OpenSesame 3.1.2 for OSX running on Qt5

Daniel · August 2016

From its first release, We have used the Qt4 library (originally created by Nokia!) to create the interface of OpenSesame, which you all know and love . On the Mac however, this version of the Qt library has never worked optimally. It contained a lot of glitches, of which the most notable one is probably the inconsistent rendering of buttons and other widgets on HiDPI retina screens.

The successor of Qt4, aptly named Qt5, has been released for a while now, but it has always been difficult to package it with OpenSesame, until now! We are proud to say we have finally managed to create an OS X app of OpenSesame which uses Qt5 to build its interface. Qt5 brings a number of improvements. OpenSesame now:

works way better on HiDPI or retina displays. Alle widgets are now drawn as they should be.
starts up a lot faster. I have't really measured it, but I think the start-up time has shortened by a factor 5 at least.
has all the other new modern internals that Qt5 brings along and should therefore provide a more pleasant experience in overall.

You can temporarily find it here. (In the future it will be provided at the regular download locations).

All the people owning Macs could help us out by giving this version a spin and reporting back your (positive and negative) experiences in this thread. If we receive little to no messages describing trouble, we hope to release all next versions of OpenSesame (on the Mac al least) with Qt5.

Jarik · August 2016

Hi Daniel,

Quickly testing OpenSesame 3.1.2 Qt5 I got no (new) errors.

I just tested if OpenSesame starts and if the Default template runs on all back-ends and it does.

The xpyriment back-end gives me the X11 error that stays away if I hit cancel (untill I restart OpenSesame).

Also the xpyriment and legacy back-ends give me Invalid colour specification error after the experiment successfully finishes about 50% of the times.

So no extensive testing on my (not clean) mid 2009 Macbook Pro running OSX 10.11.6

Best,
Jarik

Daniel · August 2016

Hi Jarik. Thanks for doing this!

Could you maybe also post the stack trace which is probably shown in the debug window with the second, Invalid colour specification error? @sebastiaan, do you maybe have a hunch what this might be and where to look?

Regarding the X11 error. There is not much we can do about it. Apple switched to its own Window manager about 2 OS X versions ago and some features may still depend on X11, which can be downloaded separately as XQuartz. The only way to stop this error is to install XQuartz. I don't know why expyriment in specific asks for it. @fladd, do you maybe have a clue why expyriment seems to have a dependency of X11, while legacy (also pygame based) doesn't?

I'm glad it appears to work correctly for the most part.

Jarik · August 2016

Hi Daniel,

That's the thing. No stack trace/error. Please see the bigger screenshot below that was taken from OpenSesame 3.1.2 Qt4 (the problem was already there) Default template with legacy back-end.

I wouldn't worry about it to much as at seems to happen after the experiment finishes.

Another thing I noticed for Qt5 is the change in menu:

This also means the cmd+Q keyboard shortcut is lost

sebastiaan · August 2016

Could you maybe also post the stack trace which is probably shown in the debug window with the second, Invalid colour specification error? sebastiaan, do you maybe have a hunch what this might be and where to look?

This error comes from here:

https://github.com/smathot/OpenSesame/blob/master/openexp/_color/color.py

My guess is that it comes from webcolors.name_to_hex(), but I'm not sure why it chokes on 'white'. I'm guessing that this error occurs immediately when the experiment is started?

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

Jarik · August 2016

Just double checked. The error occurs after the experiment finishes. The error timestamp is 1 second after the finished timestamp (and I waited several seconds before hitting any key to finish the default template with xpyriment back-end).

I get the idea that it only happens after switching back-ends when the experiment was run fullscreen.

Best,
Jarik

sebastiaan · August 2016

I get the idea that it only happens after switching back-ends when the experiment was run fullscreen.

Can you provide steps to reliably trigger the error? Or is it more or less random?

Jarik · August 2016

Here are the steps:

Freshly installed OSX 10.11 on Macbook Pro Mid 2012
Downloaded opensesame_3.1.2-py2.7-qt5-macos-1.dmg
Dragged OpenSesame to Application folder
Run the Default template fullscreen
Click Cancel on X11 message
>No error
Switched to legacy back-end
Run the Default template fullscreen
Choose to replace subject-0.csv file
>See screenshot error below

Daniel · August 2016

Hi Jarik, I see that you are running in single process mode, could you check if this also occurs when running in multiprocessing mode (configurable in the preferences) and repeating steps 4 till end again? It's a long shot, but it may have something to do with this problem. I'm just curious if it changes anything.

Then there's still the problem of the quit option which has disappeared from the OpenSesame menu...

