How does Adium identify the location of the buddy list?

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:20 pm

Hi,

I use Portable Adium so that I can carry around my settings across different machines at work. Because I do not have the same size screen on all my machines, one thing i noticed was how Adium "memorized" the location of my buddy list.

I keep my buddy list near the upper right corner of my screen. When I would go from my largest monitor to the smallers one, the buddy list would end up off the edge of the screen. Eventually i learned to set the window to the upper right on my smallest screen and then let it fall where it may on my larger screens (i.e. in the middle). The only downside is that now my buddy list tends to get covered up most of the time by my other windows.

My best guess is that Adium locates the position of the window based on the pixels from the lower left corner

Has anyone else encountered a similar situation and did you find a better solution than my current one?

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:46 am

With a little experimentation, I was able to determine that Adium stores the position of windows from the lower left corner. Actually it could be a more universal rule from my programming classes of days gone by.

If anyone knows of a way to change that referencing system, please post a reply.

Post by **Catfish_Man** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:01 am

Cocoa uses a bottom-left coordinate system, unlike most systems which are top-right. There's a method call to flip it though.

<edit>
er, I meant top-left, not top-right
</edit>

Post by **evands** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:56 am

As of Adium 1.0, the window's position should be saved in a per-monitor-configuration sensitive fashion; the saved position on one monitor configuration should be independent of that on another configuration. Are you saying this isn't working for you?

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:34 am

Yes. I would say it is not working for me. My buddy list stays in the same position independent of the monitor.

Also note that I am using Portable Adium. I really don't know if that is related to the problem or not.

Post by **evands** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:03 pm

Hm, just one monitor in both cases?

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:50 pm

Yes I usually run in single monitor mode. I did a test this morning so I could illustrate what is happening.

At home, I am using a MacBook Pro without any external monitor. So I place the contact list in the lower right corner. I use window bubbles and there were two active with 3 users online. I also opened a chat window and placed it in the upper left corner of the screen. I quit Adium and went to my office.

At the office I use a MacBook wiht an external 20" widescreen monitor. I normally run this as a single monitor set up.

When I launched Adium at the office, the contact list window and the chat window were I believe the same location pixel wise as the MacBook Pro scree. The contact list was almost flush with the bottom but was not flush wiht the right side. There is about two inches of space to the right on the 20" monitor. The chat window was flush to the dock bar which I have on the left edge but was bout 2-3 inches from the top of the screen.

If you would like me to run any tests, let me know.

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:32 pm

Some more information that will hopefully identify the issue.

I had need to change the resolution on my 20" wide screen monitor. I went from 1680X1050 down to 832X624 for a few moments and then went back. In noticed that my contact list moved (to the lower right corner) when I reduced resolution but did not go back to the lower right corner when I returned to 1680X1050. I am not sure what should have happened but figured I should share it with you all.

Post by **evands** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:29 am

*nod* The customized positioning code was previously treating all single screen configurations as identical, though it knew how to handle multiscreen configurations as individually unique.

I want further testing on the fix, so I'm going to commit it for Adium 1.1 but *not* for Adium 1.0.2. If all seems well it may make it into 1.0.3.

drmoque · Post by **drmoque** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:24 am

Thanks. I will wait for the fix to filter into a future release. For the moment, putting my contact in the lower right corner seems to minimize extent of the inconvenience. I don't have to move it and it seems to stay uncovered so I can see who logins and logoffs.

lefou23 · Post by **lefou23** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:47 pm

Hi,

I just started Audium at 1.01 and was experiencing basically the same problem. The difference being that I'm using the same copy of Audium, but occasionally pluging in to a large monitor. I set up Audium on my larger monitor, and the buddies list is off screen. I've upgraded to 1.0.2, in case that made a difference, but no luck.- I've tried moving it from the top right corner, to the top left corner, and it's still hidden. Last night I moved it to the top center, and it's still hidden.

In addidion, chat windows remain in their fixed positions. I ended a chat session last night before shutting down the Mac. This morning when I logged in with just the laptop screen open, the chat window popped open with the last comment sent from my brother after I'd left. The window was almost entirely off screen. Exposé will grab open chat windows, but the buddy list is immune.

As an additional observation, many of the OS Finder windows remain in their fixed positions as well, so the edges may or may not be visible (though I can get to them using the dashboard stuff).

Thought I'd add my observations in case that helps the solution. I'd be happy to help test as well.

Post by **evands** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:03 pm

Do you have a non-default window level for the contact list (above all windows, below all windows) set in Prefs->Advanced->Contact List?

lefou23 · Post by **lefou23** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:05 am

evands wrote:Do you have a non-default window level for the contact list (above all windows, below all windows) set in Prefs->Advanced->Contact List?

I initially set the default to above all windows. Since resetting it to "Normal" and restarting Audium, the Buddies Window is in the center where I last left it. Thanks for that.

I'll keep it aligned left on my laptop window and let you know if it goes away again after my next monitor exchanges.

George

--
Some followup:

Launching with the larger monitor kept the Buddy List on the left egde of the screen, but down from the top a couple inches. If you need more precice (pixel) data, let me know.

Then rebooting with just the laptop monitor, it's back to the upper left corner.

Otherwise Audium's working well.

naughtypixie · Post by **naughtypixie** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:29 pm

I'm having the same problem as above but mine is due to constantly switching from 2 monitors to a single monitor.

When I'm at work, I have a larger screen as my primary screen and my macbook as secondary. At home it's just my macbook.

Now I'm in the situation where the contact list has, over progressive switching between the two monitors, moved above even the top of the large monitor area and I can't access it.

If I use expose then I can see that it's there, but I cannot move it.

I've tried the fix above (switching the window mode to the default and relaunching) but no joy. Any thoughts before I trash my preference file?

naughtypixie · Post by **naughtypixie** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:50 pm

Nevermind the above. The fix did work but I'd recently installed DropCopy which was fighting for the same screen real estate and winning, bumping my contact list off the desktop. I've since moved dropcopy and everything is playing nicely now.

cocoaforge

How does Adium identify the location of the buddy list?

How does Adium identify the location of the buddy list?

Additional opservations about switching monitors