BUG: TC 7.02a going "poof" upon right-click

[karlchen]

Hi, ibauer.

The only difference between a crashing configuration and non-crashing one is ...drumroll... language setting! If I use the Czech translation (the one that ships with the official installer), TC keeps vanishing shortly after right click, but when I change the UI language back to the stock English, I can no longer see the TC vanishing!!!

<Speculation>

As a rule translated string in most languages tend to be longer than the original English text (this is true for German as well, not just for Czech).
So I would not be too amazed if 1 line inside the Czech language file or several lines exceeded the maximum length of internal T.C. string buffer(s) thus causing a buffer overflow.
On the other hand, buffer overflows should not be a real problem inside Delphi unless some C-like string functions are used.
Well, I guess I better leave it to Christian to answer your question.

</Speculation>

Karl

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately I cannot reproduce this problem with Czech on Windows XP. I tried it like this:
1. In Regional and Language Options on the last tab, I set Czech as the language for non-Unicode programs
2. XP restarts
3. Start TC with parameter /i=c:\test.ini
4. In the opening configuration dialog, I choose "Czech" as the language and click on OK
5. Right click on JPG file, wait one minute - nothing happens
6. Click on "Properties" in the menu - TC shows properties dialog

So my questions are:
1. Do you get this just with the Czech language file, or also with any other like German or French
2. Do you get this with a fresh ini file where ONLY the language is changed? Or are there some other changes needed?
3. Do you use XP 32-bit or 64-bit? I tried it on both...

[petermad]

I just tried with the Czech language file (Windows XP still under Danish locale though) - and I have no problems with the right click menu.

Perhaps ibauer's wcmd_cz.lng file is corrupt - mine has a md5 checksum of eed30c3417353dd5552939b8ccc9f445

[Clo]

2petermad

Hello Peter !

• Same test here, no problem.
- I get the checksum as MD5 :

eed30c3417353dd5552939b8ccc9f445 *WCMD_CZ.LNG
so, the same…

 Fr
Claude
Clo

[ibauer]

1. Do you get this just with the Czech language file, or also with any other like German or French

I'm able to reproduce the issue with almost any language other than English. I have tried to use German, French, Polish, Danish, Italian and with any of these the TC just goes silently away.

2. Do you get this with a fresh ini file where ONLY the language is changed? Or are there some other changes needed?

I get this with a fresh INI file, the language is the only thing I changed.

3. Do you use XP 32-bit or 64-bit? I tried it on both...

32-bit Windows XP Professional SP2 with the latest patches and updates installed.

Today, I've spent some time playing with my computer settings and found something really weird. This issue only happens if there is a font smoothing (a system-wide setting) set to ClearType. As soon as I change it to "Standard" or disable the font smoothing at all, TC works just fine even with all those languages. Weird, isn't it?

When this issue happens and I do a right click, the TC does not vanishes immediately, but there is about one or two second delay after which it appears to me that something does invalidate TC main window area thereby causing entire window to erase background and repaint itself (I can see a well known flash effect). At this time, TC goes away.

Someone in this thread (Karl?) mentioned that TC is written in Delphi. Well, I'm Delphi developer myself and I'm having similar issue (the main window flash effect) with every new projects created in RAD Studio 2007 (Delphi 2007 for Win32), when MainFormOnTaskBar property of TApplication is set to True. It's enough to create an empty form with just one TLabel control on it and when run, the main form will repaint itself after a second or two and the text of the label becomes somehow distorted. I think it's not just a coincidence and I actually believe these issues are somehow related, which suggest that there is something wrong with my system.

Oh, well.

[ibauer]

Perhaps ibauer's wcmd_cz.lng file is corrupt

I wish it was, but it isn't. I've just checked and your md5 sum matches the mine. But thanks for your response anyway.

[petermad]

I tried enabeling ClearType, but I still can't reproduce the bug - are you using Windows Classic theme or Windows XP theme?

[ibauer]

I tried enabeling ClearType, but I still can't reproduce the bug - are you using Windows Classic theme or Windows XP theme?

Windows XP theme, but I have just tried to switch over to Classic theme, restarted the computer and I can reproduce it here too. Then I disabled the font smoothing again (while the Classic theme was active), restarted the computer just to be sure and TC suddenly started to work fine, no more vanishing whatsoever.

[Clo]

2ibauer

Hello !

• Here, the font smoothing is always disabled and sorry, I can't even test with it "On"
because that brings a huge mess in the PC, all becomes slow the hell making the machine unusable…
- Thus, there is a hitch by there I guess, under some conditions
(i.e. hardware : Onboard GC here with shared memory etc.) … XP-Pro SP1 (French-English)

- BTW :  I'm not a programmer, but I can say you that currently TC is compiled with (patched) Delphi 2™

 KR
Claude
Clo

[ibauer]

Here, the font smoothing is always disabled and sorry, I can't even test with it "On" because that brings a huge mess in the PC, all becomes slow the hell making the machine unusable

How old is your PC, then? Mine is a slightly over 2 years old and I can't say that it's having any problems with the font smoothing. Performance wise, that is.

I can say you that currently TC is compiled with (patched) Delphi 2™

Just out of curiosity, how do you know that?

[Hacker]

ibauer,

Just out of curiosity, how do you know that?

The author has stated it a few times.

Roman

[Clo]

2ibauer

Hello !

• My PC is a machine I rebuilt three year ago about with an Intel™ MB, CPU @ 2.4 GHz… It isn't a museum piece really
- But I've only 512 MiB RAM, and even if I don't waste it, avoiding 50 APPs open at the same time, it's a bit insufficient…
- And yes, all the ”smooth” Win thingies trouble the PC running here.

  KR
Claude
Clo

[jvh]

2ibauer

Hello,

I can't reproduce the bug with the Czech language.

Which fonts do you use in TC (Configuration->Fonts) and on desktop?

[ibauer]

I can't reproduce the bug with the Czech language. Which fonts do you use in TC (Configuration->Fonts) and on desktop?

TC uses the default fonts as I start it with the fresh INI file (Microsoft Sans Serif and MS Sans Serif both sized at 8 pt.). In Windows XP I use the default theme fonts - Tahoma 8pt.

I have Googled a bit and found that I'm not alone who experiences some problems related to ClearType font smoothing in conjunction with nVidia graphics boards. Unfortunately I can't find a solution. The temporary workaround for me now is to disable the font smoothing system wide.

[ibauer]

But I've only 512 MiB RAM

Ouch!