Row Spacing in Booklist Problem (OS X)

[unboggling]

[Edit: Resolved]

I have a minor problem with row spacing in booklist that I'd finally like to solve.

In Prefs > Look and Feel, extra spacing to add between rows in the book list is set to 4 px. I don't change it.

When I install a new calibre update, the first time I open the new version the booklist row spacing is wider apart than after any successive restarts, in which the row spacing is tighter. Until the next time I install a newer version.

Also, I recently noticed that when I add or remove a field in Book Details, the row spacing instantly becomes wider, like after an update, until the next restart, after which row spacing is tighter again. I hadn't changed Book Details fields in quite awhile until recently.

I'm not sure which of the cases actually reflect the 4 px setting.

With update-first-open vs restart this has been happening as long as I can remember. A few years ago, I believe I may have dragged the rows further apart once. Not sure. At that time there was not yet a row spacing option in Look and Feel. What's New shows that option was added in 0.9.18 [08 Feb, 2013].

Add an option to add extra spacing between rows in the book list. (Preferences->Look & Feel)
Closes tickets: 1117907

But the update/restart difference in row spacing began long before 0.9.18.

And dragging a row border to change the spacing doesn't work now. Which is good, except it doesn't let me drag rows to try to get row spacing set back where it should be. Changing the row spacing option in Look and Feel doesn't solve the relative row-size difference.

It is such a minor thing. Guess it's a minor bug. Or is there a way for me to fix this on my end?

Edit: Entered bug report in launchpad.

[unboggling]

Kovid, thanks for responding by email to my launchpad report. I agree it may be something specific to my calibre install, or specific to my system. Those possibilities gain credence from the apparent lack of report of the issue by other users of calibre/OS X.

Like I said, it's a minor thing. But curious, and thinking of it as a learning experience, I started with a clean new-user install (calibre found no pre-existing configuration directory at startup). Then I investigated the configuration directory files, various settings, and interrelationships between them, replacing the configuration directory with a clean one after identifying a problem, to try to keep the variables as isolated as possible. This involved lots of replacement of configuration directory, and lots of installs of different version, and lots of restarts. There are at least four variables involved, not always the same ones in the cases of version-first-launch or changed-book-details-field.

I won't bore anyone with the specific details about the variables and the testing regimen, because no one else has reported experiencing the row-size-discrepancy issue. But if any other calibre users on OS X are experiencing it too, I would be very interested to hear about it. Because then we could figure out what we do in common that is rarely done by other people, to help identify the primary causative factor.

I can avoid both cases of row-size-discrepancy by (1) having never changed font from the original Helvetica 13 with the current configuration directory and not changing font now, and (2) having never had Find Duplicates plugin installed in the current configuration directory and not installing it now. But I'd rather an extra restart once a week for the version change and an occasional extra restart for a changed field in Book Details, than to never change font, never change Book Details, and never use Find Duplicates.

[unboggling]

Resolved. The symptoms, anyway. One setting change in Look and Feel did the trick. I turned off "Show splash screen at startup." All symptoms (of whatever the actual causative problem is) ceased existing. No subsequent row-size discrepancies from having Find Duplicates installed, changing book details, changing version, or changing font. Then I changed "Extra spacing to add between rows in the booklist" from 4px to none, to get back to the narrower row spacing I'm used to, which (also tested) didn't affect anything adversely.

This configuration (in Preferences > Look and Feel > Main Interface) seems stable on my system:

User interface style: calibre
User interface layout: narrow
Language: English
Checkboxes: all unchecked except Show tooltips
Interface font: Lucida Grande regular 13
Icon size: small
Show text under icons: never
Extra spacing between rows: none

Now I can stop chewing that bone.