The MMEX window disappeared from view ...

[paulcroft]

A funny thing happened last week. I forgot about it until it happened again today and I wondered if anyone else has had the following occur:

My pc has two monitors, a 24" widescreen (the main one) and a 19" 4:3 screen. A couple of weeks or so ago I unintentionally maximised the MMEX window while it was open on the main screen so clicked on the 'Restore' button whereupon the window disappeared. I assumed I'd unintentionally hit the 'X' instead of the 'Restore' button and closed the programme so restarted MMEX but nothing seemed to happen. I then spotted (from the icons on the taskbar) that I had, in fact, now got two MMEX windows open - but they were nowhere to be seen! I right clicked on the MMEX icon and selected close and one session closed but the other was still running, just not visible anywhere.

I then remembered the old trick of Alt+Spacebar to bring up the menu linked to the icon in the topmost left corner of a window - mainly because I'm old enough to remember when this was the only way to adjust windows on some early programmes - and a menu appeared on the main screen, not attached to anything at all, but at least it had the expected options.

I selected maximise and the MMEX window reappeared filling the main screen. I then hit Restore once more and this time saw the window disappear down into a corner of the smaller monitor.

I hit Alt+Spacebar again and this time tried to resize the window, wherever it was, using the cursor keys which should have allowed me to enlarge the window enough to see it but nothing happened. I played with the Size and Move commands some more and eventually found the window had apparently disappeared into the top left corner of the smaller monitor when it suddenly made an appearance 'stuck' to the cursor. All that was visible was the title bar, about 2" long, but at least I had it and I was dragging it back to the visible world solely because the cursor was on a part of the title bar and I had the left 'click' button down.

Having resized the window back to a normal size I then maximised and restored the window a few times and confirmed that it seemed to be working properly once more then, essentially, forgot about it until it happened again just now.

I was able, after a minute or two, to again 'recapture' the minimised window from a corner of the smaller screen but was wondering if anyone else has had this happen.

I would also appreciate some advice on how to restore the window in the event that I should not be able to find it next time. Is there an MMEX config file somewhere with the window's size and position which I can tweak if necessary?

Thanks for reading.

[stef145g]

Is there an MMEX config file somewhere with the window's size and position which I can tweak if necessary?

Although some configuration options pertainintg to the database are stored in the database itself, all other configuration options are maintained in the mmexini.db3 file. This applies to all operating Systems.

To cause MMEX to reinitialize from scratch, we generally recommend the file mmexini.db3 to be deleted. This file is then recreated when MMEX starts again. The only issue is that all options default to initial setup.

The visual aspects of MMEX are controlled by the settingname entry: AUIPERSPECTIVE. If this value becomes corrupted in the database, MMEX may behave in a non predictable maner when MMEX starts. Using an external SQLite Database browser, the mmexini.db3 database can be explored, and the AUIPERSPECTIVE entry can be deleted. This causes MMEX to reinitialise the visual system, without affecting other parameters already set.

[paulcroft]

Thanks for that Stefano. I'll download the SQLite browser - it will be easier to reset the position than to delete the ini file and reset all my settings in the event this happens again.

[stef145g]

I think I have finally solved this long standing mystery.

If MMEX is closed while the program has been iconized, the window size values get stored in mmexini.db3 file in this state. This can be confirmed by examining the values of the following in mmexini.db3
ORIGINX ..................... is negative when window is in an icon state.
ORIGINY ..................... is negative when window is in an icon state.

What is happening is that the window starts in an iconised state, and cannot restore to anything greater than an icon. This is the reason that deleting the mmexini.db3 file fixes the problem, until next time.

Delete these entries in the mmexini.db3 database. These entries will be reset to the following on startup.
SIZEW .......... 800
SIZEH ........... 600
ORIGINX ........ 50
ORIGINY ........ 50

This will restore the window to default values.
This problem will be fixed in the next release.

[paulcroft]

Hi Stefano

Great, copied and pasted as a ReadMe file. That should fix it I'm sure.

Paul