Cocoa-based text fields and steppers

[pluby]

As part of our plans to use Cocoa instead of the Apple's deprecated HITheme functions, I have reimplemented NeoOffice's native text fields and steppers (also known as spin buttons).

Specifically, the test patches below include the following changes:

1. Cocoa-based text fields - If there are no bugs, the tree buttons in item trees should be the same as before. The only difference is that text field borders and focus rings are now drawn correctly. Previously, NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code was drawing them twice and, as a result, text field borders and focus rings were drawn darker than normal.

2. Cocoa-based steppers - Steppers should be the same as before. The only difference is that, when displayed next to a text field, the stepper's vertical midline should be nearly the same as the adjacent text field's vertical midline.

Can anyone install either of the following test patches and tell us if text fields and steppers appear to be drawn incorrectly? The Tools :: Options menu's dialog contains many instances of these two native controls:

NeoOffice 3.3:
http://juliette.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.3-Patch-9-Test-8-Intel.dmg

NeoOffice 2013:
http://juliette.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-2013-Test-9-Intel.dmg

Patrick

[amayze]

I've installed NeoOffice 3.3 Patch 9 Test 8 and can confirm that the areas you've address in this patch still work correctly, and that the spinners have moved very slightly up in relation to the adjacent text fields.

Andy

[pluby]

FYI. I have included the new code in NeoOffice 3.3 Patch 10. The patch can be downloaded from the NeoOffice patch download page.

Patrick

[amayze]

Whilst taking a look at some of the other changes you've made recently to move away from old Apple code I noticed that the text fields in the Preferences::NeoOffice::User Data window can have text drawn beyond their bounds.

In the attached screen shot you can see the start of a capital M at the right of the Initials box, a capital B to the right of the Post Code box and the Country box contains the text "This is a very long text string to find out if NeoOffice draws text beyond the box", which evidently it does, at both edges.

Also I notice that when tabbing away from a box with an over long string in it, the text remains as it was displayed at the moment Tab was pressed and does not switch back to showing the beginning of the string, which might be expected. This would however appear to be a feature as LibreOffice does the same thing.

Andy

[pluby]

From your screen snapshot, it appears that the OpenOffice.org text drawing code is not getting or is ignoring the area around the text field that is reserved for the focus ring.

I will investigate this and post again when I have some news to report.

Patrick

[pluby]

I looked at NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code and, as I suspected, it is ignoring the area reserved for the focus ring when calculating where to draw text in a text field.

I will fix this OpenOffice.org bug, but the fix will not be in NeoOffice 3.4 which we will release later this week. Since various rumor sites expect Apple to release Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks in next week and an unpatched NeoOffice 3.3 installation will not run on Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks, we need to release NeoOffice 3.4 so that we have a version that will install and run unpatched on Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks.

Once we release NeoOffice 3.4, I will work on fixing this bug and I will post when I have some news to report.

Patrick

[pluby]

I think that I have fixed the OpenOffice.org code that was causing the text to draw outside of the text field.

The fix is in the following test patches. Can you install either of the test patches and tell us if the fix works for you?:

NeoOffice 3.4:
http://nick.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.4-Patch-0-Test-4-Intel.dmg

NeoOffice 2013.1:
http://nick.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-2013.1-Test-5-Intel.dmg

Patrick

[amayze]

I've installed NeoOffice 3.4 Patch 0 Test 4 and it resolves the problem, except in one case.

If any of the text in the field is highlighted the left end of the text is still shown outside the text box. I attach a screen shot to show the problem.

Andy

[pluby]

I think that I have fixed the behavior in native text fields that you found.

Additionally, I found that the text field in the native stepper in Impress' "Line and Filling" toolbar was shifted downward so I added a fix to handle such cases so that the text field is vertically aligned with the stepper buttons (see "Before fix" and "After fix" screen snapshots below).

Can you install either of the following test patches and tell us the text display behavior that you found is fixed for you? Also, if any native steppers are vertically shifted too high or low in the following test patches, please let us know:

NeoOffice 3.4:
http://nick.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.4-Patch-0-Test-5-Intel.dmg

NeoOffice 2013.1:
http://nick.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-2013.1-Test-6-Intel.dmg

Patrick

[amayze]

I've installed NeoOffice 3.4 Patch 0 Test 5. It appears to fix the outstanding text field bug and also the misalignment of the spinner and text field that you found above.

Thanks.

Andy

[revsmitty]

I've installed 2013.1 test 6 and it appears to have fixed all of the reported issues.

Galen

[pluby]

FYI. I have included the fix for the drawing text in the text field focus ring bugs in NeoOffice 3.4.1 which can be downloaded from the NeoOffice download page.

Patrick

[pluby]

FYI. I have included the same bug fixes in NeoOffice 2013.2 which is available in Apple's Mac App Store.

Patrick