1. v11.5 Crashes

I've been getting reports that v11.5 is crashing for some users, but, believe it or not, neither I nor the beta testers are seeing any issues. Unfortunately I can't fix what I haven't seen happening here myself, unless I get enough feedback from users to give me a clue as to why some are having problems and others aren't.

So, if you updated to v11.5 and Nexus is crashing, please post here with as many details as you can about this problem. Does it crash immediately at start up? Do you get to see the dock? Does it crash when you do something?

The faster I'm able to reproduce and figure what is happening, the faster I can issue an update to fix the issues.

2. Missing edge bump activation

This one proves that you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Many users complained over the years that the dock interfered with their navigation of maximized windows, because it would come forward automatically if you accidentally bumped the screen edge with the mouse pointer. Even though you could increase the edge bump delay (i.e.; increase the time the mouse pointer would have to be at the screen edge for Nexus to respond to it), which would help avoid accidental clicks, still many users uninstalled the application because of this.

For v11.5 I decided that edge bump activation would have to be set manually.

Result: now I have users who have been running Nexus for years complaining (and some uninstalling) because of this, even though you can open Nexus Preferences -> Behavior -> and manually set the Activation to 'Bump <top/bottom/left/right> Screen Edge'.

In retrospect, changing something users have been used to for years was a mistake. The next maintenance release brings this option back, but with a twist that is what I should have added in the first place: if you activate the dock with a edge bump and then mouse away from it without clicking, focus is now automatically given back to the window that previously had it.

3. Generic icons temporarily appearing on the dock

Another mistake.

This change came about because a user complained that his sub-dock was taking a long time to appear after he clicked on it. The problem was that the sub-dock referenced items NOT on a local hard drive, but on another computer somewhere on his home network.

His sub-dock took a long time to open because retrieving icon images over a network connection can be slow, and his sub-dock would not display until all icons had been retrieved. Once the icons have been retrieved they are cached in memory, but, once that sub-dock is closed, the associated cached icons are destroyed as well.

Anyway, to help with this problem I implemented the same 'lazy' icon rendering technique that both Windows Explorer and the Shelf employ: you open a window or a tab and icons that have not been fully rendered within <x> milliseconds are displayed using the 'generic application icon'. This ensures a window/Shelf/Dock/Sub-dock opens relatively fast and is immediately responsive. In the background, a thread then properly renders the icons that are still displaying the 'generic application' icon.

While this is a good idea for tabs in a Shelf and Explorer windows, it was, in hindsight, a lousy idea for a dock.

So, for the next maintenance release I've already changed things so that 'lazy rendering' is only applied to sub-docks *and*, even for those, I increased the time out delay from 400 ms to 900 ms.

From the feedback I've been getting, most people who initially reported crashes are now reporting that those are no longer happening after a re-install.

While I am glad for them, the problem with doing this before engaging in troubleshooting steps with Winstep support is that I am left none the wiser regarding why those crashes were happening in the first place. If I don't know what is happening, I CANNOT FIX IT!

So, if someone reading this is experiencing crashes with Nexus or Winstep Xtreme, before you do anything else PLEASE get in touch with Winstep support - or post on these forums - so I can try to figure out exactly what is causing the problem.

If you 'fix' the issue by re-installing before giving me a chance to troubleshoot, whatever potential bugs are behind the problem will remain there, a time bomb waiting to go off when the same exact conditions are met.

I know most of you are used to unresponsive and uncaring technical support departments from most companies, so you think it's generally a waste of time to report anything in - I assure you that is not the case with Winstep support. All reported bugs are fixed ASAP, provided they can be reproduced in-house.

Thanks,