wxruby users - Aug 2006 - update on samples

Hi all

Have been taking a look at the samples to see what''s broken. Not
looking
TOO bad overall, but a few problems we should try and tackle before alpha:

Firstly, I have a few commits (minimal, dialogs, unicode) - anyone else 
been working on these or can I go ahead?

One general issue is that many of the samples rely on being run from 
their own directory, but don''t enforce this. How do people feel about 
samples doing:
 
Dir.chdir( File.dirname( __FILE__ ) )

if the sample should be run from the current directory only?

Alternately, some can be recoded to load resources relative to the 
script dir, not the dir that ruby was run from, and fixed in this way.

Notes on individual scripts

- bigdemo.rb
Mostly OK, and a nice script as well. But issues when not run from 
current dir. Also some items don''t quite display right in the little 
pane (eg Wx::Choice)

- calendar.rb
OK

- caret.rb
OK - but arrow keys don''t work properly (should they?)

- controls.rb
Seems OK, except doesn''t work if not run from current dir. Probably 
should add textctrls to this one.

- dialogs.rb
Problems with DC - seems to cause ObjectPreviouslyDeleted error in an 
on_paint handler. I have worked round this. MDI, ColourDialog crashes on 
OS X.

- system_settings.rb
OK (thanks to Sean''s fix for get_text_extent)

- images.rb
OK

- listbook.rb
OK, except breaks if not run from own directory.

- mdi.rb
MDI doesn''t work on OS X?

- minimal.rb
OK - have tidied up and commented a bit more, commit pending

- text/textctrl.rb
Ok

- text/unicode.rb
OK - except the signature of Choice.new() has changed to become more 
strict - the optional argument with a list of choices (default = []) is 
no longer optional. I think this must be related to using typemaps. I 
have added a workaround, commit pending

- xrc
OK, except breaks if not run from own directory.

I''m going to have a look at tweaking bigdemo next.

cheers
alex

On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 19:10 +0100, Alex Fenton wrote:
> One general issue is that many of the samples rely on being run from 
> their own directory, but don''t enforce this. How do people feel
about
> samples doing:
>  
> Dir.chdir( File.dirname( __FILE__ ) )
> 
> if the sample should be run from the current directory only?
Hm. I''m not too fond of that approach, but wouldn''t fight
against it.
> Alternately, some can be recoded to load resources relative to the 
> script dir, not the dir that ruby was run from, and fixed in this way.
I think that''s probably the best option.

The other approach, which I took with one of the samples, is to simply
refuse to run if the current directory is wrong. That might be a quick
and dirty solution for this alpha release (or shortly after).
> Notes on individual scripts
Thanks for doing this. I haven''t looked at all the samples for a long
time, and it''s nice to see how many of them do work well.
> - bigdemo.rb
> Mostly OK, and a nice script as well. But issues when not run from 
> current dir. Also some items don''t quite display right in the
little
> pane (eg Wx::Choice)
I really like bigdemo, but it doesn''t seem to work as well for me as it
does for you. Platform issues, perhaps?

First, it would be great if we could rename Main.rbw to bigdemo.rb(w) to
be more consistent with the other samples.

Within a couple minutes of starting bigdemo, it always crashes,
presumably due to a garbage collection issue. The crash handler then
falls into a loop of:

  addr2line: ''wxruby'': No such file

And then pops up a dialog offering to terminate the app. The wxGauge
demo seems to make it happen right away.


I get a segfault when pressing the "MDI demo" button:

(wxruby:25518): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_window_realize_icon: assertion
`info->icon_pixmap == NULL'' failed
./MDIDemo.rbw:21: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i486-linux]


Changing fonts crashes:
(wxruby:25723): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_window_set_transient_for: assertion
`parent == NULL || GTK_IS_WINDOW (parent)'' failed
./wxFontDialog.rbw:80:in `set_label'': can''t convert nil into
String
(TypeError)
        from ./wxFontDialog.rbw:80:in `update_ui''
        from ./wxFontDialog.rbw:104:in `on_select_font''
        from ./wxFontDialog.rbw:8:in `initialize''
        from Main.rbw:551
./wxFontDialog.rbw:80: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i486-linux]

The text for PopupMenu should say that you have to right-click in the
blank area around the text. I tried clicking inside the text and nothing
happened, but then I tried outside and it worked fine.

