Known Bugs, Issues, and Wish List
The following list is used internally at EarthStones to track known bugs and issues as
well as features we wish to add to our software. Users comments and additions are invited.
Bugs and Limitations
- Hand cursor and hints upon mouse-enter do not work for Java Choice (listbox) elements. Hints for hyperlinked text display with erratic
dimensions and are currently disabled.
- When mouse is moved from one ImageButton object
(e.g., in footer panel) to an adjacent button, the hint for the first buttom may
remain on the screen while the second button's hint fails to show.
- In Internet Explorer 3 only, a text box embedded within a paragraph appears too low and
bottom ruling line fails to show. It is not clear whether this is a bug in JDoc's code or
an Explorer 3 implementation issue.
Known Issues
- Under rare conditions, when wrapping text around images a NullPointerError is generated
in TextPanel.drawParagraph(). It does not appear to visibly affect document rendering or
other program functioning. (Examples: Portfolio/Tlaloc/01 & 10.)
- In Netscape Navigator there is excessive flicker when loading a DocumentPanel window.
- Progress bar in splash panel runs too fast under certain conditions when registration
checking is performed.
- In rare cases logo fails to appear in splash panel, accompanied by the following Java
Console message: Uncaught error fethcing image: java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException:
current thread not owner. Condition appears to have no other impact on program
performance.
- In Internet Explorer 4, progressive rendering of a very few, specific images always
stalls without otherwise affecting browser functioning. This does not occur in Explorer 3
or in Netscape Navigator. (Examples for Online Portfolio section include the
large image on the first page of the Garden Spirits chapter and the initial image
on the first page of the Tlaloc chapter.)
- In Internet Explorer 3, mouse click in scroll bar moves panel only one pixel and listbox
element fails to open when there is only a single list element. These appear to be Java
implementation errors that do not occur in Explorer 4 or in Netscape Navigator 3 or 4.
- In some browsers the tab key fails to advance to next field in form. This
appears to be a Java implementation problem since the code works okay in Internet Explorer
4.
- In Internet Explorer 3 running under Windows 95 (but not NT), bottom edge of listbox
fails to show.
- Inserted image in Portfolio/Ceramics/Bulter Wash Shields, 1994 page is not
rendered.
- Currently an exception is caught and an error message generated when the HTML source
file specified for display in a DocumentPanel window cannot be found. Would like to do the
same when the source is an image (.gif or.jpg) file. However, the image-loading routine in
ImagePanel fails to throw an exception.
- Currently tables support only either text or an image in a cell but not
both.
Wish List
- Implement support for the <applet> tag. (This
requires 1) reading the entire applet tag, including any embedded <param> tags and
storing their data. And 2) intercepting the applet's getParameter() calls and supplying
the stored data. This approach has already been used in developing the WebFrame class for
applications, supplying command-line parameters to the program.)
- Implement support for multi-column text.
- Implement anchor spots (the name= attribute of the <a> tag).
- Reduce spacing after bullet character.
- Implement additional features in <body> tag,
including link=, alink=, vlink=, bgcolor=, leftmargin=,
topmargin= as well as the <baseFont>
tag.
- Implement alt= attribute in <img> tag as a hint/status message.
- Implement <prev> and <next> HTML+ tags.
- Provide additional standard panels for JSite, including an autotimed SlideViewer panel,
a TableOfContents object that can be represented in the user interface as a Java TreeView,
and a UI interface to the major web search engines that exploits EarthStones' Java-CGI
connectivity.
- Implement HTML+ tags which permit setting context variables (e.g., Footer icons)
currently specified in Section.web or Chapter.web files (in manner
parallel to specifying website parameters either in a Site.web file or in the
applet's <param> tags).
- Generalize the showDocument(source, target) method
in WebFrame class for targets other than self
(i.e., the current window). For example, setting target equal to blank should
show the source document in a new instance of WebFrame.
This appears to be straightforward but, for some reason, two instance of the new
window are generated rather than one so this feature is not currently implemented.
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