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Problem posting a bug report

REP 🚫

I just tried on 2 occasions to file a bug report and my text was cut of both times. I left the 2nd post for Lazeez to look at, and sent him an email. No need to comment on that post. The report was about.

I recall my Header containing "Home

REP 🚫

@REP

I recall my Header containing "Home

Apparently, SOL does not like 2 consecutive '

Replies:   REP
REP 🚫
Updated:

@REP

The 'less than' symbol is the problem. What I was trying to post is:

I recall my Header containing "Home (2 less than symbols) Forum (2 less than symbols) xxx" remaining at the top of my screen when I scroll down.

Today it scrolled up with the posts. Has something changed?

Does anyone else have this problem?

Dominions Son 🚫

@REP

I'm getting the same thing and it's annoying as hell.

Replies:   REP
REP 🚫

@Dominions Son

I have that emotion also. The 'Back to Top' link is great, but you have to be at the end of the posts to use it.

aubie56 🚫

@REP

I'm having the same problem.

Replies:   REP
REP 🚫

@aubie56

Thanks. It is good to know that I won't have to fix my computer.

Ross at Play 🚫

@REP

"Home (2 less than symbols) Forum (2 less than symbols) xxx"

The symbol you were trying to copy is not two 'less than" symbols, but a single character called a 'guillemet'.

Those characters, and there greater-than counterpart, are used as quotation marks in a number of languages. See this Wiki article.

This is a test when I tried to copy from near the top of my current SOL screen.
Home " Forum " Author Hangout

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@REP

I just tried on 2 occasions to file a bug report and my text was cut of both times. I left the 2nd post for Lazeez to look at, and sent him an email. No need to comment on that post. The report was about.

I changed the way the 'breadcrumbs' header works because it wasn't optimal.

Yes it stayed in place, but most of the time it covered important info and it disabled the 'back to top' link at the bottom.

With the new way, which is more traditional, it is simply a box that sit at the start of the page and goes off screen if you scroll. Additionally, I added a little up arrow to each post that takes you to the top again if you need to and weren't at the bottom.

As for the < < problem, that's an html issue. There is no way to work around it without disallowing html tags. Whenever you use a less-than sign, you have to follow it with a space otherwise it will be considered an opening of a tag and all the text after it will be hidden until an greater-than sign is encountered.

Replies:   Vincent Berg  REP  REP  Ross at Play
Vincent Berg 🚫
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

As for the < < problem, that's an html issue. There is no way to work around it without disallowing html tags. Whenever you use a less-than sign, you have to follow it with a space otherwise it will be considered an opening of a tag and all the text after it will be hidden until an greater-than sign is encountered.

A possible work around is the replace the 'less-than symbol' with an html lt command: "&lt;". That will enter the symbol without trigger the html impulse to interpret it as a command.

Note: I've tried this before on the forum, and there/here, it interprets the LT command as an html command too, so good luck trying it.

REP 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thanks Lazeez.

REP 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The arrow is nice and I can live with that if need be. However the 'breadcrumbs' header is still scrolling.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@REP

However the 'breadcrumbs' header is still scrolling.

Yes.

Ross at Play 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I changed the way the 'breadcrumbs' header works

I guess I'm not the only one who was confused when I saw the expression 'breadcrumbs' you used.
If I figured it out correctly, that must be the name of the boxes you sometimes use for announcements. The last I recall was an advice that nominations for the Clitorides Awards would be closing soon.
If so, then I am grateful for the change. I prefer such things are just there, rather than being forced to 'dismiss' them to reveal what is underneath.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Ross at Play

If I figured it out correctly, that must be the name of the boxes you sometimes use for announcements.

No, the 'breadcrumbs' is a web technical terms for the links that show how deep you have navigated. the 'Home " Forum " Bug Report and Feature Requests' are the breadcrumbs. They help you trace back your way up the site's hierarchy.

The white box that contained them often covered needed data (like poster's name), also, because it was just below the top, the 'top' of the page was always visible. So when you clicked the 'back to top' link at the bottom of the page, many browsers didn't make the logical jump because the top was always visible to them on-screen, so the link didn't do anything.

To fix these issues, I made the breadcrumbs' white box non-stationary and provided the links to jump to top in every post.

ETA: Hah, the forum's sanitization code replaced the guillemet with double quote.

Replies:   Ross at Play
Ross at Play 🚫
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

'breadcrumbs' is a web technical terms for the links that show how deep you have navigated.

Thanks. The name 'breadcrumbs' makes sense now.

Thanks, too, for the fix. It was an irritation having to make one step up to see who posted your first unread post.

