Testers needed - Considering "fix" for CTRL and CMD fiasco

[Leland]

Hi yall,

About a month ago there was a discussion about how Audacity would convert CTRL to CMD in shortcut combos. This was an age old workaround for a failing in wxWidgets since it doesn't support the CMD modifier, only CTRL. And the support doesn't appear to be on the horizon either. I'm not entirely convinced they could add it without breaking a heap of applications.

So I've added the support locally and was wondering if any of you could drive it around the block to see if it is working like you'd expect. If it works out, we will maintain this as a local patch to wxWidgets. (This wouldn't be the first time we've had to do that.) It's a suprisingly small patch to wxWidgets, 1 line change and 5 adds.

Anyway, you can grab a copy of it here:

http://homerow.net/audacity/audacity-ma ... -alpha.dmg

Thanks,

Leland
(Audacity's Magically Disappearing Mac Developer)

[kozikowski]

Oh, You're the one.

OK. I'm game. So this 1.3.7a replaces the 1.3.7a I already have? And how do I tell which one's what?

Koz

[Leland]

Yep, I'm the one.

You'd have to look in "Audacity->About' to look at the build date or just look at the dates in Finder to tell the difference.

Leland

[Leland]

I should also mention that the changes in this build have not been checked in, so the nightly builds at http://audacity.homerow.net will not have them. If it seems to work okay, then I'll check them in and then they will start showing up in the nightly builds.

Leland

[kozikowski]

OK. Here's the history. I have a Intel duo-core Mac Mini with an external FireWire drive boot to Leopard, I think 10.5.5 is the latest. The base machine boots into an older Tiger license if I start with the FireWire drive turned off.

The install is pretty sparse, so it's a pretty good test bed. Anything in particular you want me to test? We got in a tangle a while back where older Mac users have a natural affinity for certain keys and I don't because I'm a PC transplant. Actually, I'm tri-lingual. I run Audacity actively on all three platforms.

I have found many problems peripheral to the original question. I proved one of the actual bug fixes for a key sequence was, in fact, repaired successfully, but then Audacity wouldn't quit.

That still happens occasionally, so I report those, too.

All this happens at home. I have some of this available at work, and I fill in where I can between other tasks.

Koz

[Leland]

OK. Here's the history. I have a Intel duo-core Mac Mini with an external FireWire drive boot to Leopard, I think 10.5.5 is the latest. The base machine boots into an older Tiger license if I start with the FireWire drive turned off.

The install is pretty sparse, so it's a pretty good test bed. Anything in particular you want me to test? We got in a tangle a while back where older Mac users have a natural affinity for certain keys and I don't because I'm a PC transplant. Actually, I'm tri-lingual. I run Audacity actively on all three platforms.

I too am a transplant from a couple of years ago. Basically, just check around here and there to see if the default shortcuts still work...things like Save and New. Just the standard stuff. Then, if you could maybe do some reassignment in Preferences and see if the actual control key works now. that'd be great. It's been working for me, but sometimes testing things yourself isn't as good a test.

I have found many problems peripheral to the original question. I proved one of the actual bug fixes for a key sequence was, in fact, repaired successfully, but then Audacity wouldn't quit.

The no quitting issue has been a thorn in my side for a while now. I have steps to reproduce it everytime, but I simply can't find the culprit. When poking around the threads last night, I noticed it was brought up and, up until then, I thought it was fairly "rare". But, it doesn't seem to be, so I started looking around again and, so far, have found the problem all the way back to 1.3.2.

I've looked at this off and on and get so fed up I just drop it "for later", but this time I WILL prevail!!!

Leland

[kozikowski]

<<<but this time I WILL prevail!!! >>>

I may be able to give you a little push. I think there is a hang between the Windows model of Select > OK > Close, and Mac's Select & Execute Immediately, then close later. I have symptoms of a race condition when I use 1.3.x. I can perform a specific, simple series of actions and get any one result 3/5 of the time. It's like the program gets to a knife edge decision and depending on humidity, goes one way or the other.

And completely non-repeatable. My joke is by the time I get my pencil and paper out to record the error, it goes away. That's the only constant. I made really good use of my military vocabulary several times, there. I was Army. My "Sergeant" was a Sailor. His boss was a Marine. There are no conditions under which I can't generate appropriate phraseology.

For one quick example, I applied a noise reduction--successfully--and then undid it. Most times, this leaves the track still selected...but not always. Go search for the pencil and paper and when I get back, everything works fine every time. Classic race or unstable code.

Audacity 1.2.x doesn't do any of that ever.

That error flavor or feeling is sprinkled all over the program. I'm betting you're going to find the basic model of event selection is unstable and when you find the error, Magic® problems all across the program will vanish.

Koz

[Leland]

The no quitting issue has been a thorn in my side for a while now. I have steps to reproduce it everytime, but I simply can't find the culprit. When poking around the threads last night, I noticed it was brought up and, up until then, I thought it was fairly "rare". But, it doesn't seem to be, so I started looking around again and, so far, have found the problem all the way back to 1.3.2.

I've looked at this off and on and get so fed up I just drop it "for later", but this time I WILL prevail!!!
Leland

Well, I've checked in a change to hopefully fix this particular problem. At least, I'm not able to reproduce it anymore using my old method. If anyone has a for sure pattern where the Quit menu item on the Audacity menu gets disabled, I'd be VERY interested.

Thakns,

Leland

[Leland]

Well, I've checked in a change to hopefully fix this particular problem. At least, I'm not able to reproduce it anymore using my old method. If anyone has a for sure pattern where the Quit menu item on the Audacity menu gets disabled, I'd be VERY interested.

Nope, no cigar. Just ran across another series of steps that causes the same problem. The fix above has definitely corrected my previous scenario, so maybe now I'll be able to figure out a pattern. (This ones truly sucks!!!)

Leland

[Leland]

Well, I've checked in a change to hopefully fix this particular problem. At least, I'm not able to reproduce it anymore using my old method. If anyone has a for sure pattern where the Quit menu item on the Audacity menu gets disabled, I'd be VERY interested.

Nope, no cigar. Just ran across another series of steps that causes the same problem. The fix above has definitely corrected my previous scenario, so maybe now I'll be able to figure out a pattern. (This ones truly sucks!!!)

Leland

I believe I've sort it out. If anyone's interested and you're running any of the 1.3.x versions, try this:

1) Get into Audacity
2) Bring up the "Audacity" menu
3) Take note that the "Services" item is not disabled
4) Select "Preferences"
5) Click OK...don't need to change anything, just click OK
6) Bring up the "Audacity" menu again
7) Notice how the "Services" item is disabled...that's the indicator that the problem is going to occur
8) Now select "File -> Open Metadata Editor"
9) Click Cancel
10) Bring up the "Audacity" menu again
11) You should now see that the "Quit" item has also been disabled

(To get out of the situation, just select "File -> New" and then you can quit Audacity.)

After the nightly build tonight, you can try it again tomorrow and it should be fixed for ya. The nightlies are here:

http://audacity.homerow.net/index.php?dir=mac

Leland