Having some problems on macOS

[stefan schaenzer]

Hello everyone,

I'm just getting started with Ring, and I'm having some problems on macOS.

Build from Source failed

I tried to build Ring from the source files. I got numerous warnings during the build process (often indicating that deprecated functions are being used), but no error messages.

Unfortunately, I got an error message when I subsequently called "$ ring rnote.ring".

Error message:

sudo ring rnote.ring

Library File : libringqt.dylib
Line 8 Error (R38) : Runtime Error in loading the dynamic library
In loadlib() In function loadlibfile() in file /Users/myuser/ring/libraries/guilib/loadlibfile.ring
called from line 11 in file rnote.ring

I then used the " ready to use" package "Binary release for macOS 64 bit" from the home page and it worked.

Missing fonts

When I start Ring Notepad with:

$ ring rnote.ring

I get the following message:

qt.qpa.fonts: Populating font family aliases took 159 ms. Replace uses of missing font family "Consolas" with one that exists to avoid this cost.

The error message indicates that when starting the Ring application (specifically with rnote), the Qt framework is trying to use the font "Consolas", but it is not available or correctly installed on your system. The lack of this font causes Qt to take extra time to find and assign replacement fonts, which delays the launch of the application.

I was able to fix this message with:

Download the Consolas font from http://www.fontpalace.com/font-details/Consolas/
Open Finder and navigate to Downloads directory
Double click the Consolas.ttf file
A dialog box appears displaying the details about the font
Click Install font button

The same applies to font family "Roboto".

If both fonts are installed, the message disappears.

Displaylink Crash Ring Notepad

I have an environment with two external monitors controlled by Displaylink Manager. I was able to identify Displaylink as the cause of sporadic, but frequent, crashes of Ring Notepad and other applications. Unfortunately, even a driver update did not bring any improvement. The only remedy was to connect it directly to my Macbook Pro.

Research has shown that other users with different applications and development tools also have problems with Displaylink. I suspect that the issues are caused by the implementation of the Displaylink display as a large virtual desktop and that the resolution for the rendering/display functions leads to the issues. There may be a solution for QT.

Can't Center Window

Furthermore, in connection with the virtual desktop across two to three monitors, my issue may be that I was unable to center a window on the primary display. Vertical centering worked, but horizontal centering did not. The window was always displayed at the far-right edge of the screen.

I was able to solve it like this (code excerpt):

// center the window
// create a new desktop widget
oDesktop = new qDesktopWidget()

// get the available geometry of the main window
geo=oDesktop.availableGeometry(oMainWindow)

see "width: " + geo.width() + nl
see "height: " + geo.height() + nl

// calculate the new ceter position of the main window
nNewX = ( geo.width() - oMainWindow.width() ) / 2
nNewY = ( geo.height() - oMainWindow.height() ) / 2

// set the new position of the main window
oMainWindow.move(nNewX, nNewY)

// show the main window
oMainWindow.show()

Technical data of my environment

macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 (Intel)
Ring 1.19 For macOS (64bit)

Maybe these are useful suggestions to improve the quality or help other users who have similar issues.

Greetings
Stefan

[Ilir Liburn]

Hello Stefan,

>>  I then used the " ready to use" package "Binary release for macOS 64 bit" from the home page and it worked.

You should try to build Ring (executable) from the source files after you install "Binary release for macOS 64 bit". Otherwise, you need to build all extensions which is far more complicated.

I use GCC on Mountain Lion, works without problem. Clang is showing warnings (don't remember if I got any error).

Greetings,

Ilir

[stefan schaenzer]

Hello,

unfortunately rnote crashes reproducibly with a "Segmentation Fault".

I can successfully start rnote with: ring ./rnote.ring. I can also execute a code. However, as soon as I move the mouse pointer outside the application, rnote crashes. If I create an executable file of rnote with ring3exe and reproduce the error, I also get an error message:

[1] 16967 segmentation fault ./rnote
               
OS version: macOS 14.3.1 (23D60)
Crashed Thread: 0 CrBrowserMain Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000bad4007
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x000000000bad4007 (funny adress btw)
Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11
Terminating Process: exc handler [16990]

I still get the message in the terminal (console) when I call it:

2024-02-25 12:51:02.589 rnote[16967:168360] WARNING: Secure coding is automatically enabled for restorable state! However, not on all supported macOS versions of this application. Opt-in to secure coding explicitly by implementing NSApplicationDelegate.applicationSupportsSecureRestorableState:.

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) indicates that the process attempted to access a memory area that was not allocated to it, resulting in an access violation error.

