Second monitor cripples LC

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dunbarx
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Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:55 am

I had an extra monitor connected to my 27" iMac. I used the extra to display the script editor.

I got a 32" monitor today to hold even more of the SE. But when it is connected, LC acts very badly indeed. I get alerts that scripts are still running, answer and ask commands do not work at all, cannot quit LC in the normal way, cannot save, etc.

When I disconnect that monitor, all is well. Back and forth, bad and just fine.

I will go back to my old monitor, a 27" display, and assume it will be fine as before. Both are LG brand.

As far as it goes, the new one seems to work as advertised. All other apps work without issue while it is connected, and when on that screen itself.

But not LC.

Bug? Something I said?

Craig Newman

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:11 am

So here is a wrinkle. The card window is on the iMac. The extra monitor has nothing.

I mentioned that the answer command, for instance, would not work with the new monitor connected. If, however, I invoke that command (nothing happens), and then change either monitor's resolution, arrangement, rotation, anything at all having to do with the configuration of two monitors in the displays pane of the system settings, the screens both go black (as they are wont to do when making those sorts of changes), and the dialog pops up on the iMac.

Craig

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:21 am

And here is another.

If I place the card window on the new monitor, and the SE window on the iMac. everything works fine.

I cannot work that way, however, at all.

Craig

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by SparkOut » Thu Jan 25, 2018 7:43 am

I don't know if it is related to your problem but there is a multi-screen bug with players on alternate screens.

http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=20707

It probably isn't the same issue for you but shows the screen handling does need to be looked at closely.

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by Martin Koob » Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:32 pm

Hi Dunbar.

I have experienced this behaviour in LC 8 and LC 9. There are several bugs posted that appear related to this. It seems the problem is primarily when the top of the second monitor is arranged above the top of the monitor of the Mac Book Pro.

http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=20833

http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=19302

http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=18363

http://quality.livecode.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15366

A workaround that works for me is to arrange the monitors side by side in Display preferences of Mac OS X. This requires mental gymnastics on my part because in physical space the secondary monitor is above the Mac Book but I have to always remember to mouse to the left to get to the second monitor then back to the right to get back to the main MacBook Pro monitor.

Martin

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by richmond62 » Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:01 pm

I use a 2006 Polycarbonate INTEL iMac running Mac OS 10.7.5 with an additional monitor
on its left and have never had a problem with LiveCode or anything else "misbehaving".

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by Martin Koob » Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:06 pm

Hi Richmond.

Try arranging the second monitor above the main monitor in the Display Preferences and see if you see anything odd.

Martin

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by richmond62 » Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:06 pm

Try arranging the second monitor above the main monitor
I just did that, after I had opened LiveCode 8.1.8, and on opening a new stack
it opened near the top left of the upper monitor, but the Tools and the
MenuBar did not relocate to the upper monitor.
m1.png
I then closed LiveCode and reopened it, and, as I suspected it would,
the MenuBar and the Tools opened near the top of the uppermost
monitor but so that the upper half of it was obscured by the Mac Menu.
m2.png
2ndScreen.jpg
A bit of a pain in the "B" if you care about the revMenubar stack.

When I want a monitor that looks like a door I set my secondary monitor
on its side and rotate the display via the System Preferences
and that generally works better.

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:29 am

I should mention that the LG ultra-wide monitor is being used in portrait mode, so it is more like a skyscraper than a monitor. Great for examining long scripts and still have room below for long variable lists while debugging.

After much fooling around, I was able to position the two monitors in such a way a to allow me to use both fully.

But as others have mentioned, the toolbar believes it is about 300 pixels higher than it actually appears. I have a gadget that moves it into its proper (visible) position, but that is not any more related to proper screen coordinates.

I have heard that Apple has fixed this sort of thing, peculiar to ultra -wide monitors. I may just upgrade to OS 10.13 (currently on 10.9 because it is stable, familiar and I am lazy)

Watch this space...

Craig

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by richmond62 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:26 am

reposer.png
reposer.png (12.18 KiB) Viewed 7131 times

Rocket Science!
REPOSER.livecode.zip
(3.88 KiB) Downloaded 171 times

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:20 pm

I should mention that in the "natural" state of my setup, which comes into play in a new session, and where the toolbar locates itself several hundred pixels below its usual place, LC seems to set its coordinate system to the loc of the toolbar.

That is, a click on any point of a card actually clicks well above that point. LC is setting "0,0" based on the loc of the toolbar, not the card. This is purely an issue with these monitors; changing the loc of the toolbar in ordinary circumstances does not corrupt the vertical scale of the card.

The problem goes away when I manually place the toolbar correctly. But I am concerned that this is a kluge, (it is, of course) and may cause unforeseen problems...

Craig
Last edited by dunbarx on Mon Jan 29, 2018 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by Martin Koob » Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:26 pm

I had noticed this too where the mouseClick loc was not at the position of the visible cursor on the screen when using 2 monitors but I had not figured out the exact distance it was off. Thanks for doing this Craig.

Have you added this information to an existing bug or added a new bug for this? I would be great if the problems with 2 monitor setups could get sorted out.

Martin

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:40 pm

Martin.

I was at the Apple store in Manhattan last night talking about this issue. They did not seem to think the OS version could matter, nor whether wide screen or ultra wide screen monitors should affect the standard environment at all. What they first asked me was whether any other application exhibited the same issue.

Only LC.

So that fact alone indicates that I ought to create a bug report. I will do so in lieu of upgrading from OS 10.9 to 10.12 or 10.13.

Craig

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Re: Second monitor cripples LC

Post by dunbarx » Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:58 pm

Submitted bug # 20921.

Craig

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