Device IDE display problem

[SarahWard]

There is a low-level bug in the IDE for the device showing in both the forced-Qvga and VGA applications.

The image below shows two screenshots of this problem with the horizontal scroll within the PPC's IDE.

You can see in the screendump on the left, that moving the horizontal scrollbar simply creates an overlay of the visible code-text (multiple times).
On the right you can see that moving the scroll bar drags the visible text out.

(WM5, ARM S3C, VGA, WM2.0 update 1)

This is how it has occurred twice now. I delete the code for a control related to a DLL component (i.e. code for a horizontal scrollbar for example).

Then I run the app code within the PPC IDE.

A misdirected error message appears, "null reference exception", or something like that.. can't recall exactly (hey, I'm getting old, what can you do?

I suspect it is a low-level C error, the code is pointing/referencing some memory address that isn't valid, maybe?)

Anyway, I have seen it before with B4PPC and it is always a misdirected error/line number for some error in code that it can't trace, like a missing next or end sub or whatever.

So now, when I restart the ppc and b4ppc the scroll display problem occurs. I reinstall NetCF 2.0 and B4ppc. But now way to fix it except to install a full backup of the PPC system, or a fresh install of WM5.

I posted this earlier but then removed the post text because I thought it was that I'd installed NetCF 3.5 and then installed NetCF 2.0 over it. (Why? Don't ask, I am not the smartest female on the planet!)

Anyone got answers to this problem? Is it a known issue?

Sarah

[Zenerdiode]

You erm, forgot to attach the screen dumps...

[Erel]

Basic4ppc device IDE uses a regular TextBox for the editing area. I didn't encounter such problem yet.
Does it also happen with different applications that use a multiline textbox ?

[SarahWard]

Originally Posted by Erel

Basic4ppc device IDE uses a regular TextBox for the editing area. I didn't encounter such problem yet.
Does it also happen with different applications that use a multiline textbox ?

Hi Erel
I have not noticed any problems with multiline textboxes. But to be fair, on the 2 occasions this display error occurred, I investigated it from a ppc system error point of view (.net, etc). The only way around it was to re-install WM5.

Something though.. this never happened on my QVGA device. So it might be some sort of firmware thing on my newer VGA Acer device.

If it re-occurs I will make some textbox tests before re-installing WM5, and let you know the results.
Sarah

[agraham]

Originally Posted by SarahWard

or a fresh install of WM5.

Do you mean a hard reset or something else more dramatic?

[SarahWard]

Originally Posted by agraham

Do you mean a hard reset or something else more dramatic?

Yes, a hard reset was all I could do to resolve the bug. I tried un- and re- installing .NetCF. No change. I did the same with B4ppc. No joy. I ran every fixer I could find (i.e. registry repair, etc).

The only way I could bring the device IDE display back to normal was to start afresh with a new WM5 install. It would be good to know if there is a way of fixing the problem without having to lose my complete system in the process.

I will keep regular system backups from now on.

[SarahWard]

I did some experimenting and discovered the cause for the Device IDE playing up.

It was caused by a system utility called 'Mobidiv Arabiser v4.3'.

I had installed it because I am writing a program with a Persian language database and needed to view the actual Farsi script (not that I understand it, but I needed to view it to get the display perfect).

The Farsi applet is a small program to show Persian/Farsi writing on an English language PDA. It was not only messing with the scroll display but also adding control characters to the source code. On one occasion I actually saw these within the code. (See attachment which, I suspect shows CR/LF in the squares.)

These hidden characters caused all number of bogus error messages even though the code looked OK.

I had to kill the applet process and then uninstall it to bring the PDA back to normal, which it did without problems. Then I had to go through my source code and retype the bits that seemed to be coming up with misdirected error messages.

This Farsi language applet seems to have decided B4ppc was a text display (rather than an editor) and so it tried to make sense of any possible Farsi text.

Computers, who'd use 'em?

[Zenerdiode]

With the Basic4PPC source code being just an ASCII file, if you were intrigued you may send it back to the desktop and have a look at it in a text editor or hex viewer and see what the extra characters are.

I don't think they are the CR/LF characters. Glad you're sorted though.

[SarahWard]

Yes, Zenner, you may be correct.

I didn't have a hex editor on my ppc or I would have looked.