Notifier.ShowAlert bug

[Taifun]

Notifier.ShowAlert sometimes forgets to display part of the text, this also happens after building the project!

example project attached, see also screenshots

Please fix this bug, thank you!

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

I am unable to duplicate this on my phone.  I wonder if it is some Android timing problem.

In any case, I don't see what we could do about this in App Inventor.

Is this behavior solidly repeatable?  Can you try different phones.  It works fine on my Nexus 4 and also on an old 2.2 phone, although

the latter is very slow.   I don't see what App Inventor could do about this.

[Taifun]

I just tested on HTC Desire S running Android 2.3.5 and there it works fine

I get the problem only on Nexus 5 running Android 4.4.2

Is this behavior solidly repeatable?

on Nexus 5: yes

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

I don't have a Nexus 5, so I can't explore this.  Could you poke around a little?
Can you make a guess about what kinds of examples fail?  I  find it hard to imagine what
App Inventor is doing here.  All the Notifier does is put up an Android Toast.

Is there anything about weird behavior with Toasts and Nexus 5 on the Web?
What version of the Android OS are you using?

[Stephen Zipprich]

I can confirm this issue.  I also have a Nexus 5 and it does forget to display some of the text.  It's weird though, because it's not like it's consistent across a specific set of parameters to test.  It isn't happening because there's 13 digits in the text, that the first word is four letters long, that the first word starts with A or F.  I tried to replicate all of those things, with inconsistent results.  Sometimes rearranging the letters A-U-D-I would result in cutting off of text, and sometimes it wouldn't.  Replacing each digit with a number or different letters didn't reproduce the problem.  I at first though it seemed to be consistent with the 2nd word being selected: if I removed a letter it didn't mess up; if I added a letter it didn't mess up.  I then changed selected to managers (same number of digits incidentally) and the problem appeared.

This is very weird.

My Nexus 5 is on 4.4.2

[Taifun]

thank you Stephen for confirming that issue.. yes it's weird...

I fould the following combinations it forgets to display the second word on Nexus 5 running Android 4.4.2:

• Audi selected
  
• Ford selected
  
• Mindful Snacking
  

I could not find anything in the Internet about that issue, so probably it's more App Inventor related? There is only this issue http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20373751/toast-not-appearing-on-android-4-4-kitkat but this seems to be something else...

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

Taifun and Steve,

 I don't have a Nexus 5 and I'm away for two weeks so I can't do much investigation anyway.  Could one of you try to check:

1.  When this fails on an example, does it fail solidly on that example?

2. Does it happen on anything other than the Nexus 5?  Does it happen on the emulator running 4.4.2?

3.  Is this an issue with the ShowAlert only, or does it also happen with ShowMassageDialog ?

Thanks,

== Hal

[Enis]

OK, Taifun sent me the AIA to speed things up for me...

ODD behavior!

In my Geny emulator for Nexus 5 running 4.4.2 AND a Samsung Galaxy S4 running 4.3, I get the same behavior as Taifun described.

BUT, in my Moto-X emulator, running 4.4.2 from Geny, Ford works, Audi works, and Ferrari DOESN'T work!!!

On a Nexus 7 running 4.3, all three work...

[Taifun]

Thank you Enis for testing!

1.  When this fails on an example, does it fail solidly on that example?

yes

3.  Is this an issue with the ShowAlert only, or does it also happen with ShowMassageDialog 

only with ShowAlert

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

This sounds like some sort of race condition.

I'll see if I can come up with a way to for me to see the bad behavior.

Can someone try this on the regular Google Android emulator and see if it occurs -- and with which operating system version?

[Enis]

Of course... it's three cars, and we're guys!  The Ferrari almost always wins though!  ;)

Eclipse is totally messed up on my machine, but I'll try to see if I can still get the emulator running...

[M. Hossein Amerkashi]

I tried it on Samsung s3 => worked with no problem.
I tried it on emulator => worked with no problem.

-Hossein.

[Hal Abelson]

I am unable to duplicate this problem.  Using Taifin's apk,  I tried it on my own phone and on the emulator running 4.4.2 and 4.2.2 both with arm and atom processors.


If you can elicit the error, could you examine the android system log (adb logcat) and see if there's any indication of an error there?

[Taifun]

I just updated my device to Android 4.4.3 and I still get the problem

There is nothing shown in the log, see screenshot

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

Is there really nothing in the system log? Without that, I can't think how to attack the problem.  And I do not see the problem on my 4.4.3 system.

A real mystery,

[Taifun]

I now received the new update to Android 4.4.4 and I still get the problem

Taifun

[Hal Abelson]

I tried this on my Nexus 4, running 4.4.4; on my Nexus 1 running 2.2.2, and on my Nexus 7 tablet running 4.4.3, and they all work.

I don't have a clue as to what the problem might be.