Application process tree doesn't get updated in :observer

[cj1128]

Environment

• Elixir & Erlang/OTP versions (elixir --version):

  
  Erlang/OTP 22 [erts-10.7.1] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [hipe] [dtrace]

Elixir 1.10.3 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 22)

* Operating system: 

$ sw_vers ProductName: Mac OS X ProductVersion: 10.14.6 BuildVersion: 18G95

### Current behavior

I can successfully start observer by `:observer.start()`. But when I click the application name on the Applications tab, the right section doesn't get updated.

For some application, like `kernel`, the right side did get updated. But for many applications, it remains what it was before. 

It seems not the loading problem, because I tried to wait a long time and it still didn't get updated.

I use [hexpm](https://github.com/hexpm/hexpm) project for testing.

![2020-04-29 18 51 34](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4210829/80588480-063c0b00-8a4b-11ea-9df3-48705ea2914f.gif)

### Expected behavior

When I click the application name, the right side should get updated immediately.

[ericmj]

Hi @cj1128.

observer is part of erlang so issues with it should be reported to the erlang issue tracker: https://bugs.erlang.org/secure/Dashboard.jspa.

[lukaszsamson]

@cj1128 On my machine (macos 10.15.4, otp 22.3.2) resizing observer window forces it to redraw application process tree.

[cj1128]

@lukaszsamson Thank you it works for me too!

[josevalim]

IIRC, this issue was related to the wx version. Bumping the version installed in your system will most likely fix the issue.

[lukaszsamson]

I'm on wxmac 3.0.4 installed by brew (latest currently available). I can see 3.0.5 was released 2 days ago and there is also 3.1 branch marked as unstable.

[gregors]

So I was having similar issues in OSX:

• Applications tab wouldn't show/update unless window resizes
• observer font color is unusable in OSX dark mode

Now I knew something was wrong but didn't know what exactly. So Observer bug you say? Hmmm I go search those issues and I find the following: https://bugs.erlang.org/browse/ERL-835

And it looks like an outdated dependency issue on wxWidgets - and wxWidgets-3.1.3 seems to work.

Now I don't know how most people install Elixir on MacOS but I'm guessing a fair amount use asdf or Homebrew. I use Homebrew. So what version of wxWidgets am I running?

$brew info wxmac
wxmac: stable 3.0.4_2 (bottled), HEAD
Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (wxWidgets for macOS)

$brew update
$ brew upgrade wxmac
==> Upgrading 1 outdated package:
wxmac 3.0.4_2 -> 3.0.5

$ brew info wxmac
wxmac: stable 3.0.5 (bottled), HEAD

So same problem. Bummer. How do I install the latest wxWidgets version using Homebrew??? They've got stale issues - https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/52177

Then I saw this link: https://discourse.brew.sh/t/brew-install-wxwidgets-devel-3-1-1/3453/3 - So it doesn't look like Homebrew actually supports that version currently. Hmmm

The instructions say to manually update the formula. After much fussing around I found this https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-erlang/issues/95#issuecomment-593923921 by @eproxus which shows exactly what to do. The most important part I couldn't figure out on my own was the all important --enable-compat28 flag! It was also mentioned in the erlang ticket. Also I haven't tried to use asdf - but that fact that the issue appear in that repo makes me assume that is a current problem for that install process as well.

OK, let's get it working.

brew edit wxmac # see diff below

Change the wxmac formula to look like this:

diff --git a/Formula/wxmac.rb b/Formula/wxmac.rb
index d80b02f9e..9c68e7363 100644
--- a/Formula/wxmac.rb
+++ b/Formula/wxmac.rb
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 class Wxmac < Formula
   desc "Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (wxWidgets for macOS)"
   homepage "https://www.wxwidgets.org"
-  url "https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/download/v3.0.5/wxWidgets-3.0.5.tar.bz2"
-  sha256 "8aacd56b462f42fb6e33b4d8f5d40be5abc3d3b41348ea968aa515cc8285d813"
+  url "https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets/releases/download/v3.1.3/wxWidgets-3.1.3.tar.bz2"
+  sha256 "fffc1d34dac54ff7008df327907984b156c50cff5a2f36ee3da6052744ab554a"
   head "https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets.git"

   bottle do
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ class Wxmac < Formula
   def install
     args = [
       "--prefix=#{prefix}",
+      "--enable-compat28",
       "--enable-clipboard",
       "--enable-controls",
       "--enable-dataviewctrl",

With the formula now updated, we need to make sure to install wxmac and erlang with --build-form-source options in homebrew.

brew uninstall elixir
brew uninstall erlang
brew uninstall wxmac

brew install --build-from-source wxmac
brew install --build-from-source erlang
brew install elixir

....now observer works without resizing all the time AND dark mode works for me. Many thanks!!! @eproxus