Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:02 am

This happened a while back, and I reported it. It appeared to get fixed, though I'm not sure how. Now, it's back. I'll be in one window, and CMUD will redraw over it. It doesn't make CMUD active, just redraws over my active window.

The active window remains active, meaning I can type or do whatever I want to. But this is irritating, nonetheless, and there still seems to be no active way to reproduce this. I do have a few more triggers now, and can probably send a debug file if need be, but don't know how much help it'll be, considering it's almost always random.

Charneus

Beginner Joined: 21 Aug 2008 Posts: 12

I just purchased CMudPro tonite and was viewing the tutorial thru the CMud help browser, a few times as I had changed focus to my web browser I noticed the tutorial was back as my focus, I simply clicked back to CMud and then back to the browser to clear it up, but it continued to do it enough times that I eventually closed CMud till I was done reading in my web browser.

It's not that big of a deal to me, but annoyed me a little bit :)

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:49 pm

The Help Window is marked as "Stay on top". Click on the icon in the upper-left corner to turn that off. Windows has several bugs dealing with multiple stay-on-top windows. Not even Vista has fixed these stay-on-top issues. If you don't want to have any of these focus problems, then you need to make sure to turn off the stay-on-top option for all CMUD windows (like the help window and the session windows).

This kind of problem has existed since zMUD was first written 12 years ago. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out why Windows has these problems, but have never been able to find a solution. It happens with other applications too, not just with CMUD/zMUD. Maybe someday Microsoft will properly implement a correct Z-order window stack that is application-based instead of global so that each application can control their own child-window z-order. But since that's probably hard to do with maintaining backwards Windows compatibility, I doubt we'll ever see it.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:21 am

Zugg, the problem with your reply is it doesn't apply to me. I don't have the Help window up, and none of my windows are marked as "Stay on Top." CMUD continues to steal focus from me on a constant basis, and I'm about down to creating a video to show how often and how random it occurs. It's not related to triggers at all because I disabled triggers, and it still steals focus. Seems to happen every random MUD output I receive, though I'm not sure why.

The only thing I can think of is if it's hard-coded for status and docked child windows to be marked "Stay on Top" or if the mapper itself is marked as "Stay on Top." There seems to be no way to turn it off if they are, however. Perhaps you might be able to discern something about it.

Charneus

Adept Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 246

There must be something with Delphi... I've never seen the window stacking problems that I've seen with zMUD (not so sure about CMUD since I don't use it much) than in any of the other apps I commonly use, and that's a lot of different programs. In zMUD, what I would see is that I'd click on an app, and it would come to the front of all other windows, except for zMUD. I would have to click again on the title bar to get it to come forward. This is pretty weird for an OS that always puts the app with the focus on top (mind you, I rather like X-windows non-insistence of this, though it seems to be shifting to become more "Windows-like", sigh).

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Sofar I haven't seen CMud come to the front as frequently as it used to, but I still have seen a few odd focus problems. I really haven't been playing or working with CMud much lately. There is definitely a problem that still remains.

I think the key to understanding it is in the secondary focus indicator CMud gives. Using the default colors a focused window has a title bar that is orange. I posted a number of examples of ways to cause CMud to have multiple windows display as being focused at once as part of tracking down the problem with macros. I am guessing the same bugs I pointed out in that p[ost remain based on how the macro issue was finally solved. I am also guessing there is a single ShowWindow buried somewhere in the docking code that causes the problem.

Charneus, maybe you could poke around with a search and find the tests I used. I think it was around 2.27, and am certain that the original topic had to do with macro problems. So far, the tests I posted in that topic where the only ones that showed any sort of consistent focus issue, albeit all internal to the docking system. The particular behavior you are describing is a window calling ShowWindow without focus, and I have seen it happen. I am hoping that the details of behavior I described for the other problems will help you notice what to look for to narrow down a method to replicate this. You seem to be saying it is a frequent occurrence for you, but I have only seen it rarely.

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:10 am

I have seen CMUD retain focus when ALT+TABing to another application. But that could well be some setting going off when i am selecting amongst the programs.