I don't understand the explanation of what you fixed, but I'll report any irritations in navigation I notice ... but now that I am thinking about it, does your latest fix solve the irritation of your occasional announcements (with the yellow background) concealing the breadcrumbs?

ETA:
Translated Lazeez's jargon into language we should all understand ... There's a new Up Arrow beside the Thumbs Down symbol. That jumps you back up to the original post of the thread. :-)

Ross at Play 🚫

Well? That copy did not work. The editor was "smart" enough to realise I should use double quotation marks instead of guillemets when I am writing in English.

But my test does show that it was a single character rather than two less than symbols.

You need a html command to have that symbol displayed correctly. That needs to begin with an ampersand, end with a semi-colon, and have the correct number for the special symbol you need in between. I've never bothered learning how to do that.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg 🚫
Updated:

@Ross at Play

Well? That copy did not work. The editor was "smart" enough to realise I should use double quotation marks instead of guillemets when I am writing in English.

But my test does show that it was a single character rather than two less than symbols.

I don't know if anyone has answered this already, but the html code for these symbols are "&laquo;" (for "< < " and "&raquo;" for ">>".

Note: Sorry, Ross is right, the SOL engine substitutes these characters with the double quote marks. :( However, if you wish to use them in epub ebooks, or on the web (html), those are the html codes you'd use.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

&laquo

2 down from that is "­&shy;" which is a soft hyphen. But the place on the left that shows what the symbol looks like is blank. Any idea what a soft hyphen is?

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Switch Blayde

2 down from that is "­­" which is a soft hyphen. But the place on the left that shows what the symbol looks like is blank. Any idea what a soft hyphen is?

I tested it (using Dreamweaver, which allowed you to test the html display as you make changes). The 'soft hyphen' looks just like a regular hyphen. I'm guessing there are special 'rules' for how they handle line and page breaks.

This is the definition of "soft hypens" from Wikipedia:

In computing and typesetting, a soft hyphen (ISO 8859: 0xAD, Unicode U+00AD soft hyphen, HTML: ­ ­) or syllable hyphen (EBCDIC: 0xCA), abbreviated SHY, is a code point reserved in some coded character sets for the purpose of breaking words across lines by inserting visible hyphens. Two alternative ways of using the soft hyphen character for this purpose have emerged, depending on whether the encoded text will be broken into lines by its recipient, or has already been preformatted by its originator.

However, different browsers aren't consistent in how they handle it. Some ignore it completely (displaying a simple hyphen), while others handle it properly (controlling how a line breaks when you insert a hyphen).

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

The 'soft hyphen' looks just like a regular hyphen.

I found it on the w3schools site: https://www.w3schools.com/charsets/ref_html_entities_4.asp

The leftmost column is the character. &shy; is the only HTML entity that doesn't show anything, other than the &nbsp;

Dominions Son 🚫

@Switch Blayde

2 down from that is "­­" which is a soft hyphen. But the place on the left that shows what the symbol looks like is blank.

Of course, it's shy, so it's hiding. :)

Geek of Ages

I find the loss of fixed-position breadcrumbs to be quite annoying; it takes me much more time to read the forum than it did, because I now have to keep bouncing up to the top of the page every single time I want to navigate anywhere.

Ross at Play 🚫

@Geek of Ages

I now have to keep bouncing up to the top of the page every single time I want to navigate anywhere.

I see your point.
Have you noticed the new Up Arrow next to the Thumbs Down to achieve that with a single click?

Replies:   Geek of Ages
Geek of Ages

@Ross at Play

Have you noticed the new Up Arrow next to the Thumbs Down to achieve that with a single click?

Yes, but it's functionally no different than the native tap on the status bar to scroll to top. It still means an additional tap, which is what I find annoying.

robberhands 🚫
Updated:

@Geek of Ages

Yes, but it's functionally no different than the native tap on the status bar to scroll to top.

Or the 'Back to Top' link below the last post.

Replies:   Geek of Ages
Geek of Ages

@robberhands

Which I never tapped, because I always had access to the breadcrumbs directly.

Replies:   robberhands
robberhands 🚫

@Geek of Ages

Which I never tapped, because I always had access to the breadcrumbs directly.

Dito.

Ross at Play 🚫

@Geek of Ages

status bar to scroll to top

Not all browsers have one of those. It's a definite bonus for me.
I won't argue it doesn't mean you need some extra clicks, the way you navigate.
I 'Right Click' and 'Open New Tab' when I see a thread with any new posts. It's one more click to open a thread, but I only need to move the pointer by one centimetre.
My saving comes when there's only ever one click to move on to the next thread: I simply close the current tab.
After closing the last thread tab I'm back at the Hangout page which I simply refresh.
The changes are ALL GOOD NEWS as far as I'm concerned.

