Serious problem - 10.7 to 10.9

[TimStone]

There have been several threads on the checkbox problem, but it has not been resolved. I'm concerned that the underlying problem may be more serious and perhaps be causing problems elsewhere in the code.

The problem has been noted in the checkbox class. I had a problem with checkboxes not working properly and the theme solution did not help. I went back through each version of FWH, and the problem continued, until I reached 10.6. So in June, the problem was not there, but in July it started.

We did a comparison of the checkbox class, but there was no change there. Thus, the problem started with the July update, and it is located elsewhere in the code. It might help to review the changes implemented in the July release to see what may be causing this.

It was not just a flickering problem with me. Some checkboxes, but not all, would not work. I could click on them, l and sometimes a checkmark would appear, and other times it wouldn't. Sometimes it would take a double click to get it to appear.

Because so many people have reported this problem, I think it would be a good idea to find the root of the problem and fix it. I am unable to use the current version of FWH which means I have no access to any of the enhancements from July through September.

I know people will ask for a simple code example. Unfortunately because it may, or may not, occur that will probably be hard to provide. I do remember that James Bott found inconsistent behavior from one of the FWH samples. Sometimes it worked correctly, sometimes it did not !

Can we please focus on this issue ? It might actually resolve other problems people are finding.


Thanks

[Antonio Linares]

Tim,

Lets start with a working example. This code works fine and it has no flickering (Win 7 32 ultimate):
It is not using themes.

Code: Select all  Expand view

#include "FiveWin.ch"

function Main()

   local oDlg, lValue := .T.

   DEFINE DIALOG oDlg

   @ 2, 2 CHECKBOX lValue OF oDlg
   
   @ 3, 10 BUTTON "OK" OF oDlg ACTION oDlg:End()

   ACTIVATE DIALOG oDlg CENTERED

return nil

function IsAppThemed()

return .F.
 

[TimStone]

Antonio,

As I said, simple examples may work ( although James found the sample from the FWH directory worked the first time, and then not the second ).

Numerous people here have observed similar problems. Also, I'm using a resource, and yes, I am using themes ! I use Win 7, but my clients see it on Vista and XP. So I had to roll back to version 10.6 and all works fine.

By deduction, if the same exact code, and compiler, work fine on 10.6, but not 10.7 through 9, and lots of people are seeing problems, then the issue was in something that changed from 10.6 to 10.7.

I'd love to give you an example, but on one dialog I might have 3 checkboxes, and one is consistently having a problem while the others seem to be OK ... and the code is identical except for the variable, and location on the dialog. Otherwise it is exactly the same. The variable is always a database object field in all cases.

I suppose I could do a compare on every source file in 10.6 vs 10.7 that has to do with controls ....

[Antonio Linares]

This example works fine with themes and without having to modify IsAppThemed():

test.prg

Code: Select all  Expand view

#include "FiveWin.ch"

function Main()

   local oDlg, lValue := .T.

   DEFINE DIALOG oDlg

   @ 2, 2 CHECKBOX lValue OF oDlg
   
   @ 3, 10 BUTTON "OK" OF oDlg ACTION oDlg:End()

   ACTIVATE DIALOG oDlg CENTERED

return nil
 

test.rc

Code: Select all  Expand view

#ifdef __FLAT__
   1 24 "WindowsXP.Manifest"
#endif
 

[Antonio Linares]

Tim,

The only changes were done on the function IsAppThemed() source code.

We have reverted those changes and now we need to check all possible situations and see if it fails on any of them

[TimStone]

... My point was that I tried the IsAppThemed( ) Return(.f.) suggestion and that did not resolve the problem. Thats why I'm suggesting looking further. Others made the same observation I do believe.

[James Bott]

Antonio,

Here are some examples:

fwh\samples\testchk3.prg

When the checkbox is clicked the prompt vanishes.

fwh\samples\testchk2.prg

This works fine. However, if you compile it without the RC file, then strange things happen. Click on the first checkbox and it's prompt vanishes, then when you check the other checkbox, the first prompt reappears and the second checkbox's prompt vanishes.

Note that the RC file just contains the themes manifest. If you use an external manifest the checkboxes also work normally.

I also added an external theme manifest to testchk3 and then it works normally.

So it is only when there is no theme that there is a problem--it my tests anyway. Tim reports that he has a problem when he is using a theme.

All my tests were done under Win XP Pro. Tim, what OS are you testing under?

Regards,
James

[Antonio Linares]

James,

Enrico already noticed the reason for it:

Windows themes API IsAppThemed() returns .T. even if we are not using a themes manifest (my first example) so FWH calls DrawPBack() (another Windows themes API function) and it fails as themes are not being used.

[TimStone]

OK ... but in my situation, I do have a themes manifest linked in. Yes I do get a flash, but more importantly I also can't get some checkboxes to work unless I take the whole library back to 10.6. As you can see from my comments, this is a very inconsistant thing.

I'm hoping this can be resolved before the next release. I will be happy to do tests if you have any corrected source files. It is very easy for me to change the FWH version in use ... I have 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 all on my computer.

[Antonio Linares]

Tim,

If you could provide an example to reproduce it that would help very much, thanks

[PeterHarmes]

Tim,

What version of xHarbour are you using? I think there is also a problem with FWH & xHarbour commercial that has started around 10.7 - see viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19786&p=104291#p104291 I spoke to Uwe about this and he doesnt get my problems with his version of xHarbour

I havent tested the latest FW yet, but intend to in the next week

Good luck!!

Regards,

Pete

[TimStone]

I am using September 2010, Build 831 which is the latest "stable release"