Copy Selection To Clipboard Fails Silently Options

[asavage]

WinXP SP3
PMV v3.71

Sometimes, often when copying a large selection to the clipboard (~4000x4000 pixels, 24-bit), the clock mouse cursor works as normal, but the clipboard is not populated with the data, and no error is displayed.

(Test: I open a 2nd instance of PMV and attempt to paste into a new image, but the Paste option is greyed out. Same for pasting into CS3.)

I am unable to find a reproducible sequence of steps to obtain this problem, but I have seen it intermittently and more than ten times. I reboot to clear the problem. I note it here in case others have the issue as well.

[Peter]

WinXP SP3
PMV v3.71

Sometimes, often when copying a large selection to the clipboard (~4000x4000 pixels, 24-bit), the clock mouse cursor works as normal, but the clipboard is not populated with the data, and no error is displayed.

(Test: I open a 2nd instance of PMV and attempt to paste into a new image, but the Paste option is greyed out. Same for pasting into CS3.)

I am unable to find a reproducible sequence of steps to obtain this problem, but I have seen it intermittently and more than ten times. I reboot to clear the problem. I note it here in case others have the issue as well.

You may be running short of memory. Assuming you have more than 2GB RAM, have you opened up the per-application 2GB barrier in XP? (Google: "2GB memory limit XP")

[asavage]

I have 4Gb RAM installed. Here is PMV's Help->System Info:

Application
Product name : PMView Pro for Windows
Version : 3.71
Build : 24898 (32-bit)
Graphics
Screen size : 1920x1080 pixels
Bit depth : 32 bits
Plane count : 1 plane
Uses palette : No
Refresh rate : 60 Hz
Raster caps : 7E99
Screen
Physical size : 600x337 mm
Resolution : 96x96 dpi
Processor & memory
Number of CPUs : 2
CPU family : 15
CPU model : 4
CPU stepping : A
Page size : 4096 bytes
Physical RAM : 3199 MB
Operating system
Operating system : Windows NT
Version : 5.1 Service Pack 3
Build : 2600 (32-bit)

Now, I have just added the "/3GB" switch to boot.ini , and I'll reboot.

Do I need to:

"Change your executable application header activating the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag.

This flag can be activated using a Visual Studio application called EDITBIN.EXE.To do so, just call the tool as follows:

editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE name_of_the_executable.exe "?

[Peter]

PMView v3.71 is compiled with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag set, so for the current version you don't need to do anything other than add the boot.ini setting. If you're using an older version the situation may be different. Look in the version history (What's New in the on-line help) to see the exact version when LARGEADDRESSAWARE was added.

[asavage]

Adding the "/3GB" switch to boot.ini did not seem to change the symptom here: copying a large section of a large image to clipboard does not work 100%.

My workaround has been to crop, save, Undo, then File->New->PMView Window, and open the saved crop there.

However, this doesn't work as smoothly when what I desire is a direct copy to CS3. The clipboard would be a lot faster

[Peter]

Adding the "/3GB" switch to boot.ini did not seem to change the symptom here: copying a large section of a large image to clipboard does not work 100%.

My workaround has been to crop, save, Undo, then File->New->PMView Window, and open the saved crop there.

However, this doesn't work as smoothly when what I desire is a direct copy to CS3. The clipboard would be a lot faster

I just copied a 5000x5000 image to the clipboard and pasted it into CS6 (64-bit). Works fine here with PMView v3.72 64-bit on Windows 7 x64 w/ 4GB RAM.

If you work with images this big, it's time to move on to 64 bits!

Thanks,
Peter

[asavage]

I do work with images that large, yes. But W7 is not on my To-Do list yet.

Just the cost of a W7 license is scandalous, and I'd have to vet all my existing software against the new OS. I don't do this lightly.

FWIW, I don't think saying that "it works for me (on an entirely different OS)" is saying much

And, if the copy can't be made, it can't be made. But shouldn't I get a dialogue saying that?

(I do get a dialogue saying that, in the OS/2 version . . . right before PMV crashes into the sea )

[Peter]

And, if the copy can't be made, it can't be made. But shouldn't I get a dialogue saying that?

Ideally, yes. The situation is exactly the same as the "Out of memory" dialog added in v3.24: It's not supposed to happen. Unfortunately it does happen due to the 32-bit adressing limit.

The copying is done in a background thread. Currently PMView does not pass errors from background threads to the user. I will need to implement a mechanism for this, and once that's done, I can send the message. (You would not want PMView to throw an exception that results in the application terminating after the message - that would be the easy fix).

(I do get a dialogue saying that, in the OS/2 version . . . right before PMV crashes into the sea )

This happens when PMView runs out of memory. A failed clipboard copy on OS/2 results in the same "no action" behavior as in Windows.

[asavage]

The copying is done in a background thread. Currently PMView does not pass errors from background threads to the user. I will need to implement a mechanism for this, and once that's done, I can send the message.

Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem.

(You would not want PMView to throw an exception that results in the application terminating after the message - that would be the easy fix).

For a failed clipboard copy? No, that would not be an improvement over just not doing the copy. Unexpected data loss is never a good plan.

[Peter]

I will fix this issue in the next version so that you get the appropriate message on both Windows and OS/2 if copying to the clipboard fails.