Multi icon column selector - broken ?

[BetterRed]

1. The multiple icon column selection feature in Preferences->Look and Feel->Column icons version 2.3 (nor v2.2) isn't working as it was in v1.48, there are no checkboxes to tick, see screen shots for 1.48 and 2.03 respectively
   
2. I know chaley wrote a 'how to' for this feature somewhere in the MR calibre threads, but I can't find it, nor can I find anything in the doco.
   
   If someone could point me at a section in the manual or chaleys 'how to', then pending a fix for 1) I can get to grips with it in 1.48.
   
3. I don't know if the display of multi-icon columns is working, because I can't figure out how to use them in 1.48

BR

[chaley]

Looks like another Qt5 bug. The boxes are there if you use the system default user interface style. They are gone if you use the calibre user interface style.

I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to file the bug report.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Looks like another Qt5 bug. The boxes are there if you use the system default user interface style. They are gone if you use the calibre user interface style.

I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to file the bug report.

I'll go for a run around the block then

<sigh> I get the feeling there are more glitches in Qt5 than there were in Qt4, or is it that by the time I started using calibre y'all had done all Qt4 glitch workarounds.

Can you remember where you posted that write up you did on how the multi icon feature works? I remember you had some screen shots in it. I promise to evernote it so I wont lose it - again

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Can you remember where you posted that write up you did on how the multi icon feature works? I remember you had some screen shots in it. I promise to evernote it so I wont lose it - again

Nope. I just looked for something like it without success. The closest I came was https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=203422, but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

<sigh> I get the feeling there are more glitches in Qt5 than there were in Qt4, or is it that by the time I started using calibre y'all had done all Qt4 glitch workarounds.

It's mostly the latter. What happens is that when you first develop something, you test it to make sure it works, which means working around whatever quirks Qt 4 had. With the move to Qt 5, *all* old code becomes potentially buggy, since none of it was developed against Qt 5. So immediately after the move all the various regressions are detected, that will smooth itself out over time.

Though I have to say, I have reported over a dozen different bugs in Qt 5 to Digia, over the last few months, and the only one to have been closed so far was one where I provided the solution. It has not been a confidence inspiring exercise. Just for fun, here's the list, most of these I have already worked around in calibre:

https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-41151
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-41125
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-41123
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-41060
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-41017
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40946
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40938
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40933
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40912
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40810
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40807
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-40233
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-39788
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-39650

[BetterRed]

Hi Kovid - as they say 'been there done that', I have no regrets that those days are long over. It must be harder these days given the myriad of 3rd party components you guys employ.

I recall the first PC project I was contracted to run, apart from the no-frills K&R library that came with the C compiler, it used one for CUI and another for B-tree handling. And the programmers I inherited used edlin and... Word Hey it was the early 1980's, and my customer was that large Asian bank that's now HQ'd in the Casino Precinct of The City!

BR

[kovidgoyal]

There has certainly been an explosion in the complexity of the dependency graph for software. On the other hand, the tooling for creating software has greatly improved, so the components in that dependency graph tend to be more stable than they were in ye olden days.

I couldn't imagine developing something like calibre as a mostly one man project twenty years ago.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I couldn't imagine developing something like calibre as a mostly one man project twenty years ago.

Certainly not if it was multi-platform, it was hard enough getting things to run on PC-DOS, MS-DOS and DR-DOS on a common hardware base

Not all projects were big manpower-wise tho', we did some pretty cool stuff with small teams. In one case with 2 guys in Bangalore, 3-5 in Singapore and 3 in Honolulu on a patient monitoring system. There were no frequent flyer points then, if there had of been I'd still have some in the bank

The first Moscow Stock Exchange was developed by a handful of people, the PM got killed in a plane crash in Siberia on his way to a parallel project in Shanghai

BR