Apple Bug Friday: Xcode Garble

I'm still getting a handle on Apple Bug Friday. On one hand, I don't want to wait until Friday to file any one particular bug -- I always file immediately (I find if I don't file immediately, I don't file at all). On the other hand, I don't feel it's sporting to dredge up previously filed bugs for display here. So it's bugs that I happen upon around Friday-ish, which I haven't reported before, which also don't give away Other People's Secrets. The pickings can be slim.

The obvious thing to do is to just isolate the Finder and attempt to document all of its bugs and ui+design flaws. That would keep me going pretty much indefinitely, especially if I put Spotlight under the "Finder" umbrella. The beautiful thing is that if I'm running low, that must mean dozens of weeks have passed, which suggests Leopard is about to ship, which I'm quite sure will make the Finder even worse. Yay, even more ABF fodder!

But lodging complaints against the Finder is hopeless -- nobody cares. Well, it's not that nobody cares, but it's quite obvious the people who do care have no power inside Apple to fix it. (And by "fix", I mean transmogrify Finder X's source code into a soul, transfer the pneuma to a goat for purposes of physical manifestation, place said goat on top three feet of logs, twigs, shaved wood and dried leaves. Add copious and irresponsible amounts of accelerant and ignite. It's sad a goat must die, but it's the only method that ensures Finder X stays dead.)

Xcode is different. Remember, Xcode buried PBX. More than just a name change, Xcode was a philosophical change centered around programmer productivity. Unlike the Finder, Apple has also shown its willingness to fundamentally revise Xcode to address criticism. The Xcode 2.0 "Build Styles" to Xcode 2.1 "Build Configurations" is testament to that.

So it's irking that something basic like text redraw is wonky on Xcode (H.264: QT7 req'd). It's been in various stages of wonkiness since PBX 1.0, but has never been garble-free. If Hank Hill had a Mac programming blog, he'd say "that NSTextView ain't right." Fortunately it's mostly cosmetic (in this version, previous versions were darn-right dangerous) and a quick Edit->Select All clears things up.

Radar 4252019.

Update: Fixed in Mac OS X 10.4.3's AppKit. Thanks guys!

Saturday, September 10, 2005
12:00 AM