Jarik · August 2016

Yes, it's gone when running in multiprocess mode (and I get it back by running in inprocess again).

Then there's still the problem of the quit option which has disappeared from the OpenSesame menu...

This is also not a showstopper in my opinion but it is strange. All applications (also our VU-DAMS program) have the quit option in the 'main menu'.

Daniel · August 2016

This menu discrepancy is not the result of the packaging process, because I have the same when running OpenSesame from source in the anaconda python environment from which the package is created. If I run OpenSesame using my other Python environment created with Homebrew, all menu items are present at their correct places. I thus think that this is a (hopefully temporary) quirk from the Qt5 package as it is currently provided by Anaconda. It is not officially released yet, so maybe the anaconda crew may fix this in the future.

As for the color related error. That's interesting. So it is only present if the experiment is run in-process. Maybe it has something to do with the processes which takes place after completion of the experiment, which are different for inprocess and multiprocessing.

Daniel · August 2016

For completeness: this is the console output I get when starting OpenSesame in the Homebrew environment:

opensesame
2016-08-30 20:26:21.488 Python[1810:24297] ApplePersistenceIgnoreState: Existing state will not be touched. New state will be written to /var/folders/1l/cx9n7qw90xqgl2w5x3r4259m0000gn/T/org.python.python.savedState
WARNING:root:Message signing is disabled.  This is insecure and not recommended!
2016-08-30 20:26:23.426 Python[1810:24297] Unable to register font: Error Domain=com.apple.CoreText.CTFontManagerErrorDomain Code=105 "The file has already been registered in the specified scope." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=The file has already been registered in the specified scope., CTFontManagerErrorFontURLs=<CFArray 0x7fea9a8a7fd0 [0x7fff74dea440]>{type = mutable-small, count = 1, values = (
    0 : <CFURL 0x7fea9e0cade0 [0x7fff74dea440]>{string = file:///Users/daniel/Github/OpenSesame/opensesame_resources/mono.ttf, encoding = 134217984, base = (null)}
)}, NSLocalizedFailureReason=Font registration was unsuccessful.}
js: Not allowed to load local resource: file:///Users/daniel/Github/OpenSesame/opensesame_resources/theme/default/background.png

and this is what I get when run from the anaconda environment (same as the OS package)

2016-08-30 20:28:27.536 python[1936:25926] Unable to register font: Error Domain=com.apple.CoreText.CTFontManagerErrorDomain Code=105 "The file has already been registered in the specified scope." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=The file has already been registered in the specified scope., CTFontManagerErrorFontURLs=<CFArray 0x119e01750 [0x7fff74dea440]>{type = mutable-small, count = 1, values = (
    0 : <CFURL 0x119e01f50 [0x7fff74dea440]>{string = file://localhost/Users/daniel/anaconda/envs/opensesame-qt5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/share/opensesame_resources/mono.ttf, encoding = 134217984, base = (null)}
)}, NSLocalizedFailureReason=Font registration was unsuccessful.}
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
Menu item is already in a menu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting
js: Not allowed to load local resource: file:///Users/daniel/anaconda/envs/opensesame-qt5/lib/python2.7/site-packages/share/opensesame_resources/theme/default/background.png

So the Menu item is already in a nu, remove it from the other menu first before inserting is the bad omen here which might provide a lead to the source of this problem.

Jarik · August 2016

This menu discrepancy is not the result of the packaging process, because I have the same when running OpenSesame from source in the anaconda python environment from which the package is created. If I run OpenSesame using my other Python environment created with Homebrew, all menu items are present at their correct places. I thus think that this is a (hopefully temporary) quirk from the Qt5 package as it is currently provided by Anaconda. It is not officially released yet, so maybe the anaconda crew may fix this in the future.

Sounds very plausible indeed because OpenSesame_3.1.0a46-anaconda-osx-1 you provided for testing some time ago has the menu items present at their correct places (and I assume that still uses Qt4).

emasesnepo · September 2016

The text on left palette is not alway correctly shown (MacOS X 10.11 French on MacBook Pro retina and 27" Thunderbolt Display, MacOS X 10.10 French on iMac 21").

Should I use the forum to report such interface minor problems?

Daniel · September 2016

Yes, definitely report these problems here (no matter how minor they seem) Thanks! I spotted this quirk too (it also occurs in English), and the Qt5 version has some problems with font rendering in general. We will look into this.

emasesnepo · September 2016

Open file dialog not translated (OpenSesame 3.1.2 QT5, MacOS X 10.11 French on MacBook Pro retina).
Favorites -> Favoris
Devices -> Appareils
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Tag -> Tag
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emasesnepo · September 2016