Running Xojo 2014r2.1 I have came across a irritating problem with the IDE and Alt-Tab between open (Desktop) applications on Windows 8.1. This only affects the IDE and not built applications.
Working Scenario: with Firefox as the active window I click the Internet Explorer window. I can then use Alt-Tab to go from IE to Firefox and then Alt-Tab to go back to IE. Alt-Tab remembers what the last application was and the Alt-Tab popup window rearranges so the latest application is number two.
All Alt-Tab actions involving the Xojo IDE fails as for some reason the Xojo IDE is never placed as application number two in the Alt-Tab popup window. This causes the Alt-Tab to get back to Xojo IDE to fail as well.
I made a movie of this. I start by switching between IE and Sonos a couple of times. Notice how Alt-Tab works correctly. As soon as Xojo IDE is involved I am going to random windows with a single Alt-Tab.
We don’t appear to have anything using Alt+Tab on Windows so I’m not sure we’re intercepting those keystrokes.
Windows does the application switching so I’m not sure this is the IDE “doing” anything
[quote=178409:@Mattias Sandström]Running Xojo 2014r2.1 I have came across a irritating problem with the IDE and Alt-Tab between open (Desktop) applications on Windows 8.1. This only affects the IDE and not built applications.
Working Scenario: with Firefox as the active window I click the Internet Explorer window. I can then use Alt-Tab to go from IE to Firefox and then Alt-Tab to go back to IE. Alt-Tab remembers what the last application was and the Alt-Tab popup window rearranges so the latest application is number two.
All Alt-Tab actions involving the Xojo IDE fails as for some reason the Xojo IDE is never placed as application number two in the Alt-Tab popup window. This causes the Alt-Tab to get back to Xojo IDE to fail as well.
I made a movie of this. I start by switching between IE and Sonos a couple of times. Notice how Alt-Tab works correctly. As soon as Xojo IDE is involved I am going to random windows with a single Alt-Tab.
Is this the intended behaviour for Xojo IDE?
/Mattias[/quote]
Alt-Tab is a Windows 8 function in which Xojo is just yet another app. Here, I see alt-tab cycling nicely between apps, but it is possible that it behaves differently between desktop apps, opened folders and new API apps.
Brand new Windows 8.1 machine here (my old machine died last week, yay backups and version control). And everything works as expected. You may want to see if you have something running on your computer that is causing issues.
OK - tested it on two machines with fresh OS 8.1 installs - same issue. Even with fresh User profiles.
All my machines have Swedish keyboards where the right Alt key is replaced by “Alt Gr”. “Alt Gr”-Tab is not working in the same way as “Alt-Tab” when switching.
Could this perhaps be the problem?
And why are all other applications working as expected but as soon as the Xojo IDE is involved Windows’ behaviour change?
[quote=178492:@Mattias Sandström]OK - tested it on two machines with fresh OS 8.1 installs - same issue. Even with fresh User profiles.
All my machines have Swedish keyboards where the right Alt key is replaced by “Alt Gr”. “Alt Gr”-Tab is not working in the same way as “Alt-Tab” when switching.
Could this perhaps be the problem?
And why are all other applications working as expected but as soon as the Xojo IDE is involved Windows’ behaviour change?[/quote]
On a French keyboard where the right Alt also generates special characters, Right Alt-Tab still works the same way as left Alt-Tab.
OK - found the culprit.
When I have any Windows Store apps (aka “Metro”, aka “Modern”…) running Xojo IDE acts in this bad way. I am using the Windows Store Mail app for my mails so it is running most of the day. I guess I have to learn to quit this while using Xojo.
Still: all other applications behave, Xojo IDE is doing something different here.
Luckily this does not affect built Xojo apps because that my users would be a bit upset…
Work-around I have found: uncheck the “Include Windows Store-apps in Task bar” (right-click Task bar -> Properties) and restart Xojo IDE. I guess I have to learn using Win-Tab to get to Mail (the only Windows Store app I ever use).
[quote=178613:@Norman Palardy]Xojo isn’t “doing” anything when you switch apps this way
Its not involved in task switching[/quote]
Xojo IDE is not involved in the Task switching per se - I fully agree with you on that part. Still Xojo IDE is a Windows application receiving WM_* messages from the OS and interacting with the OS.
Look at my bugreport 17173 that was verified by your team back in 2011 - showing strange behaviour with the IDE and task switching already in Windows 7 and Vista. Can you be sure this is not now becoming a problem?
Bug report 18039 also verified by your team shows another case of how windows are not handled properly on Windows OS.
Bug report 16839 shows another case where you have to work-around modal windows not being modal on Windows 7.
Fact remains:
Xojo IDE with no Windows Store app open: all works fine
Xojo IDE with at least one Windows Store app open: all other applications except Xojo IDE works fine
Xojo IDE is the only application on my system that shows this behaviour.
It’s not when I am actively using the debugger. Most painful is when I am doing the localization going back and forth between a web-browser and the IDE to copy/paste strings. During debugging I haven’t seen this is a problem but when getting 125+ strings one at a time from the translation service into the Xojo project it is driving me nuts.
Just to be clear, cases in Feedback that are marked as Verified mean that our testers have looked at the case and verified that it behaves the way you say it does, using your criteria. It does not necessarily mean that we think it is a bug.