Replies:   Geek of Ages
Geek of Ages

@Ross at Play

Not all browsers have one of those

Yes they do. It's a function of the operating system, not an app. It comes native in every web view (and you'd have to be stupid to turn it off in a web browser)

Also, I don't have a right-click. That phrase doesn't even make any sense, since I don't click, and my phone can't tell which hand is tapping the screen.

Replies:   Ross at Play
Ross at Play 🚫

@Geek of Ages

the native tap on the status bar to scroll to top.

What is that?
Do you mean the bar used to scroll up and down a page?

Replies:   Geek of Ages
Geek of Ages

@Ross at Play

No. The status bar that tells me my cellular/Wi-Fi signal, the time, my battery life, and that sort of thing. Across all of iOS, if you tap on it, it scrolls to the top of whatever you're looking at (assuming the app developer said "Yes this makes sense" and doesbt prevents it)

Replies:   Ross at Play
Ross at Play 🚫

@Geek of Ages

No. The status bar that tells me my ...

I have one of those, but using Windows om a laptop the bar has no function.
Perhaps this thread would have been much less confusing if people specified whether they accessed SOL using a mobile phone or a computer with a mouse.
I access it with a computer and the changes made are all welcome improvements to my experience.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Geek of Ages

I find the loss of fixed-position breadcrumbs to be quite annoying; it takes me much more time to read the forum than it did, because I now have to keep bouncing up to the top of the page every single time I want to navigate anywhere.

So do I. It takes an extra click of the mouse to get to the next thread with unread posts.

But it also solves the problem of having to scroll down to see the poster's name. So it fixes that problem.

Ross at Play 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

It takes an extra click of the mouse to get to the next thread with unread posts.

If you're only going back one step you can click on your browser's Back Arrow, instead of Author's Hangout.

That might take you back to your previous page - as you last saw it - as opposed to getting a fresh version of that page. That would mean the page no longer shades posts you have already read.

I still think that saves the number of clicks you would need, because you'll only need to use your browser's Refresh function occasionally to be shown which pages have anything new.

That would depend on your browser and possibly how you have it set up. The shading is managed by Java, not by SOL.

ETA:
The browser's Back Arrow will take you back to the "SOL Refresh" screen if you have made any posts. So there's still an extra click if you've posted anything. If you've made more than one post, or even edited a single post you just made, you are best using the new Up Arrow next to the Thumbs Down to navigate back to the Hangout page.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Ross at Play

If you're only going back one step you can click on your browser's Back Arrow,

That's still an extra click. And then I lose the green buttons grayed out. The old way, I used to use the pad on my Mac laptop to scroll. A flick of two fingers is easier/quicker than clicking the up arrow.

But it's no big deal. With Safari, I have my favorites on the left side of the screen. One is the link to the Forum. It's easier for me to click on that than the new up arrow.

Capt. Zapp 🚫

@Switch Blayde

It takes an extra click of the mouse to get to the next thread with unread posts.

If you are near your keyboard just do an ALT+Left-Arrow. That takes you back to the previous page. Alternatively, You can also use the browser back arrow.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Switch Blayde

So do I. It takes an extra click of the mouse to get to the next thread with unread posts.

I get around this by having the All Forum Threads by Date page open and I middle click on the threads with new posts to open them in a new tab. When I finish with that thread I just close the tab and go on to the next one.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I added permanent navigation links to the bottom box, below the 'back to top' link.

robberhands 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Yay!

Ross at Play 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

YET AGAIN, an elegant solution to a problem. Well done. :-)

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I added permanent navigation links to the bottom box,

yeah, good addition

Geek of Ages

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I added permanent navigation links to the bottom box, below the 'back to top' link.

This doesn't actually solve my problem, because more often than not I'm smack dab in the middle of a page when I decide to navigate away. It'd still be faster for me to tap once to scroll to the top than to scroll all the way to the bottom.

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

It works. I wrote "uni&shy;versal" in both instances of "universal." When it didn't need to hyphenate, it didn't. When it did (the word at the end of the line), it did.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx uni­­­­versal xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx uni­­­­­­versal

Replies:   helmut_meukel
helmut_meukel 🚫

@Switch Blayde

In English with very few really long words it's use is seldom needed.
With one of those long words I'd use it to force a line break within the word to avoid large gaps between the remaining words when the long word is put on the start of the next line.

In German with its many long words inserting SHY manually everywhere it might be needed for hyphenation is a PITA.
The program displaying the text has to be smart enough to hyphenate the words correctly.

HM.

BTW, I hate it when in american printed books the line breaks are forced in the midth of a syllable.

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