I was able to reproduce the error with the latest download version for macOS. I also (successfully) created Ring myself from the source files. I was also able to reproduce the error here. To rule out possible sources of error, I tested it on my Mac book alone (without external monitors).

Is this a known problem or is it specific to macOS 14? If I run Ring in a Windows 11 VM, the error does not occur.

So I can't work with Ring (more precisely Ring Notepad) on macOS.

I would be grateful for any tips and hints!

Greetings
Stefan

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Stefan

It's not Ring/RingQt issue.

Maybe it's related to Qt and macOS 14 - Or related to some apps installed/running on your system.

I tested Ring using macOS 11

opened the termianl, started Ring Notepad using

ringpm run ringnotepad 

I was able to use the editor without any problems. 

I can run apps, move the mouse pointer away, select other windows, everything works fine.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[stefan schaenzer]

Hello Mahmoud,

Wow, thanks for the prompt reply!!

I did some more tests and noticed a very strange behavior (as well as the Form Designer). If I deactivate "Show and hide dock automatically" in the system settings on the Mac, I can exit the window area downwards without crashing. Then I can reduce the window size (by reducing the size at the bottom right of the window). If I now move the smaller window slightly to the left, I can also go to the menu bar and exit the window without crashing. Even if I enlarge the window again, it seems to work without crashing. Currently, it appears that the initial size of the window is causing the problem. Very strange.

I have now made the following change in /ring/tools/ringnotepad/src/rnotecontroller.ring:
win1.show() instead of win1.showmaximized()
This seems to work. If this proves to be true, the cause can hopefully be narrowed down to showmaximized().

It may very well be that the issue has to do with Qt and macOS 14. Otherwise, someone would surely have noticed the behavior long ago. Perhaps it is also related to a driver.  I have already identified the DisplayLink Manager as a cause of crashes or faulty behavior (even with non-ring applications). When analyzing the cause, the manufacturer only points out that Apple no longer supports OpenGL and for him, the issue is solved. QT might receive incorrect information about the actual screen size based on the DisplayLink Manager, so that the wrong memory areas are addressed.

When I have time, I will completely remove the DisplayLink Manager from the system and test it again. Let's see if my work around actually works.

Greetings
Stefan

[Mansour Ayouni]

Hello Stefan,

I remember a similar problem in Qt on Mac OS, since version 5. The solution was to resize the window (using resize(800, 600) for example) before calling showMaximised().

I hope the hint would help.

All the best,

Mansour

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[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Stefan

>> "Wow, thanks for the prompt reply!!"

You are welcome :D

>> " This seems to work. If this proves to be true, the cause can hopefully be narrowed down to showmaximized()."

Nice analysis, Thanks for sharing.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[stefan schaenzer]

I have completely removed the DisplayLink Manager and restarted the computer. Unfortunately, ringnotepad still crashes when I resize the window. Interestingly, it does not crash when I resize the bottom-right corner. When I use full screen, there is no crash.

I strongly suspect that this problem is related to macOS Sonoma and Qt 5.15.12. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Qt. Which rendering backend does Ring use? Qt automatically selects the appropriate rendering backend based on the hardware and OS capabilities. For macOS Quartz or Metal. However, it is also possible to force a specific backend (no idea how), such as SDL2 or OpenGL. SDL2 and OpenGL are no longer well-supported on current macOS versions.

I have now entered the following in /ring/tools/ringnotepad/src/rnotecontroller.ring:
win1.setWindowFlags(Qt_Window | Qt_CustomizeWindowHint)
win1.showFullScreen()

Hopefully, this should be enough to avoid the crashes. Probably an upgrade of QT is required. Currently, Qt 6.6 but in Qt 5.15 bugs are still to be fixed.

@Mansour: I will try out your tip and give you some feedback here. In general, there seem to have been issues with resizing windows in Qt. Also under windows and has nothing directly to do with Ring, although of course it doesn't make a big difference for the programmer.

Greetings
Stefan

[stefan schaenzer]

@Mansour:  Nope, unfortunately still crashes with your tip.

[Mansour Ayouni]

Hello Stefan,

Thank you for your reply.

