Help closes my editor

[John Duchek]

Hi,
I am running PB 4.41 under winXP 32bit. If I have a program up in the editor and it has just been run and saved (saved basically), if I hit F1 (or help menu) to learn about a command, the editor closes. If I type a couple of characters in and don't save it, and then hit F1 (or help) I get the help, but only after it asks if I want to save the file. If I say yes, it closes the editor and help, if I say cancel I can go to the help window and come back to the program. Do I have something mis set or is this a bug?
Always looking for help....
Thanks,
John

[Arctic Fox]

Have you set the shortcut for quitting the IDE as F1?
(check File > Preferences > Shortcuts)

Edit
Sorry, my fault.
You can't have the same shortcut for two functions

[Vera]

Hi John,

I don't think it's an IDE bug and the hint towards the settings or preferences is a good direction to search for.

What puzzles me is, did this occure with the first usage of PB 4.41 or was it ok before and just started the other day.
And do you also work with different PB versions but letting them share the same preference files? In this case you could try a /portable run to see if it makes a difference.
Does it happen with any code or maybe only with those opened as project?

Or does that prog you compiled advice to close all open apps on next event ? (joke)

If you can't find the reason try a fresh installation.

good luck ~ Vera

[John Duchek]

This is still bugging me. If I run the ide and prgram is unchanged, I can get help. If I have made any changes in the program, I press F1 and it asks me if I want to save the file. If I say yes or no, it does what I say and then exits the IDE. If I say cancel, I get the help screen ok. Somehow, when I press F1 it is thinking I want to get out of the ide.

I haven't changed any settings and both my windows and linux systems are doing it.
John

[Vera]

This is still bugging me.

Really sorry to hear this - I know how nasty a mischief can be.

Still how can we help, if you don't tell what you already tried?
Strange again is, that you also experience this under Linux as well. So it's even more likely that it's a special setting of yours (including addons).

When you say you didn't change any settings, does that mean you are using the presetted settings coming with the installation, or do you mean your local settings you've been useing ever since?

I had an idea, if you post your pref-files (Win & Linux) I could test if I can experience the same effect with them. (Not sure if it's a good idea - but at least it's a possible option for hunting.)

greetings ~ Vera

[Kaeru Gaman]

do other Helps work?

btw, not mentioned so far: make sure you installed the new version in a virgin directory.
additionally, when running several versions, run everyone with "/portable", change the shortcut's properties before the first start.

[Trond]

Try changing the shortcut for Help->Help to something other than F1 and try again.

Also, check the tools menu to see if any tools has F1 as its shortcut.

[John Duchek]

I have tried whatever was suggested here (above) with no change. I changed F1 to cntrl H and when I pressed set it said it wasn't interfering with anything. It still closes using cntrl H in the same way it was closing with F1. When I say I am using the defaults, I mean that I installed the program and haven't changed any preferences to my knowledge. I have tried to learn PB off and on for several versions, but haven't put any new preferences in.

[John Duchek]

How about this? I uninstalled PB 4.41 from my windows xp. I searched for the purebasic directory under program files and there were 3 files left. One a visual designer pref file. I deleted them all. I deleted the directory. I installed a fresh copy. When I ran purebasic, it loaded the file I was working on as if it had never left. In addition, help was still set to control H. It still closed the editor when I pressed control H. (it actually opens help, then closes help and the editor to leave nothing. Where is the preference file hidden? How do I kill it?
John

[John Duchek]

Also I just rechecked; it is NOT doing this under linux. I was wrong.
John

[John Duchek]

I am seeing the same problem on all of my windows XP systems. That includes my desktop, my laptop with 2 different xp installations (swapable harddrives) and on a virtualbox windows XP running under Mandriva linux. The virtualbox one in particular has never been programmed in and has whatever settings came with the purebasic as the defaults.

John

[Vera]

Where is the preference file hidden? How do I kill it?

1 - since version 4.10 nomore prefs are generated within the programfolder but under %appdata%
2 - either these 3 pref-files are relics of former installations, or came with a trialstart with /portable switch
- they are useless without /portable switch
- they are useless if you don't have admin right to write under c:\program files (no changes can be supplied)
[- I'm unsure if using the /portable switch will copy existing prefs of %appdata% into the programfolder in case there are none available in it (I always transfer & adjust them manually)]
4 - nowadays the IDE always searches the prefs in %appdata% and uses them if they are already there (that's why it worked exactly like if it had never left). An installation should not overwrite them.
- if they are too old (< 4.4) they are kind of incompatible and can lead to wrong settings (that's why I asked if you're using several PB versions parallel)

Still you could simply make a copy of the installed PureBasic folder and paste it anywhere except under c:\program files. Remove all prefs (at least you should find them all anywhere searching the system with '*.prefs') and start PureBasic with the /portable switch.

In case you again experience the same misbehavior I would say you've caught a corrupt download, implying to get yourself a new one [no joke - there have been some troubles the first days after the release].

what a strange fate you have with this version

good luck ~ Vera

[Trond]

I can't imagine what could be causing this. Try downloading the new beta version and see if it's still a problem.

The preference files are here: C:\Documents and Settings\Your Username\Application Data\PureBasic\

[Arctic Fox]

What happens if you open the help file directly from Windows Explorer?

[John Duchek]

I downloaded the beta2 version of 4.5 and installed and it does the same thing (no change). I tried loading the help file from IE and it loads it with no difficulty and displays it. I still need to chase down the pref files and kill them.
John