DesktopTextArea.HasHorizontalScrollbar in code is ignored

General
1

But there’s more! It seems that setting DesktopTextArea.HasHorizontalScrollbar to be True in code is ignored.

I have added an Issue for this, but does anyone know a workaround?

https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/issues/70383

2

Could it be that this can only be set in the iDE ?

HasHorizontalScrollBar and HasVerticalScrollBar in the old documentation, this property is mentioned as read-only.

1 Like
3

Doesn’t say read only in my new documentation, and it compiles OK when I try to reset the Boolean:

Screenshot 2022-10-14 at 13.33.04
Screenshot 2022-10-14 at 13.33.041108×1043 150 KB

4

It may compile OK but does it actually do anything? If it was read-only in previous doc then presumably that means it was not designed to be changed at runtime. If so, then that is not something that can be “fixed” just because you wish it to be.

There are lots of inaccuracies in the new docs which need, simply, to be reported.

5

No, it doesn’t do anything, and this is my complaint! If the compiler complained when I tried to change its value, I would assume the documentation was wrong.

I am not sure why both HasHorizontalScrollbar and AllowTabs should not be changeable on the fly when other such items as font, font size, font colour, spellchecking, line height and line spacing can be changed just fine.

6

The new documentation is often incomplete.

If you try to set a read only property, you won’t get an error. It will simply do nothing.

7

Didn’t you used to get a compile error if you try to set a read-only property?

8

No, it did not trigger any compile error. Just tested in 2019R3.2 same thing.

9

You should. If you don’t, probably it is due to some bad design introducing a bad behavior/bug like:

Private mReadonly As Integer

Public Property readonly As Integer
  Get
    Return mReadonly
  End Get
  Set
    // mReadonly = value
  End Set
End Property

:point_up:t2: dummy setter, don’t do that! It hides bad behaviors.

Solutions:

Remove the setter, it will become a real read-only property.

Let’s imagine that the language you are using does not allow removing the setter, then change the property to a method returning the value like:

Private mReadonly As Integer

Public Function readonly As Integer
  Return mReadonly
End Function

In both cases trying to set the pseudo property readonly to some value will raise an error.

10

So, it’s not a case of bad documentation. It needs a bug report and fixing.

And Xojo needs to allow any mix of property accessors. Getter+Setter, Getter only, Setter only.