Page 1 of 2

Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome running

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 18:50
by avsfan
OK, this is a weird one. I believe it's the cause of the issue I mentioned in this thread: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10254.

Here's what's happening: Pasting text doesn't work in XY if I run Firefox or Chrome (haven't tried IE). If I start XY right after a reboot, I can select text (such as in the address bar), copy it, and paste it with no problem. As soon as I start Firefox or Chrome (including starting them in safe mode with no extensions), I can't paste any text in XY again until I reboot the machine (closing the browser and/or XY doesn't make any difference on it's started). Trying to paste text just deletes any selected text -- essentially pasting an empty string.

The problem only started few months ago, and have been trying to just work around it, but it's getting extremely troublesome so I really need to get resolution on it.

Things that I have discovered in my troubleshooting and multiple reboots:
  • I can still copy and paste files just fine using Ctrl-V or right-click->Paste.
    The text that has been copied doesn't show up in XY's clipboard (such as with scripting) -- the clipboard appears to be empty. However, the text in the clipboard is still available to be pasted into any other application -- XY is the only one affected.
    Right-click->Paste also doesn't do anything (same behavior as Ctrl-V)
Perhaps most interesting of all is that, through trial and error of very old versions, I found that somewhere between 10.50.0000 and 10.50.0008 is where the problem was introduced -- If I run a version of 10.50.0000, everything works as expected. However, when I run 10.50.0008 (I don't have any of the versions between, sorry), the problem exhibits itself.

Please help me paste again! :)

XY 13.20 running on Win7x64.

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 19:05
by admin
Weird indeed. But I cannot repro it. I have Firefox and Chrome running in Win7/64 and can copy and paste text in XY's Address Bar without problem.

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 19:11
by avsfan
admin wrote:Weird indeed. But I cannot repro it. I have Firefox and Chrome running in Win7/64 and can copy and paste text in XY's Address Bar without problem.
Yeah, I'm not surprised. :)

It's very strange that the old 10.50.0000 version works and 10.50.0008 doesn't (but that the 12.xx versions worked up until a couple of months ago). I'm just hoping that there was some change in the code stream way back there that could easily be identified and reverted to fix the issue... (of course, we still wouldn't know what the underlying cause is...)

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 19:17
by admin
I don't see anything suspicious between 10.50.0000 and 10.50.0008. Sounds like a fascinating bug. I'd like to hunt it, but I have no idea where it hides.

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 19:19
by avsfan
admin wrote:I don't see anything suspicious between 10.50.0000 and 10.50.0008. Sounds like a fascinating bug. I'd like to hunt it, but I have no idea where it hides.
Rats. I'll keep digging and see if I can come up with anything else...

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 19:50
by Marco
avsfan wrote:
admin wrote:I don't see anything suspicious between 10.50.0000 and 10.50.0008. Sounds like a fascinating bug. I'd like to hunt it, but I have no idea where it hides.
Rats. I'll keep digging and see if I can come up with anything else...
Just FYI, you can find the missing builds (to narrow down the search) in the Archive (check my sig).

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 04 Nov 2013 21:55
by avsfan
Now it's making even less sense. 10.50.0000 now exhibits the problem as well... Grrrrr...

The strangest thing is that it only affects XY. Gotta figure out a workaround on this stuff -- it's getting painful not to be able to paste text!

EDIT:
Even stranger still: 10.50.0000 works if run from a zip file. If I extract it first, it shows the problem. 10.50.0001 shows the problem in either case, so something changed between .0000 and .0001. However, the problem still persists when extracted, so we're not there yet...

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 00:46
by avsfan
PROBLEM SOLVED!

After a bunch more searching and looking in different places, I found some info buried in a lengthy discussion that suggested Skype Click-to-call was the problem. Uninstalled it and BAM! Problem solved!

Sorry, Don, for the false alarm!

EDIT:
Well, maybe not solved after all. It's better -- I can now *sometimes* paste, but not always... Haven't yet figured out what the determining factor is... Still more digging needs to be done...

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 09:35
by admin
I think I got it and can fix it: XY primarily looks for files in the clipboard, only if no files are found it looks for text. (It's a file manager :)) So, it looks like some of your apps permanently abuse the clipboard for background activities with files -- evil! But no problem for me, I can easily improve the logic.

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 13:31
by avsfan
admin wrote:I think I got it and can fix it: XY primarily looks for files in the clipboard, only if no files are found it looks for text. (It's a file manager :)) So, it looks like some of your apps permanently abuse the clipboard for background activities with files -- evil! But no problem for me, I can easily improve the logic.
Oh, I hope so! That would be wonderful! (crossing fingers while waiting to test the fix! :) )

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 13:40
by armsys
avsfan,
Is your pc installed with some clipboard software such as ClipMate?

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 13:41
by admin
Well, let's see, I don't really believe in that fix... the weirdness level of the bug is just too high for this small modest fix.

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 15:21
by avsfan
admin wrote:Well, let's see, I don't really believe in that fix... the weirdness level of the bug is just too high for this small modest fix.
you're probably right -- whatever is happening seems to be making the clipboard appear empty to XY. Also, it's not just a specific control -- I can't paste anywhere in XY (filenames, script window, etc), though I can still paste in just about every other application (I did find one 2D CAD application where pasting doesn't work now).

Really weird stuff going on...

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 16:30
by avsfan
In doing some more digging, I found this article that sounded like it might be dealing with a similar issue. I don't know how much of it will apply to VB6, but thought it might be useful:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9302 ... r-oddities

Re: Text paste doesn't work in XY when Firefox or Chrome run

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 16:44
by admin
But you said that XY can copy text to the clipboard, it only cannot read it back, right?