Roy Ratcliffe

Just a quick note from Tracy Faulk regarding a possible conflict with CrossOver. He writes:

If users have CrossOver version 7.1.0 or older they will need to upgrade to a newer version. If they install X11 with an older version of CrossOver the application will open and then immediately close. The CrossOver support team notes,

“XQuartz 2.3.3.2 changed a component (quartz-wm) on which CrossOver relies such that it doesn’t work. We released CrossOver 7.1.2 back in May to address this incompatibility. Of course, we’ve also released CrossOver 8 since then, too.”

I installed the latest version of CrossOver (8.0) and your latest package on the same machine with no conflicts or problems. However, as noted, if a user has version 7.1.0 or older there will be a conflict—not with your package, but rather with X11.

How to resolve the conflict

I’d suggest installing X11 on Leopard 10.5 machines and also upgrading your CrossOver (free download for registered users with a valid serial number) plus you don’t need to re-install any CrossOver apps you may be running. I have your package of Watchtower Library for Mac and the CrossOver installation of Watchtower library running side by side with no problems (on Leopard 10.5) after I upgraded the CrossOver version.

Thanks and hope this helps!

That is the question!

Brother Faulk has asked another very good question! At X11 2.4.0 under heading Mac OS-X Updates, the XQuartz project writes,

You will need to re-install this package after future OS, and Security Updates delivered through Apple’s Software Update. Additionally, you should reinstall this package after installing XCode.

What the XQuartz folk are saying here is that Apple’s updates will overwrite XQuartz. So users will need to reinstall the XQuartz software distribution in order to get back to XQuartz.

Why two distributions?

The fundamental difficultly here is that two sets of developers (Apple and XQuartz) bundle and distribute X11 for Mac, despite it being one-and-the-same piece of software. Apple bundles their version, XQuartz provide their version.

Which to choose, Apple or XQuartz?

Since the goal is minimal hassle for most users, I recommend sticking with Apple, since you can entirely ignore the X11 question if you have upgraded to Snow Leopard—it includes X11, and Apple will doubtless post upgrades in the normal way as and when. Users can therefore remain blissfully unaware of X11. That would be ideal.

So if on Snow Leopard, ignore X11!

When should you install XQuartz?

There is only one scenario that comes to mind: you are running Leopard 10.5 (no Snow)! In this case you should install X11 2.3.3.2 since this version most closely matches the Snow Leopard version. Thereafter, you need not worry about re-installing because Leopard does not bundle X11 automatically.

Sorry about the pain with Copy-and-Paste.

I’d like to provide you with a just one simple straightforward work-around, but from the feedback and my own experience, it appears that there isn’t just the one! However, all fixes do involve twiddling with the Pasteboard Preferences.

Under Preferences (Cmd+, shortcut) you’ll find the Pasteboard tab. It has five options. The settings outlined below should give you a working Copy and Paste on the Mac! But bear in mind if you use keyboard shortcuts, use Control+C for copy, Command+V for paste!

• Enable syncing — ON
• Update Pasteboard when CLIPBOARD changes — ON
• Update CLIPBOARD when Pasteboard changes — ON
• Update PRIMARY (middle-click) when Pasteboard changes — OFF
• Update Pasteboard immediately when new text is selected — OFF

Notice the X11 protocol caveat at the bottom of the preference panel! It “may not work in some applications.” This X11-protocol issue means that sometimes, just the act of changing an option flips the syncing behaviour; it snags up. Sometimes just toggling Enable syncing re-starts the sync and everything works again.

Currently I’m working on the ultimate fix: removing the X11 protocol between Wine and Mac; removing the middle man will obviate syncing altogether making one reliable connection between the official Watchtower program and the Mac pasteboard. Copy-and-Paste blues, rest in peace! Work in progress.

Take care not to rename the Mac application. It should be called “Watchtower Library” but the operating system lets you rename this to something else, anything else.

This creates a problem (or a feature depending on your point of view) when running the application. The app takes its name from the name given to it, and looks for official Watchtower library programs under Library/Application Support according to the given name. Hence normally, it looks for installed libraries under

Library/Application Support/Watchtower Library

(relative to your home directory)

But if you change the name, the last sub-folder changes too!

Your installed programs will disappear when upgrading, if you change the app’s name. Replacing the old app is the best remedy.

I originally posted the following as a comment, but since decided that the matter deserves its own posting.

I’ve been spending most of my time recently on this project dealing with the somewhat-irritating Copy and Paste problem. It’s not a straightforward issue.

Here’s the fundamental source of trouble: the Watchtower Library (the WTLibrary.exe Windows program, I mean) interacts with the Windows clipboard. However, since Windows is really Wine, this interaction becomes X11 clipboard. WTLibrary.exe manipulates the X11 clipboard in fact. However, since Mac’s aren’t X11 platforms, the Xquartz software translates this to Mac pasteboard calls. It goes through two layers therefore before text hits the Mac pasteboard. Xquartz runs a separate pbproxy thread for handling the synchronisation between X and Mac. You can control this synchronisation using the options under Pasteboard in Preferences.

My experiments have attempted to bypass these machinations by posting WM_COPY messages to the focus window. Watchtower Library for Mac is both the Wine server and the X11 server at the same time. Multiple threads running under the same process. So sending Windows messages is relatively convenient, albeit with some caution for thread safety. Catch is that the society’s WndProc code does not respond to WM_COPY by copying! The “MEPS Canvas” window class ignores these messages, instead relying on toolbar messages. To workaround this, I’ve been researching use of the Windows accelerator mechanism to force a Copy as if the user selected this from the menu.

I’m sure you don’t want to know all this. Getting to the point, the simplest solution is to remove Command+C shortcut and the Mac menu item for Copy’ing. That would leave only the Windows menu and the Control+C shortcut. I think these latter methods work. Has anyone found that clicking the Windows menu fails? As far as I know, no! I’m assuming that’s still true for you and others; please correct me if I’m wrong.

Removing the Mac Copy item would avoid the confusion between Command or Control Copy. Ideally though, both should work. But if one of these fails to work reliably with WTLibrary.exe, the Mac-ish alternative just confuses.

For those who have problems, I wonder if you could provide some feedback. The Bug report is here but note that you’ll need to sign up as a bug reporter to add material. Questions are,

• Does Copying fail only when you copy using Cmd+C but not when you use the Ctrl+C or menu and toolbar methods?
• Does changing your pasteboard settings to this help or not?

My bad.

Mistake

I slipped up. In version WTLIB Package for Mac version 1.0 I left out the font smoothing patch. Hence, if you install from fresh using this package, you will see the dreaded font jaggies.

However, if you upgrade the package, your font smoothing will carry over to the new version unchanged; if enabled, it will stay enabled.

Installing from fresh

By upgrading, I mean keeping the application support folder!

It lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Watchtower Library where ~ (tilde) stands for your home directory. There is where the application stores all the virtual Windows sub-system files.

Hence, installing from fresh means trashing your Watchtower Library folder within your private application support.

New interim release 1.0.1

This is an annoying problem. So I’ve re-applied the patch and created a new interim release. I’ve called it version 1.0.1, adding an extra .1!

Thanks

Thanks to JK for bringing this to light. You can read the story here at the project development site.