wxComboBox pops up an error dialog

A problem occurred with the wxComboBox demo:
No matching function for overloaded ''wxComboBox_Append''
./wxComboBox.rbw:22:in `append''
./wxComboBox.rbw:22:in `initialize''
./wxComboBox.rbw:52:in `run''
Main.rbw:396:in `run_demo''
Main.rbw:356:in `on_tree_sel_changed''
Main.rbw:287:in `initialize''
Main.rbw:551


The scrolling list jumps farther than it should for a mouse wheel
movement. It should be 2-3 items but is 6. I''m not sure if
that''s set in
ruby code or is part of wx.

wxScrolledWindow fails:
./wxScrolledWindow.rbw:49:in `do_drawing'': undefined method
`get_text_extent'' for #<Wxruby2::PaintDC:0xb67e5964>
(NoMethodError)
        from ./wxScrolledWindow.rbw:35:in `on_paint''
        from ./wxScrolledWindow.rbw:26:in `initialize''
        from Main.rbw:551

wxStatusBar brings up an error dialog, and then immediately goes to the
loop/terminate problem mentioned above. I can''t copy the error message,
but the short version is that set_status_text hits a "Swig director type
mismatch in output value of type ''bool''"

wxTextCtrl crashes:
./wxTextCtrl.rbw:11:in `on_kill_focus'': undefined method
`write'' for
#<WxRubyDemo:0xb689bd6c> (NoMethodError)
        from ./wxTextCtrl.rbw:31:in `initialize''
        from Main.rbw:416:in `run_demo''
        from Main.rbw:356:in `on_tree_sel_changed''
        from Main.rbw:287:in `initialize''
        from Main.rbw:551
./wxTextCtrl.rbw:11: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i486-linux]

wxToggleButton gives an error dialog:
A problem occurred with the wxToggleButton demo:
undefined method `evt_togglebutton'' for #<TestPanel:0xb67e8b4c>
./wxToggleButton.rbw:11:in `initialize''
./wxToggleButton.rbw:9:in `initialize''
./wxToggleButton.rbw:26:in `run''
Main.rbw:396:in `run_demo''
Main.rbw:356:in `on_tree_sel_changed''
Main.rbw:287:in `initialize''
Main.rbw:551

wxTreeControl gives an error dialog:
A problem occurred with the wxTreeCtrl demo:
undefined method `get_icon'' for Wxruby2::ArtProvider:Class
./wxTreeCtrl.rbw:57:in `initialize''
./wxTreeCtrl.rbw:160:in `run''
Main.rbw:396:in `run_demo''
Main.rbw:356:in `on_tree_sel_changed''
Main.rbw:287:in `initialize''
Main.rbw:551

wxLayoutConstraints doesn''t appear to be doing the right thing, but
it''s
hard to tell since I don''t know what the right thing is. I have a big
purple area, but the upper left square centimeter is green, with the
letters "Pa" in it.

I tried Help/Find, and when I hit OK I crashed with:
Illegal instruction

> - caret.rb
> OK - but arrow keys don''t work properly (should they?)
After there is text entered, the arrow keys work fine for me.
> - dialogs.rb
> Problems with DC - seems to cause ObjectPreviouslyDeleted error in an 
> on_paint handler. I have worked round this. MDI, ColourDialog crashes on 
> OS X.
I have no trouble with DC or the color dialog. But the Busy Info dialog
puts up an ugly gray box (with no border filled with question marks. If
you hit Cancel from the Find (or Find/Replace) dialog, the app segfaults
and exits immediately, so the only way out is the not-quite-obvious X
close button.

The text for the modeless dialog should make it more clear which menu
you are supposed to use to close the dialog (It''s the main menu of the
app, not the window menu of the modeless dialog).

> - listbook.rb
> OK, except breaks if not run from own directory.
Brings up a big blank window for me. If this is only available on
certain platforms, we should say so.
> - mdi.rb
> MDI doesn''t work on OS X?
Segfaults for me before the main frame is shown.
> - minimal.rb
> OK - have tidied up and commented a bit more, commit pending
The title bar of nothing.rb should probably not say "Minimal", since
it
is quite different from the minimal sample.



