ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac) (02/01/88)
Running Finder 6.0, System 4.2 on a Mac II, I found this catastrophic Finder bug over the weekend: If the icon mask (second half of the ICN# resource) for a file is blank (all zeroes), attempting to drag the file in an icon view kills the Finder. Sometimes it bombs, sometimes it scrambles the screen, sometimes it just freezes solid - no mouse, no keyboard, no debugger. To fix the problem, use ResEdit to open the file which provides the brain-damaged icon. Open the ICN# resources, open the offending ICN#, and draw a mask. Close and save the file. The defective ICN# is also in your desktop file, so you can either (a) delete the desktop file while you're in ResEdit; (b) edit the desktop copy of the ICN# in question in ResEdit; or (c) hold the command and option keys while exiting ResEdit, so that the Finder will offer to rebuild the desktop. The program in which I found the problem is Mandelbrot Microscope, a color Mandelbrot set plotter. Only the saved set icon has this problem; the application icon and saved color table icons are OK. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214
francine@cooper.cooper.EDU (Francine Ponenti ) (02/05/88)
in article <16005@think.UUCP>, ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac) says: > > Running Finder 6.0, System 4.2 on a Mac II, I found this catastrophic > Finder bug over the weekend: > > If the icon mask (second half of the ICN# resource) for a file is > blank (all zeroes), attempting to drag the file in an icon view kills > the Finder. Sometimes it bombs, sometimes it scrambles the screen, > sometimes it just freezes solid - no mouse, no keyboard, no debugger. This appears to be a very severe result of a bug that was introduced into Finder 6.0. The Finder appears to no longer handles ICN#'s correctly. For example, click once upon an application such as Lightspeed C that has an icon that changes when you click on it. (LC's icon changes from a starfield to a box with a C inside of it) Notice that the icon does not correctly change. (into the C in this case) I believe that instead of overlaying the mask with the original icon to get the new icon, the mask is being drawn by itself. This may be a change that Apple made to make the use of the ICN# masks easier, so that instead of drawing an icon and masking changes to it, you simply draw two seperate icons. Francine
isle@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Ken Hancock) (02/08/88)
In article <1193@cooper.cooper.EDU> francine@cooper.cooper.EDU (Francine Ponenti ) writes: >in article <16005@think.UUCP>, ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac) says: >> If the icon mask (second half of the ICN# resource) for a file is >> blank (all zeroes), attempting to drag the file in an icon view kills >> the Finder. Sometimes it bombs, sometimes it scrambles the screen, >> sometimes it just freezes solid - no mouse, no keyboard, no debugger. > >This appears to be a very severe result of a bug that was introduced into >Finder 6.0. The Finder appears to no longer handles ICN#'s correctly. Apple already stated that programs such as LSC, Red Ryder, etc. are doing no-no's when they change the masks. The problem, I believe, started with how multifinder handles the mask when an application is launched. As for the bombing, freezing, screen frenzy, that sounds serious enough that regardless of what the application ICN# does in it's mask that shouldn't happen. Ken -- Ken Hancock UUCP: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu BITNET: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu DISCLAIMER: If people weren't so sue-happy, I wouldn't need one!
andrew@ems.Ems.MN.ORG (Andrew C. Esh) (02/09/88)
The problem with the icons is not a new "bug" in Finder 6.0, it is a misuse of the mask by some developers. In Tech Note #147, last paragraph, Apple tells us that the icon mask should be just that, a "solid black copy of the icon, containing no holes." The problem comes with the new color environment on the Mac II, where the mask is needed to punch holes in what may be a color background. I have noticed bits of color hanging around inside some icons after they have been moved or uncovered. This is probably because the mask wasn't there to clean up first. While I'm up here on the soapbox ... RTFM seens to apply more to Mac developer's than most. Probably because the Mac depends on the developer to get things right, rather than have the user muddle through life in the command line lane. I'm reminded of the tourists in Florida who gather wherever there is a "Do not feed the Alligators" sign to feed the alligators. Sooner or later, one of them gets chomped. Pay attention, folks, not so you can troop along behind some BIG company's standards, but rather avoid the embarassment of getting your bits nibbled off as you explore the frontier. :-) -- Andrew C. Esh DOMAIN: andrew@ems.MN.ORG APPLELINK: D0492 EMS/McGraw-Hill UUCP: ihnp4!meccts!ems!andrew AT&T: (612) 829-8200