Toolbar and KDE

[richmond62]

At work, not working (err?) and using LiveCode 9.5.0 on Kubuntu 18.4.3 on an ACER laptop.

Everything works well, EXCEPT . . .

The "Toolbar.rev" palette disappears every time I give mouse Focus to a stack I'm editing.

[bogs]

This is almost too obvious a question, but do you have backdrop turned on?

[richmond62]

I ALWAYS turn the backdrop OFF as I can see NO benefit of it.

[bogs]

Hee hee, well, that's the obvious question down heh

[FourthWorld]

Do you see this behavior with other modeless stacks?

[richmond62]

NO

Very queer indeed: only with my Devawriter Pro source stack, and only on KDE.

[FourthWorld]

That's a useful detail. Do you have any suspendStack or resumeStack handlers in your app?

[richmond62]

Do you have any suspendStack or resumeStack handlers in your app?

BUT, will devote quite some time tomorrow to try and work out what is triggering that.

[wsamples]

This has been discussed some on at least one other thread here. It's a problem in all distros running KDE. The message box can get involved as can plugin stacks and the Property Inspector. Various stacks will disappear and reappear as you click on other stacks or the desktop. I have found that keeping the backdrop on lessens the frequency of these goofy interactions. This was introduced in LC 9 and the issue appears in 8.1.10, but not in earlier versions. It's sometimes very annoying.

[FourthWorld]

Thanks, Warren.

The last post there reports Kubuntu working well, so the core issue seems something more specific than KDE.

When this happens, are the windows closed or just hidden? If the latter, does LC report their visibility as false?

[wsamples]

Richard, ghetto makes it clear that it's working with the backdrop enabled, but not so much when it's not. That is roughly my experience. I downloaded Kubuntu and can confirm it behaves as every other distro when running Livecode under KDE Plasma. With the backdrop off, windows disappear and reappear erratically, with some apparent but not perfectly predictable patterns. Turning the background on results in much more stable behavior although things can still be provoked to disappear. Windows are listed as visible after they disappear. It's a little tricky to test this because sometimes clicking revMenuBar or a normal project stack hides palettes while clicking the message box unhides them. There is clearly something going on with Livecode's interaction with Plasma. It's something I have seen with every KDE distro I have looked at with LC 9.x.x. I have seen this some DEs work better with Livecode under some distros than they do in other distros' implementations of the same DE, but KDE seems to be consistent. It's not a "showstopper" and the backdrop seems to be effective in mitigating the problem, but it's not an ideal experience

[FourthWorld]

Agreed, not ideal. Interesting that the windows are reported as visible when they can't be seen. With filling a bug report for.

[ghettocottage]

Although I have since switched to using Unity rather than KDE, I had a functioning solution, which was when working with LC to have a separate desktop for working with Livecode and only Livecode. In fact, I seem to recall that KDE allows you to name your desktops so I had development, office, etc.

[wsamples]

KDE, I had a functioning solution, which was when working with LC to have a separate desktop for working with Livecode and only Livecode. In fact, I seem to recall that KDE allows you to name your desktops

Are you referring to the normal virtual desktops or the Plasma "Activities" feature? Did this involve running Livecode with the backdrop?

I always open Livecode on its own virtual desktop with the backdrop enabled. That is a satisfactory approach although not bulletproof. I tried setting a window rule to keep revTools always on top but it was ignored. I notice that selecting items on the KDE panel which open a window also hides the tools palette with the backdrop enabled. It doesn't do that when the backdrop is not used and it does happen in LC 8.1.9. I suspect this might be an example of Livecode layering things behind the backdrop under some circumstances which seems to plague some DEs more than others. revTools pops right back as soon as the panel window is dismissed, though, so it's not as troublesome here as it is in some other DEs.

[richmond62]

the normal virtual desktops or the Plasma "Activities" feature

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ouch . . .

Every time I try to work out how to setup Virtual Desktops I fall foul of "Activities."