Kevin

>> Dir.chdir( File.dirname( __FILE__ ) )
>>
>> if the sample should be run from the current directory only?
>>     
>
> Hm. I''m not too fond of that approach, but wouldn''t fight
against it.
>   
Fair enough. I haven''t gone with this approach with any of the samples 
so far.
>> Alternately, some can be recoded to load resources relative to the 
>> script dir, not the dir that ruby was run from, and fixed in this way.
>>     
>
> I think that''s probably the best option.
>   
I''ve checked in changes for this approach for both the samples that use
XRC (listbook and xrc) and for the icon in minimal.
>> - bigdemo.rb
>> Mostly OK, and a nice script as well. But issues when not run from 
>> current dir. Also some items don''t quite display right in the
little
>> pane (eg Wx::Choice)
>>     
>
> I really like bigdemo, but it doesn''t seem to work as well for me
as it
> does for you. Platform issues, perhaps?
>   
Thanks for the detailed info. Will look into the specific issues.

The display isn''t great on OS X either - some work well, some
don''t. And
I was getting some GC crashers, but think I found a way to ameliorate 
these - will dig around in an old working tree.

Also MDI seems to crash - I wonder how it works on Windows - the only 
place there is a native control for this.
> First, it would be great if we could rename Main.rbw to bigdemo.rb(w) to
> be more consistent with the other samples.
>   
Will do. I think I prefer the .rb extension because for Windows users if 
something goes wrong at least the exception is spewed somewhere visible. 
Is that too pessimistic? ;)
> wxLayoutConstraints doesn''t appear to be doing the right thing,
but it''s
> hard to tell since I don''t know what the right thing is. I have a
big
> purple area, but the upper left square centimeter is green, with the
> letters "Pa" in it.
>   
Should we drop LayoutConstraints - it is deprecated in
Wx?
>> - caret.rb
>> OK - but arrow keys don''t work properly (should they?)
>>     
>
> After there is text entered, the arrow keys work fine for me.
>   
Nope, definitely busted on OS X. Each key press advances the cursor one 
space - as if it''s adding a non-printable char. Urgh. The code looks 
right - cross-platform stuff that Wx should handle.
>> - dialogs.rb
>> Problems with DC - seems to cause ObjectPreviouslyDeleted error in an 
>> on_paint handler. I have worked round this. MDI, ColourDialog crashes
on
>> OS X.
>>     
>
> I have no trouble with DC or the color dialog. But the Busy Info dialog
> puts up an ugly gray box (with no border filled with question marks. If
> you hit Cancel from the Find (or Find/Replace) dialog, the app segfaults
> and exits immediately, so the only way out is the not-quite-obvious X
> close button.
>   
BusyInfo seems now to crash on OS X. No problems with Cancel on
FindDialog.
> The text for the modeless dialog should make it more clear which menu
> you are supposed to use to close the dialog (It''s the main menu of
the
> app, not the window menu of the modeless dialog).
>   
Agreed, will change and check in.
>> - listbook.rb
>> OK, except breaks if not run from own directory.
>>     
>
> Brings up a big blank window for me. If this is only available on
> certain platforms, we should say so.
>   
Could you confirm that this isn''t a problem with loading the XRC - I 
committed a fix to load the XRC from the right place even if the script 
is run from elsewhere.
> The title bar of nothing.rb should probably not say "Minimal",
since it
> is quite different from the minimal sample.
>   
Didn''t look at this one, sorry, will follow-up.

cheers
alex

On Mon, 2006-08-14 at 00:30 +0100, Alex Fenton wrote:
> Should we drop LayoutConstraints - it is deprecated in Wx?
Yes, we should. But it is used in bigdemo LayoutConstraints and also
ScrolledMessageDialog, so we need to remove both of those before
deleting the .i file.
> >> - listbook.rb
> >> OK, except breaks if not run from own directory.
> >>     
> >
> > Brings up a big blank window for me. If this is only available on
> > certain platforms, we should say so.
> >   
> Could you confirm that this isn''t a problem with loading the XRC -
I
> committed a fix to load the XRC from the right place even if the script 
> is run from elsewhere.
Definitely still blank when run from the listbook directory. There are a
couple GTK warnings that imply that it is at least attempting to load
the XRC file.

Thanks,

Kevin