All the best,

Mansour

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[stefan schaenzer]

Found this in Qt 6.5.1 release notes:

Fixes qtbase: QTBUG-109971 Crash during window resize when using QQuickWidget (see: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-109971?focusedCommentId=713699)

Unfortunately, I cannot say whether it is also the bug that is in the QT version that Ring uses or whether it only affects the corresponding QT 6.x version. In any case, the crash seems to occur on macOS > 11. It is also not a rnote-specific error, as I can also reproduce the problem with a test ringQT app, whereby the crash only occurs when I have presumably reached the minimum Windows size. Here is the ring code for my test:

// Toolbar and Statusbar

load "guilib.ring"

// note: all objects here are global!

oApp = new QApp
oWinMain = new QMainwindow()
oWinMain.setWindowTitle("Main Window")
oWinMain.resize(400, 300)

// set the minimum size of the window
oWinMain.setMinimumSize(200, 200)
oWinMain.show()

// Create a new toolbar object
oToolBar = oWinMain.addtoolbar("")

// create a new button
obtnNew = new QPushButton(oWinMain)
obtnNew.settext("New")
// set a new layout for the button
oBtnNew.setStyleSheet("QPushButton { background-color: transparent; border: none; padding: 10px; }")
// bind the click event to an handler for this button
obtnNew.setclickevent("onNew()")
// add the button to the toolbar
oToolBar.addwidget(oBtnNew)

oBtnOpen = new QPushButton(oWinMain)
oBtnOpen.settext("Open")
oBtnOpen.setStyleSheet("QPushButton { background-color: transparent; border: none; padding: 10px; }")
oBtnOpen.setclickevent("onOpen()")
oToolBar.addwidget(oBtnOpen)

// add a separator to the toolbar
oToolbar.addseparator()

oBtnQuit = new QPushButton(oWinMain)
oBtnQuit.settext("Quit")
oBtnQuit.setStyleSheet("QPushButton { background-color: transparent; border: none; padding: 10px; }")
oBtnQuit.setclickevent("onQuit()")
oToolBar.addwidget(oBtnQuit)

// create a new statusbar object
oStatusBar = oWinMain.Statusbar()
// set a message in the status bar
oStatusBar.ShowMessage("Stauts: Bereit", 0)

oApp.exec()
oApp.quit()

// note: scope in functions is local

func onNew()

    // change the message in the status bar
  oStatusBar.ShowMessage("Status: New clicked", 0)
end

func onOpen()
  oStatusBar.ShowMessage("Status: Open clicked", 0)
end

func onQuit()
  // print a message to the terminal
    print("Quit clicked.")
  // quit the app
    oApp.quit()
end

Unfortunately, I do not receive any error message after the crash.

This is of course very frustrating, as I obviously can't create working GUI apps this way. Maybe there is a workaround?

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Stefan

Ring uses Homebrew to install Qt5

We use these formulae:  qt@5 — Homebrew Formulae
This will install Qt 5.15.12

This is not the latest update for Qt 5.15

For example, in Ring for Windows, we distribute dll files for Qt 5.15.16

Maybe the problem is fixed in later updates, and just the formulae is not updated.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Stefan

>> "This is of course very frustrating, as I obviously can't create working GUI apps this way. Maybe there is a workaround?"

You can disable window resize, continue development and at some point, the problem will be fixed by Qt.

Qt is very popular, used by many people and maintained by hundreds of developers (Nothing to worry about)

Since the problem appears in new macOS versions, then it's a matter of time and they will fix it.

Note: In Ring, We have another GUI option called (RingLibui), You can test it to see if it comes with the same problem or not: RingLibUI Extension — Ring 1.19 documentation (ring-lang.github.io)

Greetings,

Mahmoud

On Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at 6:48:18 PM UTC+3 stefan.s...@mailbox.org wrote:

[Mansour Ayouni]

Hello Mahmoud,

I came across this nice C++ GUI library. It seems to be actively developed, feature ritch, and really multiplatform (even MCU devices are supported):

https://github.com/idea4good/GuiLite

Looking forward to telling me your opinion about it.

All the best,

Mansour

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ring-lang/043343ce-1491-4308-8a74-1778dfb61215n%40googlegroups.com.

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Mansour

>> "Looking forward to telling me your opinion about it."

I don't need it in Ring world  

1 - RingQt ---> For large projects

2 - RingLibUI --> Small GUI apps or some tests

3 - RingRayLib + RayGUI --> GUI for games & Graphics Apps

4 - Using Any of RingAllegro/RingLibSDL & Ring Game Engine, I can build GUI Classes on the top of that

For example, the next screen shot for one of my libraries for Clipper language - Is just 17,000 lines of code and it provides many classes 

I wrote this 20 years ago, I think something like that could be written in Ring in a few thousand lines of code.

 5- One of the libraries that I like is DearImGUI : ocornut/imgui: Dear ImGui: Bloat-free Graphical User interface for C++ with minimal dependencies (github.com)

If I remember correctly, Shadi worked on providing a Ring extension to support it

I think such a library is more suitable than many others.

