktop font is blended with its background this no longer worked. I ended up just plotting a big white rectangle over the whole area inside the border.

I suspect the reason it was never updated was because it’s a pain to do properly.

To confirm I meant the ALT key + SELECT mouse button to rename a file. When you do ALT+Select and insert a space into a filename the file doesn’t get renamed. However, the rename option selected from the middle button menu works fine when you add the space, and the file is renamed correctly. Some applications don’t let you have spaces in the filenames when you save (fireworkz32), but it’s easy to rename the files from the filer.

The support for normal spaces in the filer and save boxes on RO5 is explained here: Google groups

Basically spaces are transparently altered by the wimp to hard spaces and the app is unaware. Apps like fireworkz32 aren’t using the correct validation string, so spaces don’t get substituted. When running the ROOL filer and wimp (but not the latest RO514 versions) on my machine, doing an ALT+SELECT rename using a space works. So a bug may have crept into the filer since, possibly the validation string is wrong. I think Fred Graute is the person to give a definitive answer here.

I think Fred Graute is the person to give a definitive answer here.

Well, definitive I don’t know, but I can confirm that ALT+SELECT rename is working fine using RO 5.14 (although the Filer in use here does have my latest patches applied). I’m not aware of any changes that would affect ALT+SELECT rename but it’s always possible that there’s an undesired side-effect somewhere.

I don’t see the odd help messages either (apart from the missing spaces) so it may be that the ROM Andrew is using is corrupted or that there’s some incompatible patch present (eg an older version of QFiler, which Martin explains elsewhere can introduce odd behaviour).

Hi,

Thanks for everyone’s feed back.

Qfiler warned me after I updated the ROMS and it disabled itself. It advised me to put on the latest version which I did and it seemed to work okay after that.

There seems to be a few issues with my Ionyix I wonder if it’s best to put on the latest rom image when it’s ready just in case something’s got corrupted as Fred mentioned. I originally updated the rom images from 5.08 (the earliest you could go from).

Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew assuming that you have 5.14 flashed in your machine. Would it be possible for you to start the machine with SHIFT held down. This will prevent !Boot from being run. After this can you then try to renaming with a space. Then we can know if it’s a problem with your filer or something being run in !Boot.

Andrew,

Just a thought, you did apply all the other updates other than just moving from 5.08 to 5.14 ROM. These are available via !IyoUpWtch application.