Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 9:29 am Post subject: Font becomes fat/jagged in base
Hi,
I've created a large database-form in Base. I've experienced quiet a few little bugs on my machine (imac G5 ppc/patch 11/OSX10.3.9). Here are just a few.
- I've experienced a problem with the fonts used in label fields. Most of the label fields become more fat/jagged each time I move the mouse over a combobox. It's as if the anti-aliasing of the text gets darker each time you move the mouse over the combobox.
You can find an example here http://members.home.nl/paulvdweyde/
- When dragging and dropping (grouped) fields from one database form to the other in edit mode, the app very often just hangs or quits.
- Pasting/copying is also a problem. When I try to paste a copied item (lets say a field), the item doesn't appear at all or only appeares after a screen refresh (by yanking the bottom-right window corner or changing to preview mode).
- When resizing a label field, the field copies itself on top. Sometimes this isn't visible at first, but only after a screen refresh or changing to preview mode.
- The form says that it's read only, but can be changed (thank goodness)
My english is not quiet good enough to go deeper into the matter so I hope you find my information usefull.
And then there's still the file lock issue. The data base file can't be accessed when it's on a Apple file server, which makes it useless in a MAC-lan environment.
I would like to make a switch from M$ Offic€ to NeoOffice in our design company. But that's a problem has to be solved first.
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 10:41 am Post subject: Re: Font becomes fat/jagged in base
If possible, do you think you could file issues in our BugZilla bug tracking system for these? If possible, file one per issue that you've experienced!
Some of these are related to the fact that we turned on native widgets in forms and OOo itself isn't designed to do this. The ones that work right in X11 2.0.3 are most likely these.
Base also is one of the more buggy components of OOo itself, so these may be bugs in the underlying 2.0.3 version of OOo.
I myself do not use base or forms extensively so please be patient with me as I try to figure out what the problems are
First off, are you on Patch 11, or are you on one of the earlier patches?
Koenea wrote:
- I've experienced a problem with the fonts used in label fields. Most of the label fields become more fat/jagged each time I move the mouse over a combobox. It's as if the anti-aliasing of the text gets darker each time you move the mouse over the combobox.
This is form NWF related, I believe, but it may not be. The problem is that controls that use antialiased text or alpha blended shadows need to be forcibly erased before being redrawn. It's the classic "cheap whore" effect that we had to spend a lot of time getting out of the regular controls, and they're probably in form controls as well.
Koenea wrote:
- When dragging and dropping (grouped) fields from one database form to the other in edit mode, the app very often just hangs or quits.
Hmm..so are you dragging and dropping between windows of the same application?
Koenea wrote:
- Pasting/copying is also a problem. When I try to paste a copied item (lets say a field), the item doesn't appear at all or only appeares after a screen refresh (by yanking the bottom-right window corner or changing to preview mode).
The ones that are only appearing after screen refresh may be a form NWF issue as well.
Koenea wrote:
- When resizing a label field, the field copies itself on top. Sometimes this isn't visible at first, but only after a screen refresh or changing to preview mode.
Is this only a visible artifact, or is there actually a second label being added to the form?
Koenea wrote:
- The form says that it's read only, but can be changed (thank goodness)
This is most likely an OOo issue since we don't change that directly.
Koenea wrote:
And then there's still the file lock issue. The data base file can't be accessed when it's on a Apple file server, which makes it useless in a MAC-lan environment.
IIRC I believe the problem is that AppleShare file servers do not implement file locking. I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about this one. You may want to search the Support forum or ask about this specific one again there as I remember seeing it come up in the past (but am not sure if anyone found a solution)
Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 2315 Location: Montpellier, France
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:31 pm Post subject:
OPENSTEP wrote:
Koenea wrote:
And then there's still the file lock issue. The data base file can't be accessed when it's on a Apple file server, which makes it useless in a MAC-lan environment.
IIRC I believe the problem is that AppleShare file servers do not implement file locking. I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about this one. You may want to search the Support forum or ask about this specific one again there as I remember seeing it come up in the past (but am not sure if anyone found a solution)
ed
I think this one (AFS support) was fixed/added in the latest (2.1.0) release of OOo/X11 for Mac OS X. I don't remember the number in IssueZilla though.
I think this one (AFS support) was fixed/added in the latest (2.1.0) release of OOo/X11 for Mac OS X. I don't remember the number in IssueZilla though.
I'm not holding my breath. Remember how their "fix" in OOo 2.0.3 actually made the locking errors worse?
Joined: Dec 03, 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:12 pm Post subject:
I'm not a programmer but merely an enthusiastic newcomer, so forgive me if I posted my findings the wrong way.
To answer your questions:
- I'm on patch 11, though I was using patch 8 and 10 when I created the database form. With patch 11 the jagged fonts still appear.
- The hanging occurs when dragging and dropping between two forms made from different tables, but both within NeoOffice. But I haven't tried this with the latest patch, so...
- The copying of label-fields seems to be resolved with patch 11. I just checked. For the record, it was actually added to the form.
-Making the data base network accessable would be more than welcome, not just for me. Why don't you just build it in
After all. NeoOffice should be a real Mac application.
Here's another one. When trying to select more than 2 items (with shift button) the drag and drop hand appears and it drops the 2 selected items at the position where the mouse is located at that time.
And another one. When switching from design- to preview mode (or back) the program also seems to hang (and the computer makes a lot of 'computing noise', the cooling fan is speeding up like mad). It could be because of the difficulty of the form I guess. (iMac G5 PPC/1.8 GHz/768 Mb/OSX 10.3.9) After 20 minutes or so the switch has taken place.
-Making the data base network accessable would be more than welcome, not just for me. Why don't you just build it in
After all. NeoOffice should be a real Mac application.
Huh? So when NeoOffice asks Mac OS X to lock a remote file and Mac OS X returns an error, there is nothing you can do. We can't do something that Mac OS X does not support.
In all honesty, relying on application file locking to share a critical database among multiple users is really not a very reliable solution. Yes, it is easy to understand, but it will fail at some point even if Mac OS X allowed NeoOffice to lock the file. Why? Because all you have to do is use some tool (e.g. the Finder) to accidently delete (or overwrite) the file and your critical file is now gone. Locking does not help either of these cases.
If you really want to robust, multi-user database, I highly recommend that you use a real database like MySQL that does not expose its data files to every user's machine.
I think this one (AFS support) was fixed/added in the latest (2.1.0) release of OOo/X11 for Mac OS X. I don't remember the number in IssueZilla though.
I just looked at both the OOo 2.0.3 and 2.1 code and none of the AFS file locking fixes in OOo will have any effect on the database locking. This is because OOo uses a Java-based database called HSQLDB and HSQLDB uses its own file locking code and not OOo's file locking code. Because of this, don't expect the database file locking issue to go away.
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