IRIX 6.4 Applications 1997 August/SGI IRIX 6.4 Applications 1997 August.iso/relnotes/nedit/ch5.z/ch5

Text File | 1997-08-01 | 7.8 KB | 199 lines

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       5.  _K_n_o_w_n__P_r_o_b_l_e_m_s__a_n_d__W_o_r_k_a_r_o_u_n_d_s

       PROBLEM: No files are shown in the "Files" list in the
       Open... dialog.
       WORKAROUND: When you use the "Filter" field, include the
       file specification or a complete directory specification,
       including the trailing "/" on Unix.  (See Help in the
       Open... dialog).

       PROBLEM: The keyboard shortcuts (accelerator keys) are not
       working when 'Caps' or 'Num Lock' are switched on.
       WORKAROUND: Be sure the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys are both
       unlocked... it's a Motif design flaw.  Netscape painfully
       works around this and the Alt/Meta key reversal on Sun
       workstations by internally re-implementing the Motif menu
       accelerator mechanism.  NEdit will likely follow suit with
       the next major release.

       PROBLEM: When ever I execute an nedit shell command (such as
       spell or wc) I get (extra junk, error messages, complaints
       from stty) inserted into my text, or an Information dialog
       with (extra junk, error messages, complaints from stty).
       WORKAROUND: You probably have printing commands in your
       shell startup file (.cshrc, or equivalent).  These should
       either be skipped in non-interactive mode, or moved to your
       .login file.
       Error messages from stty are a result of it being executed
       from a process which isn't attached to a terminal.  You can
       safely move stty statements and most other interactive
       commands to your .login file (calling stty from a .cshrc
       file is redundant because the terminal device doesn't change
       for each sub-shell).  If you can't remove interactive
       commands, you should skip around them in non-interactive
       shells, I think the usual method is to put them at the end,
       preceded by something like:
         if ($?prompt == 0) exit
       The manual entry on csh has more information on this.

       PROBLEM: Find Again and Replace Again don't continue in the
       same direction as the original Find or Replace.
       WORKAROUND: Find Again and Replace Again don't use the
       direction of the original search.  The Shift key controls
       the direction: Ctrl+G means forward, Shift+Ctrl+G means
       backward.

       PROBLEM: Preferences specified in the Preferences menu don't
       seem to get saved when I select Save Defaults.
       WORKAROUND: NEdit has two kinds of preferences: 1) per-
       window preferences, in the Preferences menu, and 2) default
       settings for preferences in newly created windows, in the
       Default Settings sub-menu of the Preferences menu.  Per-











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       window preferences are not saved by Save Defaults, only
       Default Settings.

       PROBLEM: Columns and indentation don't line up.
       WORKAROUND: NEdit is using a proportional width font.  Set
       the font to a fixed style (see Preferences).

       PROBLEM: NEdit performs poorly on very large files.
       WORKAROUND: Turn off Incremental Backup.  With Incremental
       Backup on, NEdit periodically writes a full copy of the file
       to disk.

       PROBLEM: Commands added to the Shell Commands menu (Unix
       only) don't output anything until they are finished
       executing.
       WORKAROUND: If the command output is directed to a dialog,
       or the input is from a selection, output is collected
       together and held until the command completes.  De-select
       both of the options and the output will be shown
       incrementally as the command executes.

       PROBLEM: Dialogs don't automatically get keyboard focus when
       they pop up.
       WORKAROUND: Most X Window managers allow you to choose
       between two categories of keyboard focus models: pointer
       focus, and explicit focus.  Pointer focus means that as you
       move the mouse around the screen, the window under the mouse
       automatically gets the keyboard focus.  NEdit users who use
       this focus model should set "Popups Under Pointer" in the
       Default Settings sub menu of the preferences menu in NEdit.
       Users with the explicit focus model, in some cases, may have
       problems with certain dialogs, such as
        Find and Replace.  In MWM this is caused by the mwm
       resource startupKeyFocus being set to False (generally a bad
       choice for explicit focus users).  NCDwm users should use
       the focus model "click" instead of "explicit", again, unless
       you have set it that way to correct specific problems, this
       is the appropriate setting for most explicit focus users.

       PROBLEM: Operations between rectangular selections on
       overlapping lines do nothing.
       WORKAROUND: None.  These operations are very complicated and
       rarely used, maybe next version...

       PROBLEM: Cut and Paste menu items fail, or possibly crash,
       for very large (multi-megabyte) selections.
       WORKAROUND: Use selection copy (middle mouse button click)
       for transferring larger quantities of data.  Cut and Paste
       save the copied text in server memory, which is usually
       limited.












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       PROBLEM: (in Motif 1.1 Versions) The shortcut method for
       entering control characters (Alt+Ctrl+char) is not
       available.
       WORKAROUND: Use the Ins. Control Char command.

       PROBLEM: (in Motif 1.1 Versions) Pop-up dialogs "jump"
       (appear briefly in a different location) when they are first
       invoked.
       WORKAROUND: Turn off "Popups Under Pointer" if this gives
       you a headache.

       PROBLEM: Some of the special keys on my keyboard don't do
       what I expect.
       WORKAROUND: X systems are rife with this kind of problem
       because are just too many levels of re-settable bindings
       between the keyboard and the application program that reads
       it.  Sun systems are the worst offenders, combining poor
       Motif support with a variety of strange keyboard
       arrangements.
       To diagnose these problems, you have to look at all three
       levels of key binding that affect Motif programs.  At the
       bottom level are the modifier map and keymap table, where
       hardware key codes are bound to X keysyms. You can see the
       bindings on this level with the xmodmap program (see man
       xmodmap).  A useful tool in debugging the xmodmap level is a
       program like xev, which can show you the keysyms it
       receives.  The next level up from that is the motif virtual
       binding level (see man VirtualBindings).  The xmbind program
       can show you these, but is unfortunately often not available
       on systems which don't have Motif pre-installed, which is
       where it's usually needed the most.  At the top level are
       the X toolkit translation tables (see the NEdit Help section
       called X Resources).  To show the translations in use, you
       can add a binding which dumps the table itself:
           nedit*text.Translations: #override         Alt<Key>t:
       XtDisplayTranslations()
       Typing Alt+T will then display the contents of the
       translation table to stdout (the terminal from which you
       started NEdit).  If you have the NEdit source, you can also
       look at the default bindings in the module text.c.
       Sometimes, even if you don't understand the problem, you can
       patch around it by supplying translations for the keysyms
       that NEdit actually sees, binding them to the action
       routines that you want activated when you press that key.
       This would be a lot easier if there were a nice program like
       xev for printing out keysyms after translation by the Motif
       virtual binding step.