VNC bugs? - mouse click upon focus, copying from Outlook/IE, etc.

[James [Wez] Weatherall]

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Rui Carmo wrote:

> Hello there,
> 
> I am experiencing some odd difficulties with VNC (3.3.2r2, Win32)
> between two Win 98 machines - I have setup the server on a laptop and
> use vncviewer on my desktop machine, which has 2 video cards - using it
> on full-screen mode on the second monitor works great. 
> 
> First off, if I switch to vncviewer from another application by clicking
> inside its window, sometimes a mouse click gets sent _before_ the mouse
> location info, usually activating the wrong window on the server PC,
> etc., etc. - wherever I left the mouse cursor before returning, so to
> speak. 

Interesting.  I can't reproduce this effect here on a Windows NT->Windows
NT connection, so I'm wondering whether it's a Windows 95/98 only bug?
You'd see this sort of an effect if Windows 9* sent the WM_BUTTONDOWN (or
whatever it's called) before it sent the WM_MOUSEMOVED message, to the
viewer.

> I am also using vncviewer to access my X desktop, but have not noticed
> that particular "feature" yet while using it in this way, which may
> point to a bug on the Windows server. 

Ah.  Interesting.  The mouse codee just uses the mouse_event call, which
deals with the click and the change in position in one call, so it's not
clear how the two events could get out of sync in the way you describe.

> Furthermore, even though I am able to cut & paste normal text to and
> from a Win32 server (say from Notepad or the Start|Run... dialog box), I
> seem to be unable to copy text from a remote browser or an RTF message
> in Outlook, which might have something to do with the way the server
> deals with the clipboard... 

The server will _only_ deal with plain text - applications that deal in
text formats other than plaintext are required to support the plaintext
clipboard format if they are to work with VNC, at present, since VNC
doesn't have any idea about RTF format or similar.  RTF is, though, a
fairly unusual case, in that RTF text really _is_ plaintext, in the same
way that a LaTeX or HTML document is, so cut & paste of RTF may find its
way into WinVNC & the Windows VNCViewer in the future.

> Tell me, do you just transfer CF_TEXT (or whatever) from the clipboard?
> Is any attempt made to retrieve other clipboard formats (or enumerate
> the ones present and retrieve just ANSI text)? 

See above. :)

> Oh, and I'm having trouble using key combos like Ctrl+Shift+LeftArrow
> (which I know are tricky to catch... 8'))))))), and... well, since I
> started this (and am writing this message using VNC), the remote mouse
> cursor appears slightly offset (about 12 pixels to the left and 12 to
> the top) from the "hotspot" or 'dot' cursor. I am using custom cursors
> on the server, which might confuse VNC a little... 

Hmmmm.  VNC uses GetIconInfo to retrieve the hotspot for cursors, so if
the call returns the wrong hotspot then things will go a bit strange.
(technical term, that one... ;P)  Are your 'custom' cursors animated?
Would it be possible for you to attach a problem one to an email so that I
can try it out here?

> Sorry to point out so many little things in one message, but it's been a
> while since I used VNC in a Windows-to-Windows configuration for an
> extended period... 8')))))))))) 

No problem.

Cheers,

James "Wez" Weatherall
--
Olivetti & Oracle Research Laboratory, Cambridge, UK.
Tel : Work - 343000


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