Attempting to Build Devawriter with OXT Lite

[tperry2x]

Thank you very much for taking such a lot of trouble.

No problem.

I will run off a Mac standalone from OXT Lite on my MacOS 14 machine at work.

I'll do the same, but on MacOS 10.15 for comparison, just in case the MacOS 14 build does not work correctly.

[richmond62]

By the way, who is the third person who has access to those files?

[tperry2x]

By the way, who is the third person who has access to those files?

Only you and myself, as promised.

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[richmond62]

And there I was thinking I was the only person with a split personality round here.

[tperry2x]

So, I just remembered - I've got a mac here I can test that on.
I pasted on your icon for completeness.
But, I found a weird thing. This is otherwise the exact same macOS app, the one I created earlier and tested on MacOS 10.9
(which worked fine).

Now, just to be clear - this wasn't rebuilt in OXT Lite or LCC, it was merely copied to a MacOS 10.15 system from the MacOS 10.9 one earlier. No building involved, so I can rule that out entirely.

I opened it on 10.15.5 and, well - you will see (or not) three blank screens (screen 16,17 and 18)

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At this point, feels like I can't trust it to open the same across different versions of MacOS.

[richmond62]

That is a rather worrying problem.

And the inevitable question is how the changes you have implemented made that happen (especially as you have not recompiled the Macintosh engine) when they do not happen in a standalone built with LC 963.

[tperry2x]

Yes, very much so.

I think it's something that only crops up with larger stacks as they are read into memory.
A workaround would be to load those images from the 'resources' folder dynamically from inside the MacOS application > Contents folder.

But, far from ideal.

I'm now wondering at what point mac support started to fall apart. This test implies that it may have been starting to get shakier in earlier MacOS versions than I'd previously thought. I'll test in a MacOS version somewhere between 10.9 and 10.15 when I get a chance...

[richmond62]

I'm now wondering at what point mac support started to fall apart.

I have never had this problem with standalones built for Mac from LC 963.

[tperry2x]

I have never had this problem with standalones built for Mac from LC 963.

That's a good point. So just for completeness, I'll build it in LCC 9.6.3 and test in MacOS 10.9 and 10.15....

edit: tested, and I wish I could say the LCC one worked too, but it did not.

This build is from LCC 9.6.3, built on MacOS 10.9 as before (for consistency), but is a 'vanilla' (untouched, unmodified) version of LCC 9.6.3 in every way.
Works a treat on the left, - no missing images. Just like the OXT Lite version earlier.

Copied the same app across to the 10.15 mac, and we are missing the image from screen 14 this time (side-by-side, same app for comparison). - sorry about the resolution difference.

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At this point, if I were building a mac standalone which was really heavy on images, I'd be inclined to load them in dynamically from separate files on disk - just to ensure they were loaded into memory correctly.

I also notice the cyan text at the bottom (the "you can skip..." bit) has different vertical spacing, but it just might be that way in the stack.

Perhaps this kind of image thing only happens when you are dealing with really image-intensive standalones, and that's perhaps why it's not been picked up on in the past? It seems to be a lot more consistent (just works like it should) on 10.9 - probably on other versions of MacOS too, but at least from this testing - it would seem like the standalones (both from OXT and LCC) have issues loading a lot of embedded images in MacOS 10.15 and above...
... but then, the same thing might also happen in MacOS 10.10 > 10.14 too. I don't know yet.

[tperry2x]

Before I drag the old mac mini out of storage and try this in MacOS 10.13, I'm tempted to see how it works in Linux and WIndows standalones too...

[richmond62]

Please feel free to build Windows and Linux standalones . . .

At present my main Linux box is doing the "Numbat Nonsense" as it upgrades to Xubuntu 24.04.

And tomorrow and Tuesday are serious chalkface days, so no Linux testing likely on my half before Wednesday (the start of my week's Easter holiday).

[tperry2x]

Please feel free to build Windows and Linux standalones . . .
At present my main Linux box is doing the "Numbat Nonsense" as it upgrades to Xubuntu 24.04.

Cool, well - works from an OXT Lite build on Linux (xubuntu, but with caja file manager, because I like hinged folders)...(video) although a quit / close button on the window would be good, and you'll note how I have to fight with the window positioning on a 1280x720px screen
Will test on Windows now...

edit: works well on Windows too, built with OXT Lite 1.03 like the Linux one above.
(even better when I had the sudden realisation I could use the arrow keys to go through the various screens, rather than reposition that window each time). Again, a close box would be a bonus. (but just used alt+f4 to close it like on Linux).
You'll also note how the window position jumps between each card - that wasn't me moving it, just happened while using the arrow keys.
(Demo video on Windows 10)

[richmond62]

OK, OK, Happy People, it is 10.40 am here in Bulgaria and I have about 90 minutes 'free':
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So now for a roller coaster of emotions, a journey of self discovery, and, well, frankly, "Blah!" as I play around with the contents of this folder on MacOS 14.5 beta.

[richmond62]

1. My Mac standalone of Devawriter Pro built with LC 963 on MacOS 12:
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I trawled through all the cards: NO image display problems whatsoever.

[richmond62]

2. My Mac standalone of Devawriter Pro built with OXT Lite 1.03 on MacOS 12:

[Each of the following images features paired screen shots: the LC 963 build on the left, the OXT Lite build on the right.]
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[richmond62]

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Major and unacceptable image corruption.

3. Tom's Mac standalone of Devawriter Pro built with OXT Lite 1.03 on MacOS < 10.15:
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[tperry2x]

Wow! that's terrible. Never seen it do anything like that before - with those lines, and not something I know how to fix.
The most perplexing thing is, to change that - I'd have had to recompile things for the mac, which of course I haven't been able to do.

The only thing that's different I can think of, which isn't in the LCC standalones which IS in the OXT Lite standalones, is that binary menu hex patch.
As your devawriter standalone does not feature a menubar, then I think you'd get away with using the standalones from the LCC 9.6.3 build.

So, I wonder if you can copy the standalone out of LCC and put it in OXT Lite, and give that a go?
I'll write up an easier method to do this, or even post a link to the standalones here, but this is the only thing I can think of that could be causing this and the only reason that comes to mind at the moment.

What about the version I produced and sent you? Does that do the same thing (that'll have the patched standalone too) - but what really fries my noggin is if it's the patch, then why on earth did I also manage to replicate that with a build from LCC with no modded standalone? That makes no sense at the moment.

[richmond62]

4. Building a Mac standalone with LC 963 on MacOS 14.5 beta:

No image corruption whatsoever!

5. Building a Mac standalone with OXT Lite 1.03 on MacOS 14.5 beta:
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Quod erat demonstrandum est.
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[richmond62]

6. Build Windows standalone with LC 963 on MacOS 14.5 and run under WINE:

The Windows 32-bit build functions perfectly with no image corruption.

The Windows 64-bit build functions perfectly with no image corruption.

7. Build Windows standalone with OXT Lite 1.03 on MacOS 14.5 and run under WINE:

The Windows 32-bit build functions perfectly with no image corruption.

The Windows 64-bit build functions perfectly with no image corruption.

This would seem to demonstrate that the image corruption problem is confined to MacOS.

[tperry2x]

At least this supports my theory above.
I'll look at this later this evening.