Conflict between the Rev 'backdrop' and OSX 'Spaces'?

Graham Samuel livfoss at mac.com
Sun Oct 12 16:25:22 EDT 2008


On OSX Leopard there is a feature called 'spaces' which allows one to  
divide applications into sets, and then switch between the sets  
(spaces) so that only the windows of the current set are shown. This  
can be useful, and I'm employing it while doing Rev development.  
However I've come across a snag and I want to know whether others  
consider this a bug in Rev or not.

The app I'm developing in Rev sets a backdrop, and I'm currently  
testing the startup routines of the app so that the command to do this  
is invoked early on. This works fine, in that the backdrop appears  
behind all the relevant Rev windows (both the ones I've created and  
the ones coming from the IDE and from GLX2). However if I switch to  
another 'space' in OSX, perhaps to look at my email or whatever, when  
I switch back, the backdrop covers all my Rev windows. The rev menu  
bar is still showing, but if I choose one of my stacks from the  
'Window' menu, it doesn't appear. Fortunately I can use the menu bar  
to call up the message box, which does appear, and I can manually set  
the backdrop to 'none', so that all my windows reappear. I can then  
use the message box to set the backdrop back to black and it reappears  
in its rightful place behind all my windows.

  I have seen other anomalies with Spaces, such as an application menu  
appearing while the document which it has opened remains invisible, so  
one might see this as a problem with the Mac and not with Rev.

I will carry out more tests, but meanwhile, has anyone else seen this  
- and does anyone think that it will affect my eventual standalone on  
OSX? Obviously this isn't something I want my users to experience.

Graham



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