Debug Window bug/annoyance.
ke4pjw
Posts: 1,155
in Propeller 2
If you close the debug window, I don't see a way for it to reopen. You have to save all of your code and restart the Propeller Tool. Obviously not a priority but wanted to raise awareness.
The debug has been vital in finding and correcting problems in my PASM2 code. It's GREAT!
Comments
I haven't seen that behavior when using either PNut or Propeller Tool on my Windows 7 laptop. If/when I close the Debug Window(s), they will re-appear the next time I download and run my program. I don't have to re-start the tool(s).
What platform are you running Prop Tool on?
And Yes, the Debug environment for the P2 is great and also gives you a powerful Data display system with the various Graphic windows.
This is on Windows 10 Home Version 21H1Build 19043.1526
Anyone else having this problem? I hate having to save my work and reopen proptool every time I accidentally minimize the debug window.
Proptool on Wine can't talk to the Prop but I know Pnut always re-opens a closed debug window. How does Pnut behave for you, Terry?
EDIT: Ooooh, minimising, not closing, the window! LOL, I bet no-one else is doing that. You're right, even Pnut fails to minimise its debug window correctly.
I've got it to restore - by also minimising the main window. But, on Wine at least, the restored debug window is broken. It doesn't even fill to black. So still have to quit and reload.
PS: It doesn't retain any info even when resizing. Minimising isn't any better than closing. May as well just close it. And there is a hot-key (F12) for that too.
Who do I need to tag to get this listed on the product backlog to fix? It's REALLY annoying at this point.
If you drop an email to support@parallax.com with a brief description and steps to reproduce, it will be taken care of.
In fact... I can do that now. Will cc your email.
Edit: Done!
Would it be good if I just got rid of the 'minimize' button?
IMHO, the minimize button is not very important. You can easily close the debug windows alltogether with ESC and re-open them later. But refreshing them after being obscured by other windows would be really nice. I've already reported this problem several times (here for example) and it didn't get fixed, yet.
That's something the Amiga's "Intuition" GUI provided from the day dot. The feature, optional, was called "smart-refresh" where window damages were saved and restored automatically by Intuition.
I wasn't aware of this minimize problem. When testing now, I see that it "minimizes" to a small window (just a titlebar visible) behind the taskbar (assuming your taskbar is at the bottom of the screen). I can see this because I have "auto-hide taskbar" set, but putting the taskbar on the left, right, or top of the window also makes it visible). From there, you can click the restore button.
That's not the desired behavior, of course. I'll look into this. It also doesn't minimize any additional debug windows (like bitmap windows, for example) which makes minimize pretty pointless. I'd prefer to do a better minimize operation (that includes the other windows too) rather than simply remove the minimize feature.
I think the issue is created partly because the Debug Output (and additional) window is built into Propeller Tool, so it doesn't have its own icon that appears on the taskbar, meaning if it minimizes like normal apps, there's nothing to click on to restore it.
I have some ideas that I'll explore.
For me (on Win7) it correctly minimizes to the corner of the screen. I guess since this minimize behaviour is kinda rare, it might have fallen to yet another "Microsoft fired the QA team" issue.
Chip, that solves the problem
That works!
@"Jeff Martin" thanks for taking a look. When juggling between apps on my laptop, I minimize windows intuitively switching between them and it bites me every time I am debugging