But in the end, Ring is open for extensions, If you find a library that you like, and would like to support it, just do it :D This will be helpful for others who need the same library.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Mansour Ayouni]

Hello Mahmoud,

Thank you very much for your answer.

Best,

Mansour

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ring-lang/37d61caf-2adc-46a0-a9ec-7b10f77501ban%40googlegroups.com.

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Mansour

>> "Thank you very much for your answer."

You are welcome :D

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi Mahmoud, FYI ringpm produces a segfault too running on MacOS Sonoma 14.2:

And this applies to all commands run with ringpm (search, refresh, install, etc)

Thank you, 

Outnull

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Outnull

>> "FYI ringpm produces a segfault too running on MacOS Sonoma 14.2:"

Just complete the steps when building/installing Ring on macOS

i.e. don't forget sudo ring/bin/install.sh

Steps (Ring 1.20 - GitHub) : ring/language/README_macOS.md at master · ring-lang/ring (github.com)

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi again! I was careful to follow all of the steps, but perhaps I missed one? I already tried that and this is what happened:

Ring works though:

Thank you,

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello Outnull

The file install.sh try to use the /usr/local/lib folder

But in your screen shot I see the error: Not a directory.

Try updating install.sh and use /usr/lib instead.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi Mahmoud, 

I don't think that's it. I tried and also got errors. I wonder if the instructions in your documentation work for you? There are no ring files located in /usr/bin so I am not surprised to see this fail:

However, the contents of /usr/local/bin, you can see ring files (symlinks?) here:

The errors are all specific to `xattr`: 

xattr: /usr/local/bin/ring: No such xattr: com.apple.quarantine
xattr: No such file: /usr/local/bin/ring2exe
xattr: No such file: /usr/local/bin/folder2qrc
xattr: /usr/local/bin/ringpm: No such xattr: com.apple.quarantine
xattr: /usr/local/bin/ringrepl: No such xattr: com.apple.quarantine
xattr: [Errno 20] Not a directory: '/usr/local/lib/libring.dylib'

I'm wondering if this has to do with install.sh / xattr expecting files in these locations instead of symlinks? /usr/local/lib also appears to be a link, and you'll notice xattr complains it is not a directory, which is correct:

Cheers, 

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

The problem is not in usr/local/bin files

It's related to usr/local/lib files where install.sh expect that lib is a folder (Not a file)

So instead of using usr/local/lib folder, Try /usr/lib folder

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Good day Mahmoud. I think we are misunderstanding each other, as I've confirmed that I've already tried your suggestion and it didn't work. You are asking me to do a find and replace: [FIND] usr/local/lib [REPLACE] /usr/lib in the install.sh, which I've done, and it produced a new set of errors. Here they are once again. 

(PS. I have also tried a find and replace of /usr/local/bin to /usr/bin to address the errors "No such file /usr/local/bin/..." which also did not work)

If I've misunderstood the instruction let me know. A bit of feedback I hope you'll accept as constructive: Ring seems like a great project, but I must admit, if someone with my technical sophistication (engineer, hobby developer) can't get up and running with relative ease, then this fact remains a big barrier to entry for newcomers to the Ring language. For what it's worth, getting setup with a Ring environment should be just as easy as installing PowerShell or Ruby.  Perhaps the experience is smoother on Windows, but I wouldn't know, all I can speak to is how it is on macOS.

Thanks for your help.

Best, 

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "For what it's worth, getting setup with a Ring environment should be just as easy as installing PowerShell or Ruby.  Perhaps the experience is smoother on Windows, but I wouldn't know, all I can speak to is how it is on macOS."

When Ring 1.19 is released, it was tested using macOS 11.

The steps are simple ---> Just extract files, run ring/language/src/installdepmac.sh then run ring/bin/install.sh

This could be improved in the future by using one script file to install Ring. 

So, it's not about simple installation ----> It's about installing Ring on a newer version of macOS.

Greetings,s

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Also, this is perhaps unrelated but I would add that I occasionally see references to your own personal directory paths when attempting to use Ring. I wish I had recorded other examples, I think they were probably similar to this one, but for instance I added load "tracelib.ring" to the top of my file and received this error:

I mention this because I've never seen this after installing another language before. I quick "grep -ro "/Users/mahmoudfayed" . | wc -l ." shows 212 matches across all files. Could this be apart of the issue? Is this a standard practice?

