1.0.93 - Redraw problems in Windows 8 (64 bit)

[repsej]

Just downloaded the rc4 version and everything looks ... odd.

Could this be caused by me still having the 1.0.3 version installed?

[Sti2nd]

Yes, you are correct. You can have two versions installed, but then you must choose the correct theme. So every time you open another version of LMMS you must also relocate the theme of that version.

[repsej]

Ah yes, that explains it :D

And it leads to a nice solution ... by changing the Artwork Directory from the absolute path to a relative path "data\themes\default" it works for all versions.

I think this should be the default.

[tresf]

I think this should be the default.

I'd like to see this addressed as well. Last I knew this was a won't fix issue, but I see so many reports of it (#738 #1011 #572 #497), I wonder if we can make a work-around. @diizy?

[diizy]

On 08/29/2014 03:52 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

I think this should be the default.

I'd like to see this addressed as well. Last I knew this was a |won't
fix| issue, but I see so many reports of it, I wonder if we can make a
work-around. @diizy https://github.com/diizy?

We could just leave the "artwork" directory empty by default. That way,
LMMS should always use the default theme of that particular installation.

However... There are so many reports of problems - even unrelated to
themes - with multiple installations on Windows, that I still wouldn't
recommend it. Windows just doesn't seem to play nice with multiple LMMS
installations... so I'm not sure if we should encourage the practice.

[tresf]

However... There are so many reports of problems - even unrelated to
themes - with multiple installations on Windows, that I still wouldn't
recommend it.

Besides file associations, a common .lmmsrc.xml and a common registry key, I haven't seen any major issues. I would be a huge proponent of this especially if it slows down this particular bug report. 👍

[tresf]

Let me elaborate a bit more... Windows (like OSX) stores all of its binaries next to itself and makes no modification to the system. If someone is smart enough to install LMMS into a separate directory, there won't be issues. If they install over the top, then there may be some conflicts.

At this time, we don't encourage either because the .lmmsrc file isn't versioned and the registry settings aren't versioned either. This mean the uninstall links get blown away with a new copy and a few miscelanious items are shared.

I think we discussed at one point having a versioned .lmmsrc file. I could certainly shim the NSIS parameters to put version info into the registry too (minus file assocciation, naturally) so they can be uninstalled without mucking eachother up, again assuming they install in a separate location.

Furthermore, NSIS can do some of this hard work for us, but finding examples online are few and far between, so simple stuff like forcing an uninstall I just can't figure out. Appending version number might be the best bet, but I'd still like to get to the bottom of this artwork issue since it's by far the most common issue I see on Facebook, forums, bug tracker, etc.

[diizy]

On 08/29/2014 08:53 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

However... There are so many reports of problems - even unrelated to
themes - with multiple installations on Windows, that I still wouldn't
recommend it.

Besides file associations, a common .lmmsrc.xml and a common registry
key, I haven't seen any major issues.

There have been issues reported when even installing LMMS to some other
directory than the default suggested by the installer. Which is why it's
been recommended to always install LMMS to the default directory on
windows...

[tresf]

There have been issues reported when even installing LMMS to some other
directory than the default suggested by the installer. Which is why it's
been recommended to always install LMMS to the default directory on
windows...

Hmm... you've been on this list longer than I have but unless there are
hard-links in the NSIS installer (which Toby would never intentionally
allow) I can't seeing this being a problem anymore with the exception of
the shared files, registry keys which I believe we can fix.

[repsej]

Question: Since the themes cannot (normally?) be shared amongst different versions of LMMS. Why is the path to the themes folder saved in the registry in the first place?

To me it seems that the best way to get less confused beginners (and thus less bug reports) would be to:

a) Stop having the path saved in the registry
b) ... or/and set the path to be the relative path "data\themes\default"

[tresf]

To be a bit more clear, the registry comments were about
installing/uninstalling (required by the OS).

The artwork bug is unrelated to Windows at all, it is just the place most
people file bugs from, and the place we directly have control over the
installation (OS installation is just the copying of a folder, Linux
installation is either via make install or via a 3rd party installation
method that we don't control (or in the case of Israel's PPA, some
control).

So I propose to fix this stuff for all installs, not just Windows, but if
that's too tough, I can shim the version info into the Windows paths/config
files/registry keys and patch it for one OS. Does that make sense?

[tresf]

Typo

• OS X* installation is just the copying of a folder