[W2K] 2 more problems

I'm hitting more problems with Dolphin 4 (but D3 exhibits the same
behaviour) on Win2K.

There seems to be a problem with using standard colours like (Colour blue)
in RichTextEdits.  E.g. try:

    cf := CHARFORMAT new.
    cf color: Color black.
    p := RichTextPresenter show.
    p value: 'hello, this is a test...'.
    p selectionRange: (1 to: 12).
    p view selectionCharFormat: cf.
    p selectionRange: (6 to: 18).

The text which is (Color black) doesn't show up in the color-reversed
highlighted sections.  Also cut-and-pasting text which has had its color set
to something like (Color red), loses its colour, whereas text which has had
its color set to (Color red: 255 blue: 0 green: 0) doesn't.

(A workaround is to convert Colors to #asRGB in CHARFORMAT>>color:).

Secondly, and -- for me -- more irritatingly.  Something seems to have gone
wrong with text selection in workspaces.  Try opening Object>>#= in a CHB.
Place the cursor at the beginning of the first line and then press
<SHIFT><down arrow> 4 times.  On W98 or NT this will select up to the end of
the first paragraph of the comment.  Under W2K, it also selects the blank
line after the paragraph.  It seems that this happens (but not absolutely
consistently) whenever the line after the one that should get selected is
blank.

It may seems a small thing, but it's driving me mad, because the sequence of
keystrokes I normally use to select lines keeps adding blank lines where I
don't want them.

BTW, this seems to be a Dolphin "thing" since other applications don't show
the same misbehaviour under W2K.

    -- chris

Chris

You wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...
> I'm hitting more problems with Dolphin 4 (but D3 exhibits the same
> behaviour) on Win2K.
>
> There seems to be a problem with using standard colours like (Colour blue)
> in RichTextEdits.  E.g. try:
>...
> (A workaround is to convert Colors to #asRGB in CHARFORMAT>>color:).

Sorry, that is a Dolphin bug which was first reported long ago, but the fix
never made it into the image or was lost. Sending #asRGB to the Color is the
correct fix because a COLORREF (i.e. an RGB value) is expected in the
structure. The "indexed" colours end up being treated as a a monochrome
value very close to black.

>
> Secondly, and -- for me -- more irritatingly.  Something seems to have
gone
> wrong with text selection in workspaces.  Try opening Object>>#= in a CHB.
> Place the cursor at the beginning of the first line and then press
> <SHIFT><down arrow> 4 times.  On W98 or NT this will select up to the end
of
> the first paragraph of the comment.  Under W2K, it also selects the blank
> line after the paragraph.  It seems that this happens (but not absolutely
> consistently) whenever the line after the one that should get selected is
> blank.
>...
> BTW, this seems to be a Dolphin "thing" since other applications don't
show
> the same misbehaviour under W2K.

On the contrary it would appear to be due to the changed behaviour of the
Rich Text Edit control (remembering that on Win2k it is actually a V3 RTE
masquerading as a V1 RTE, and, like all emulations, it isn't exactly the
same). Certainly Wordpad seems to behave in exactly the same way, as does
Outlook. Both of which host the RTE directly. The other applications you
mention perhaps aren't using the RTE, or are not using it in V1 mode (which
we only do as a simple way to achieve backwards compatibility with earlier
versions of Windows 95). Its annoying, I agree, and would be worth
complaining to Microsoft if one believed they would even acknowledge that
there was a problem (which I doubt).

Regards

Blair

Blair,

> On the contrary it would appear to be due to the changed behaviour of the
> Rich Text Edit control (remembering that on Win2k it is actually a V3 RTE
> masquerading as a V1 RTE, and, like all emulations, it isn't exactly the
> same). Certainly Wordpad seems to behave in exactly the same way, as does
> Outlook. Both of which host the RTE directly.

Grrr!  Thanks for the info.

Are you planning to do a workaround for this ?  If not then can you point a
non-Windows programmer (me) to the right place to start trying to implement
a fix ?

I can't imagine being able to put up with the current misbehaviour for
long...

> The other applications you
> mention perhaps aren't using the RTE, or are not using it in V1 mode
(which
> we only do as a simple way to achieve backwards compatibility with earlier
> versions of Windows 95). Its annoying, I agree, and would be worth
> complaining to Microsoft if one believed they would even acknowledge that
> there was a problem (which I doubt).

I doubt it too.  And I want to have as little to do with MS as possible.

BTW, a general point which may interest you -- at least if I'm not alone in
this.  I know that you see Dolphin as a (excellent, of course) tool for
programming Windows.  But that's not how I (personally) see/use it.  For me,
Windows is an implementation detail of Dolphin.  It is literally true that I
use Windows in order to support my programming in Dolphin; if I weren't
using Dolpin then I'd almost certainly have ditched Windows by now (now that
Linux has caught up with laptops, and there is a decent JMV for it).

What that means is that, for instance, if someone asks a question to which
the answer is essentially "read MSDN" or "you need to wrap <some MS API>",
then that -- for me -- amounts to: "you can't do that with Dolphin".

(I'm exagerating slightly in the above -- I do have to have some knowledge
of Windows for my work, and I am an old C/C++ programmer -- but I'm trying
to make the point clearly).

I have no idea how many other Dolphin users think like me.  *If* it's
reasonably common view-point, then you may like to keep it in mind as you
plan your product placement and priorities.

> Blair

    -- chris

"Chris Uppal" <[hidden email]> wrote in
message news:[hidden email]...
> I doubt it too.  And I want to have as little to do with MS as possible.

> BTW, a general point which may interest you -- at least if I'm not alone
in
> this.

At least, you are not completely alone in this.

>  I know that you see Dolphin as a (excellent, of course) tool for
> programming Windows.  But that's not how I (personally) see/use it.  For
me,
> Windows is an implementation detail of Dolphin.  It is literally true that
I
> use Windows in order to support my programming in Dolphin; if I weren't
> using Dolpin then I'd almost certainly have ditched Windows by now (now
that
> Linux has caught up with laptops, and there is a decent JMV for it).

My position probably is not so clear as yours.
   1. I don't want to be tied to Windows and to Microsoft.
   2. I don't always get what I want.
   3. Considering all the factors I'm able to hold in my head at one time,
and making several wild guesses, for now, my best compromise seems to be
Dolphin.

-- Frank
[hidden email]