Thank you, 

ON

[Outnull]

Hi again Mahmoud, 

I hope you won't mind terribly if I disagree with you here. While I see your point, it doesn't match with "what is on the tin" so to speak. The website doesn't make this clear. As a developer who wants to pick up this language, there are no caveats mentioned on the website, at least not clearly, that indicate that Ring is not able to be installed on current versions of macOS. In fact, the contrary impression is given:

I think if an asterisk were shown somewhere which said "*NOTE: This version of Ring was tested on a version of macOS that is 3 versions old and may not run on the current version" that would have helped to set the expectation. So, at this stage I'm left to conclude using Ring on my version of macOS (which is the latest) is not possible.

Thank you,

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "Could this be apart of the issue? Is this a standard practice?"

This is strange!

Have you installed Ring on macOS before? older versions of Ring?

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi Mahmoud, no I haven't! This is my only attempt.

Regards, 

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "So, at this stage I'm left to conclude using Ring on my version of macOS (which is the latest) is not possible"

I am not saying this.

My words in my previous message means (The problem is not that installing Ring on macOS is not simple) 

The problem is  I just need to adjust/test installing Ring on the version of macOS that you have. 

It was a surprise for me that there are such problems with new versions of macOS.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi Mahmoud, 

I think it is important to be precise in language so I would like to be clear here. I am not saying this is what you said, I am saying that it is what I am left to conclude based on multiple unsuccessful tries, which I believe is reasonable.

It would be nice for me to get the "full Ring experience" sans errors and difficulties, so once you have sorted out the issues on macOS please let me know as I would happily return to try again.

Best, 

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "Hi Mahmoud, no I haven't! This is my only attempt."

Ok, could you delete anything releated to Ring 1.19

Then try a fresh building from source code (Ring 1.20) : ring/language/README_macOS.md at master · ring-lang/ring (github.com)

Also, be careful to the results that you have when you run: ring/language/build/installdepmac.sh

The problem could be related to installing homebrew packages.

Also, I will test Ring on a new version of macOS to see what happens.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hello Mahmoud, 

Respectfully, I will wait until after you've completed your testing before I try again. I have spent a non-trivial amount of time trying to get this working, so for me it would be best to return to the process after you've validated it is possible.

Thank you,

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "Respectfully, I will wait until after you've completed your testing before I try again. I have spent a non-trivial amount of time trying to get this working, so for me it would be best to return to the process after you've validated it is possible."

If you read this discussion/thread from the beginning

You will notice that Stefan already using Ring 1.19 (64bit) on macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 (Intel)

So, we can guess that the problem maybe related to your machine.

That's why I am trying to guide you through extra steps 

Because I would like to provide the best help that I can and see why you have these problems.

Also, As said I will do the test on a newer version of macOS myself.

if it works without changes ---> You can return to my previous message  

If I did any change ---> I will tell you about it.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Outnull]

Hi Mahmoud, 

The following is constructive and comes from an "end user's point of view": 

Please understand that I am not new to installing and testing programming languages on my machine. I'm not saying I haven't made a mistake here, but I am saying that this is a hobby of mine to do this with as many languages as I can and for the most part I enjoy it. Additionally, for the creator of the language I think it is important to reflect on the "onboarding experience" (i.e. "how much of my potential user's time should I reasonably expect they devote to get up and running?"). So, while I appreciate your assistance greatly, I feel I have exhausted the energy I have in reserve for a process like this one, at least until I'm certain it is validated and possible, which is something you said you planned to work on. Also, Stefan is running the Intel architecture whereas I am running Apple's M1 chip. Perhaps this matters? I didn't see this on the website as a limitation so I didn't expect that it would, but perhaps that was an incorrect assumption on my part?

At any rate, you'll have me here as a willing tester in the future, but at this point I will wait until it is confirmed that ring works on the latest macOS version running on ARM.

Keep up the great work and look forward to revisiting this in the future.

Warm regards, 

ON

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "Please understand that I am not new to installing and testing programming languages on my machine. I'm not saying I haven't made a mistake here, but I am saying that this is a hobby of mine to do this with as many languages as I can and for the most part I enjoy it"

Very nice, I encourage you to keep doing this and discover this interesting world as much as you can.

>> "Keep up the great work and look forward to revisiting this in the future."

Thanks for your kind words.

Ok, You can test Ring again in the future once we release Ring 1.20 during this year.

Greetings,

Mahmoud

[Mahmoud Fayed]

Hello ON

>> "Please understand that I am not new to installing and testing programming languages on my machine"

I revised the group history, we have posts/questions from your email address from 2022.

While your message gives me the feeling that you discovered Ring this month!

Looks like you tried Ring before, maybe on Windows.

Greetings,

Mahmoud