GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 58167
Balsa freezes while contacting LDAP server
Last modified: 2009-08-15 18:40:50 UTC
Package: balsa Severity: major Version: 1.1.5 Synopsis: Balsa freezes while contacting LDAP server Bugzilla-Product: balsa Bugzilla-Component: general Description: I currently use balsa-1.1.5 ; an LDAP address-book is declared. Most of the time, when entering an email address, and trying to correct already entered characters with "backspace", balsa completely freezes. Application then have to be killed from a terminal. ------- Bug moved to this database by unknown@bugzilla.gnome.org 2001-07-27 10:42 ------- Unknown version 1.1.x in product balsa. Setting version to the default, "unspecified". The original reporter (tflorac@onf.fr) of this bug does not have an account here. Reassigning to the exporter, unknown@bugzilla.gnome.org. Reassigning to the default owner of the component, pawsa@theochem.kth.se.
Created attachment 872 [details] Trace + output from debugger
Looks like this still happens in balsa-1.2.pre1. Also, looking up address every time a character is typed may not be such a great idea when a server needs to be contacted. There should probably be a "lookup" button instead, or perhaps address completion could be assigned to a special key (e.g. Tab or Enter) Hangs are most likely to occur when entering a name, then hitting Backspace. Output from a simple debug session that shows what's going on is attached.
IMO, Button does not seem to be an option for UI consistency reasons (it would be hardly meaningful for addressbooks that expand aliases fast). Although, probably one could mark address books as expensive and show the expand button then... The other option is to use some special key combination but Enter and Tab are not good candidates as they would introduce inconsitency: Tab key would behave differently depending if the entry is and "AddressType" or non-address type. Ctrl-R? How do other programs resolve this issue?
I have commited to CVS a first step of the solution: LDAP books expand aliases only when Ctrl-R is pressed. I still have an impression the code is not rock-solid (not to mention reported UTF-8 problems) but this should resolve at least some issues.
I'm trying to find out when exactly lookup occurs in Netscape Messenger... Address is is definitely expanded when I hit Enter after typing in somthing. This means that I will go to the next "To:" (or "Cc:" etc.) field or add another, but the actual lookup may also be linked to the "default action callback" in Motif. This is what I've grown accustomed to doing. It seems like lookup also occurs if I stop typing for a while, and if I leave the address box using mouse click, or hit Tab to enter next address (if there is another address field) or leave box. It does not happen if I select another address field using the mouse, though In case you haven't seen it: Messenger has an address pane where there's typically one text input field for each receiving address (although I think you can specify multiple addresses on one line via the usual separator characters) - it contains one field by default, and you can add more by hitting Enter after typing in the last address.
BTW: I suggested Tab as a possible "lookup" key as it is the de facto standard "completion" key (used by various shells, the Gtk file selector etc.), but this is of course inconsistent with its traditional "GUI" meaning.
What about this one? Has current balsa still this problem?
I can no longer reproduce the hang. Which is hardly surprising, as it was related to automatic lookup that never occurs. There's probably still work to be done on the other points mentioned here, though...
the reporter (tflorac@onf.fr) says: I'm actually using balsa-1.2pre3 since it was released. I didn't notice any freezing since this update... ;-))
I close this bug report. Thanks for testing and feedback.
balsa-1.2.2 released, closing the report.