Dolphin Shell spanning across virtual desktops

Hi:

    I've started using the "Multiple desktop" feature of my video card
driver (nVidia), which adds virtual desktops on which you can run apps
selectively. I have one desktop for development, another for reading, and so
on...
    You can set on which desktop the app will run, and all windows which
belongs to that app will be created on that desktop. With the Dolphin
development windows works fine, but not for the Dolphin Shell
(SmalltalkSystemShell), it spans across all the virtual desktops i have, and
if i force it to "go back" to the desktop i want, it goes, but it appears
again in all the desktops in less than a second.

    It's not very important to me, i like it everywhere :-) , but i'm
wondering why is it happening.

    Any comments will be appreciated.

    Thanks in advance.

--
Esteban.

Esteban,

I'm not sure why that is happening. However, you might like to consider
using UltraMon instead:

www.ultramon.com

I have no problems with Dolphin running with this virtual desktop
software (using nVidia display drivers underneath) with the additional
advantage that the taskbar is stretched across all three displays
rather than being confined to the primary display (which is the efffect
I saw when using the nVidia virtual desktop).

Best regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
www.object-arts.com

Esteban A. Maringolo wrote:

>     It's not very important to me, i like it everywhere :-) , but i'm
> wondering why is it happening.

Just curious: does the same thing happen if you start a second instance with:

    SmalltalkSystemShell show.

I.e. is it something that's special about that particular window, or does it
apply to all instances of the class.

    -- chris

Chris Uppal wrote:

> I.e. is it something that's special about that particular window, or does it
> apply to all instances of the class.
>
>     -- chris

As somebody with the same problem (downloaded an evaluation of your
product a couple of days ago and loving it) I can confirm that a second
instance of the class created as you suggest does not exhibit the same
problem.

In my case it's a real pain as I'd like to keep it running so I can
experiment every now and again by switching to a window. If there's a
possible fix I'd love to hear about it.

Ian

Andy Bower wrote:

> I'm not sure why that is happening. However, you might like to consider
> using UltraMon instead:
>
> www.ultramon.com

Andy, the op is not using multiple monitors but virtual desktops and I
am suffering the same problem with the nvidia software. There's another
desktop manager I could go back to as well but apart from a couple of
glitches (and Dolphin's is the biggest) it works well.

best regards

Ian (merely an evaluator at the moment)

Esteban A. Maringolo wrote:
I can't cure this problem either. It's slightly less annoying if you
mark the app in nView options as being visible on all desktops. At least
that way you can minimise it and it will stay quietly minimised in the
taskbar and not popping up all over your other apps.

Ian

Ian J Cottee wrote:

> As somebody with the same problem (downloaded an evaluation of your
> product a couple of days ago and loving it) I can confirm that a second
> instance of the class created as you suggest does not exhibit the same
> problem.

Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding: I'm not associated with Object
Arts in any way (except as a long-term customer).  I'm pleased that you are
enjoying using Dolphin, though -- always nice to see new faces.

As for the problem itself, it's very puzzling (to me anyway).  As far as I
know, the "Dolphin system folder" is not a special window in any way (the VM
isn't specially aware of it, for instance), and everything else about it that
is unusual (for a window/tool in the IDE) is also unusual about the second
instance.  Odd...

Sorry I can't help, but maybe we've said enough now to have aroused Andy or
Blair's curiosity ;-)

    -- chris

Chris Uppal wrote:

Hi Chris

Thanks for your interest in the problem and understand you are not
Object Arts. I'm intrigued why you asked the question though :).

I switched back to a previous virtual desktop manager and Dolphin was
much better behaved although (very oddly) a couple of times it popped
back onto my current workspace. Very odd.

If you are wondering why I am here, I am a python programmer trying to
learn lisp. I seem to have got sidetracked :). I was always intrigued by
Smalltalk when I was younger and for some reason I thought I'd have a
play. It's very addictive.

Ian

Ian J Cottee wrote:

> Thanks for your interest in the problem and understand you are not
> Object Arts. I'm intrigued why you asked the question though :).

Why I asked at all, or asked that specific question ?  The reason I was curious
at all is because normally when something happens in Dolphin that I don't
understand, investigating it will teach me something new (or I'll hit a
brick wall, and have to hope that Blair or Andy will provide an explanation).
The reason I wondered about how a second instance would behave is that I wanted
to know if it was something special about that /particular/ window, or
something unusual that instances of that class all do -- if it was the latter
then it'd presumably be easy enough to find the code that did it.

Since the second instance doesn't display the problematic behaviour, it might
be that doing a "panic" (which closes all the windows and re-opens the system
folder) would cure it -- at least for the duration of that session, maybe for
longer.  If so, then a class-side method on SmalltalkSystemFolder which
re-opens that window might be useful in the interim. This works (in the sense
that it doesn't seem to break anything) for me (I admit it's a little
over-done...):

============
reopenDefault
 "re-open the 'default' instance

  self reopenDefault.
 "

 | oldDefault src dst |

 oldDefault := Default ifNil: [^ self].
 Default := self show.

 src := oldDefault view.
 dst := Default view.
 dst rectangle: src rectangle.

 src := oldDefault presenterNamed: 'systemFolder'.
 dst := Default presenterNamed: 'systemFolder'.
 dst expand: (src instVarNamed: 'treeItem').  "!!"

 src := src view.
 dst := dst view.
 dst selectionOrNil: src selectionOrNil.
 dst hasTrackSelect: src hasTrackSelect.

 oldDefault exit.

============


> If you are wondering why I am here, I am a python programmer trying to
> learn lisp.

Undoubtedly the best way to learn lisp ;-)

I've looked at lisp/Scheme a few times since getting into the Dolphin habit,
and although the langage(s) themselves are pretty impressive (if you can
tolerate the various "old fashioned" glitches in the design -- like using ()
for false), the IDE's are so... how to put it ?  So /dead/.  No living objects
anywhere, just an editor and a read-eval loop.  Perhaps a browser too if you're
lucky.

    -- chris

Chris,

> As for the problem itself, it's very puzzling (to me anyway).  As far
> as I know, the "Dolphin system folder" is not a special window in any
> way (the VM isn't specially aware of it, for instance), and
> everything else about it that is unusual (for a window/tool in the
> IDE) is also unusual about the second instance.  Odd...

As far as I can see the System Folder is just a normal window. The only
thing I can think is that the problem might be something to do with the
time at which the window (handle) is created during system startup.
It's a bit difficult to test here since we don't have any virtual
desktop software to try it out with. Here's an idea; does a deployed
Dolphin application (say Hello World) cause the same problem when run
under the virtual desktop manager?

Best regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
www.object-arts.com

Hi Andy, All:

"Andy Bower" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...
I've tested deploying the Dolphin Notepad (DNotepad.exe). Things got worse
with it.
Because if I switch vDesktops the app got killed, without questions about to
save changes or something similar.

I've got Task Manager on front, available on all desktops with the
DNotepad.exe process selected, then i switch desktops and it gones away
silently.

To be more sure about this behavior, i've deployed some others example apps,
and a personal, and with all of these the same behavior occurs.

I'll keep investigating.

Thanks in advance.

--
Esteban.