Some tools->options->appearance just stopped working??

[quine]

Hello.... I was a user of slickedit years ago. Last year purchased 2007 and now upgraded to 2008 (with license). Install went ok, all is working fine for some months now, and suddenly I notice that many of the tools->options->appearance features just stopped working...

For example, fonts and colors for text seem to work fine, but the "current line highlight" is either off completely (NONE) or shows the simplest possible highlight (dashes surrounding the line), no color, and no "syntax indent ruler" or "tab ruler", etc. In short, none of the other options works except NONE. Same true for VERTICAL line. Basically, I can't see a vertical line no matter what colum I set it to or what color I try to make it.

I emphasize again that this is a sudden change to the editor's appearance that has worked fine for a few months... What is going on? I could re-install the product, but then I have to apply the hotfixes again, make sure my aliases are saved, etc. Hoping there is a fix less dramatic!

thanks
matthew (quine@sonic.net)

[jimlangrunner]

Matthew,

Try launching slick with a "new" configuration (from a command line, type vs -sc [config_path].  For config_path, I'd create a blank directory and see what happens.  From the help:

sc config_path
 Specifies the configuration directory. This directory will be used to find and save configuration files. Sets the SLICKEDITCONFIG environment variable to config_path
 

That should get you a clean config from which you can work.  Undoubtedly, one of your config files is boogered up (I know not which one) and this will generate a clean set of files.  You can then compare config files until you find the problematic one.

Help -> About will show you your current configuration directory to compare to.

hth.
Jim.

[quine]

Hi Jim,

Thanks. This helped some. First, for what ever reason, windows (this is XP about 2 yrs old, up-to-date in svc packs, etc) will not let me add the command-line parameters -sc [configpath] to the "target" command line in the properties dialog for my shortcut... I can run vs -sc [path] from a DOS window however...

I did as you suggested (pointing to an empty directory) and sure enough SE came up as though first run, all the config files were created, etc, and yes I could re-engage all the things that seemed to be boluxed up. But that would be a lot of work to re-configure everything I changed (and not knowing which of the various config files and/or types were hosed). But I realized I had a backup of the config directory from back in April when I first re-configured the 13.0.0 files after upgrading from SE2007. So I renamed the original config directory and restored the backup to 13.0.0.

That should have worked, but it didn't! Problem remained the same. Strange. I suppose I'm just going to have to re-configure! The program at least seems to recognize that it is still licensed, though it asks me to register it again. I assume I don't have to do that....

Thanks.

[jimlangrunner]

Sounds like a job for someone more experienced than I.    But....

If you use the "new" config directory, then copy over, say, 5 files at a time, then note which ones are not right, you can probably narrow the problem file(s) down.  I'd guess that the problem is a single file that is in conflict with windows.  Something specific to your configuration, and "patch Tuesday" that occured last week.  This past week was pretty heavy with them.  Depending on how heavily you customized, that may save you a little bit of time.

Jim.

[quine]

Hello Jim,

Well I'm not sure what's going on. I tried letting the program re-create everything in the original config directory (and HELP->about shows that vs.exe is still pointed there), but now when I re-configure the editor window appearance it still does not work. I tried other configuration changes (language specific, etc) and they seem to work, but not the current line highlight, or vertical line, etc. I don't mind using a different configuration directory, but windows doesn't seem to like anything I try to specify on the target command line of the SE2008 desk-top icon. I'll try a complete product re-install (I have my license key, etc) and see if that makes a difference. I'll uninstall first and make sure I delete all the configuration directories.

[quine]

Well this turned out to be something dumb... Sometimes you never think of the easy things to check... So it turns out that those 2 specific appearance features are dependent on FIXED FONTS. If you use a variable sized fonts you can only get the simplest of current line highlights or nothing at all! Pick a fixed font, and voila! You get properly highlighted current line!

[jimlangrunner]

Live and learn.  I'd never have thought of the font because I never try to use anything but fixed fonts.  I'm just too picky about indents, align, etc. 

But we both learned something, I think, which makes for a good day in any event.  Thanks for the follow-on.

Jim.