results of Browse button are tiny and unreadable

[uvtc]

On Lubuntu 12.04, with Leiningen 2.0.0-preview4 on Java 1.6.0_24 OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, using Clojure 1.4.0, when I click the Browse button, the resulting java/swing window that pops up contains unreadably-tiny text.

My default browser is Firefox, so I'd assume that the Browse button would cause a new tab to open in the front-most Firefox window.

Also though, since the clj-ns-browser window Doc text area already contains the relevant clojuredocs url, I can just copy/paste that url into a new browser tab and visit the clojuredocs page that way. So, I'm not sure how useful the Browse button is. Maybe should the browse button be removed?

[jafingerhut]

clj-ns-browser uses (clojure.java.browse/browse-url "URL-string") to attempt to open a browser window. On an Ubuntu 11.10 system running Leiningen 2.0.0-preview4 and Java 1.7.0_02 from Oracle, clicking the Browse button does open a tab in Firefox. Strangely, evaluating an expression like that at the REPL open up the Chromium browser. I don't know why it uses two different browsers, but the issue is likely a problem with the implementation of clojure.java.browse/browse-url on the particular OS/JDK combo.

The implementation of clojure.java.browse/browse-url is pretty small in Clojure -- we could consider copying it and modifying it in clj-ns-browser until such time as it is improved in Clojure itself. CLJ-896 has a patch that might improve things:

http://dev.clojure.org/jira/browse/CLJ-896

[jafingerhut]

My attempted fix makes the menu items under the "Help" menu that open URLs work better on Lubuntu, but not the Browse button, because the Browse button uses a browse-url call that is inside the clj-info namespace.

Frank, any objection to adding some kind of optional argument to clj-info/bdoc*, one that specifies a function to call besides clojure.java.browse/browse-url? In the default case it would still call that function, but if the caller overrode that, it could call something else.

[uvtc]

Just some updated info: Today I changed distros from Lubuntu to Ubuntu (using Gnome shell) --- still 12.04 --- and using the same versions of Lein, Java, and Clojure, though using 1.3.0-SNAPSHOT of clj-ns-browser, I get the same issues with the unreadably-tiny fonts after hitting that Browse button.

As for the menu items under the "Help" menu, some give me a page with a solid blue background (such as "clj-ns-browser wiki" or "clojure.org", and others are just not terribly readable (such as "clojure cheatsheet" or "clojuredocs...").

I might suggest that if clj-ns-browser is unable to have the user's preferred browser open the page, then maybe it's better to just pop up a dialog ("Sorry, unable to open your preferred web browser. Please use this link: ....") with the link in it that they could copy/paste to their browser.

[jafingerhut]

If you are interested, you may try out the latest version of clj-ns-browser without waiting for a release. It may at least fix the problem when you use the "Help" menu items to open a web page, even if it doesn't fix the Browse button problem yet.

First retrieve a local copy of the clj-ns-browser source code. You may need to install the "git" package first if it is not already on your system:

% git clone git://github.com/franks42/clj-ns-browser.git [ ... some lines of output here while git retrieves the code ... ] % cd clj-ns-browser % lein repl [ ... perhaps many lines of output here while leiningen retrieves other needed libs ... ] user=> (use 'clj-ns-browser.sdoc) user=> (sdoc)

Then try out the Help menu items to see if they open web pages in your preferred browser.

[uvtc]

Andy, that actually isn't working for me. I get:

john@garnet:~/github-repos/clj-ns-browser$ lein repl
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in clojars (http://clojars.org/repo/)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in stuartsierra-releases (http://stuartsierra.com/maven2)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in clojars (http://clojars.org/repo/)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in stuartsierra-releases (http://stuartsierra.com/maven2)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in clojars (http://clojars.org/repo/)
Could not find artifact org.clojure:clojure:pom:1.+ in stuartsierra-releases (http://stuartsierra.com/maven2)
Compiling clj-ns-browser.core
REPL server launch timed out.
john@garnet:~/github-repos/clj-ns-browser$ 

[jafingerhut]

Does it do that repeatedly, if you try it multiple times?

I saw a "REPL server launch timed out" message recently, and tried the "lein repl" command again and it worked the next time.

I don't know why that timeout occurred in my case, or in yours, but it seems that there are at least some cases in which it can be transient.

[uvtc]

Yes, does it every time.

The last step "Compiling clj-ns-browser.core" uses cpu and takes about 24 seconds before I get "REPL server launch timed out".

[jafingerhut]

I've been able to reproduce this behavior on a slower computer than the one I normally use. There is a 30-second timeout in the "lein repl" command that causes it to abort, even if there is some long-running compilation that needs to occur before "lein repl" is ready to bring up the REPL prompt.

I have written some instructions for compiling your own local version of clj-ns-browser at the Wiki page linked below, under the heading "Compiling and installing your own local version from source". Try them out if you wish:

https://github.com/franks42/clj-ns-browser/wiki/Install

[jafingerhut]

Should be fixed now for items in Help menu, and for the Browse button.