xlights hang on Mac when configuring controller.

[bloojoop]

using xlights 2025.04 on Mac mini with Sonoma 14.7.1. On the controller tab I can get xlights to hang up with the everlasting rainbow swirl. I must force quit and then relaunch. Here is my method to cause this hang.

1. have a show folder with no controllers defined.
2. add ethernet controller
3. on the vendor property, select the box to show the selection list for vendors.
4. type a letter on the keyboard to 'jump' to that vendor (such as F, or E, or whatever.)

this has been happening for several versions now.

showing vendor list.

hit F on keyboard to jump to the F for FPP as an example but any letter causes this.

Notice the list is greyed and blank as soon as a letter is typed. This is the point of complete hang... I must now force quit.

[cybercop23]

@kylegrymonprez @dkulp this needs Mac debugging. Anyone of you able to take a peek?

[kylegrymonprez]

can reproduce on TestFlight - let me see if I can get a stack trace.

[kylegrymonprez]

I cannot reproduce on a Debug build though - no spinny wheel and everything proceeds normally...... that's not a lot of help

[kylegrymonprez]

Okay I can reproduce it in the Debug build - investigating

[kylegrymonprez]

I've traced this deep into wxWidgets code, and it's not a trivial thing that we are doing that I can see. It might just be some weird behavior - will keep digging.

For devs: we are hitting an assert trap at:
wxCoord wxVListBoxComboPopup::OnMeasureItem(size_t n) const

wxASSERT_MSG( wxDynamicCast(combo, wxOwnerDrawnComboBox),
wxT("you must subclass wxVListBoxComboPopup for drawing and measuring methods") );
No clue on why yet, will keep taking a peek at it to see why it's fine until you hit a button press. The stack looks like it's triggering deletion and reconstruction of the list, but that could just be what wxWidgets is doing.

[kylegrymonprez]

All the research I can find shows that this particular behavior on macOS is buggy in wxWidgets itself. I can remove the functionality for "pressing a letter jumps to that selection" for mac only, or we can deal with the edge case on macOS.

@dkulp will follow your lead here on what we want to do.

[bloojoop]

this particular issue is such a nuisance since I switch back and forth between windows and mac regularly and I use type down methods all the time for efficiency. At the end of the day, it is a nuisance and if I haven't saved in a bit, then have to force quit and lose recent change which sucks. All that said, it is not a critical issue as I'm not sure how many others do type down to quickly jump to a section of a list. It would be amazing to find it and fix it but it is not top priority by any means. Just another example of where the Mac is not always better :) lol .

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On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 4:12 PM Kyle Grymonprez ***@***.***> wrote: All the research I can find shows that this particular behavior on macOS is buggy. I can remove the functionality for "pressing a letter jumps to that selection" for mac only, or we can deal with the edge case on macOS. @dkulp <https://github.com/dkulp> will follow your lead here on what we want to do. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5268 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AVCLUGFDCGFZHUSP7YMMP7T2XRHC5AVCNFSM6AAAAABZCV3NTWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZTG42TIMJSHA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***> [image: kylegrymonprez]*kylegrymonprez* left a comment (xLightsSequencer/xLights#5268) <#5268 (comment)> All the research I can find shows that this particular behavior on macOS is buggy. I can remove the functionality for "pressing a letter jumps to that selection" for mac only, or we can deal with the edge case on macOS. @dkulp <https://github.com/dkulp> will follow your lead here on what we want to do. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5268 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AVCLUGFDCGFZHUSP7YMMP7T2XRHC5AVCNFSM6AAAAABZCV3NTWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZTG42TIMJSHA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[kylegrymonprez]

i can at least block the mac version from spin looping by removing the feature - I'll try and build our own custom combobox to fix the layout methods, but it means overriding the built in behaviors to handle it correctly . If I get some free time I'll give it a crack.

[bloojoop]

so the combo box that pops up there looks different than in other parts of xlights..... so not sure if using a different control type in other parts of xlights ? anyway, always happy to connect and zoom or anything that is helpful...

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On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 6:39 PM Kyle Grymonprez ***@***.***> wrote: i can at least block the mac version from spin looping by removing the feature - I'll try and build our own custom combobox to fix the layout methods, but it means overriding the built in behaviors to handle it correctly . If I get some free time I'll give it a crack. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5268 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AVCLUGACUE3OOURPOSBXRJT2XRYMFAVCNFSM6AAAAABZCV3NTWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZTHE3TGMBTG4> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***> [image: kylegrymonprez]*kylegrymonprez* left a comment (xLightsSequencer/xLights#5268) <#5268 (comment)> i can at least block the mac version from spin looping by removing the feature - I'll try and build our own custom combobox to fix the layout methods, but it means overriding the built in behaviors to handle it correctly . If I get some free time I'll give it a crack. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5268 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AVCLUGACUE3OOURPOSBXRJT2XRYMFAVCNFSM6AAAAABZCV3NTWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDONZTHE3TGMBTG4> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[derwin12]

Does it happen in other drop boxes?

[kylegrymonprez]

"Force Local IP" has the same hang.

[kylegrymonprez]

Inside the Layout tab, seems to be a problem in that Property Grid as well. Tried on "Preview" with the same behavior.