WHY do we get a %*# update every 2 weeks while the 1 really bad bug (fonts and sizes randomly changing when typing) persists????
Is there any way to STOP TB from sending updates every couple of weeks (and BTW this has slowed down/crashed TB increasingly in the past couple of months) UNTIL they fix this really irritating bug of randomly changing fonts and sizes when writing a mail? Outlook doesn't do this, Apple mail doesn't do this, so TB stop spamming and start addressing real problems for a change!!!!
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Nothing of the sort, we are all on the whole very poor typists. How do I know what others do? I do it myself. do I touch type? No and neither do the vast majority of people. Even those that say they do.
How do I know anything about the issue? I have seen others complain and the results are seriously similar, hence my advice. My opinion that most of the people with issues are fiddling with appearance and not content is also from experience. Most are apparently unaware that the more you try to improve the look of your mails using fonts and sizes the worse they almost invariably look to the recipient who does not have the fancy font you selected.
In my personal opinion the code that goes into the composer is poor by today's standards and suffering from it's age and bitrot. Most of it is written in C++ and most of those working on Thunderbird are Javascript people. I do not worship at the alter of any Mozilla god and I have few illusions. Either about the code, the program or the people that use it. Or at least I like to think so.
What I do hold as a hope is that a complete rewrite of the composer will occur, or at least the folk who can will make the code scriptable so many of these things can be papered over.
Your comments re Microsoft releases and spending years fixing them are neither correct nor helpful. Unfortunately new threats and backdoors are discovered almost daily. The software industry on the whole fixes the issues as soon as they can and issues a patch. Car companies weigh up the cost of the litigation related to the failure (how may will die, be injured) against the cost of a recall. Sorry, but much as I dislike regular patching, I prefer it to the automotive industry approach.
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Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem
Hi iamjayakumars, and thank you for having taken the time to address my question. From what I read on the net, a lot of people have this problem and TB refuses to even take a look at it, sending questionable updates at ever increasing frequencies instead. I am not happy that after all these years this should be an issue at all and that you and I should be spending time on it... Your link is for Windows 95 to Me, does that mean that Windows 8 shouldn't have the bug and that I should change profiles on my old Vista computer only (and then copy to the newer computer)?
DV
Thunderbird has security and stability updates frequently. A font issue however annoying it may, be is neither a security or stability issue.
Now for the actual issue. I have none. Most people do not. Those that do appear to spend a lot of time placing the insert point outside the current scope of the font settings with the mouse and then complaining about it. Or spend a lot of time changing fonts, one thing they are not doing generally doing is typing..
Try as soon as you get to the start of typing a message press the enter key three of four times. Use the up arrow key to move the insertion point back to the beginning (not the mouse() and now type away. Your experience should I think be much better. Unless your issue is outside the scope of normal complaints. Minimise the use of the mouse to set the insertion point. It is the greatest cause of the insertion point being moved out of the scope of the current font tag.
If you are at all technical or feel you could add to the debate on what is actually happening. There is an add-on here https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/edithtml-en.html which will allow the opening of a pane on the right of the compose window showing the actual HTML codes and you can see were things go wrong and perhaps identify why (What you did to make it happen). It is hard to fix issues when no one knows what causes them!
Unlike with Firefox the updates for Tb are for mainly security and allowed stability fixes for what is basically Tb 24.0. The current being 24.6.0 which came out when Firefox 30.0 did on June 10. The next Major version of Thunderbird will not be until 31.0
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/24.6.0/releasenotes/
Hi Matt, thank you for your suggestions, I'll try that (not using the mouse, hitting the enter key four times before typing, perhaps chanting a magical formula or two). You seem to imply, however, that I am some kind of TB pervert trying to trip up the sacred Mozilla code by sly and deceitful maneuvers. In fact, I generally a) press "write mail" and b) start typing. I don't even know what "placing the insert point outside the current scope of the font settings with the mouse and then complaining about it" is. I do not either belong to that heinous category of saboteurs who "spend a lot of time changing fonts, one thing they are not doing generally doing is typing": all I, apparently in a crime of utmost lèse-majesté, desire is to type my message without the fonts and sizes of my message changing. I realize that TB is free and that should make me modest in my demands, but this is pretty basic, and a lot of people (according to the web) have this problem, but have stopped complaining about it because of stonewalling by their technical superiors (which is the classic problem of the engineer loving his product but detesting his customer). I wish I had the said technical skills to make a positive contribution, as you suggest, but unfortunately I don't, and thus will continue to be frustrated.
Hi James, Thank you for the information. If I understand correctly, TB has adopted the time-honoured Microsoft method of releasing half-baked product versions and then spending a couple of years fixing them? Why??? TB is free!!!! Best, DV
Chosen Solution
Nothing of the sort, we are all on the whole very poor typists. How do I know what others do? I do it myself. do I touch type? No and neither do the vast majority of people. Even those that say they do.
How do I know anything about the issue? I have seen others complain and the results are seriously similar, hence my advice. My opinion that most of the people with issues are fiddling with appearance and not content is also from experience. Most are apparently unaware that the more you try to improve the look of your mails using fonts and sizes the worse they almost invariably look to the recipient who does not have the fancy font you selected.
In my personal opinion the code that goes into the composer is poor by today's standards and suffering from it's age and bitrot. Most of it is written in C++ and most of those working on Thunderbird are Javascript people. I do not worship at the alter of any Mozilla god and I have few illusions. Either about the code, the program or the people that use it. Or at least I like to think so.
What I do hold as a hope is that a complete rewrite of the composer will occur, or at least the folk who can will make the code scriptable so many of these things can be papered over.
Your comments re Microsoft releases and spending years fixing them are neither correct nor helpful. Unfortunately new threats and backdoors are discovered almost daily. The software industry on the whole fixes the issues as soon as they can and issues a patch. Car companies weigh up the cost of the litigation related to the failure (how may will die, be injured) against the cost of a recall. Sorry, but much as I dislike regular patching, I prefer it to the automotive industry approach.
It would be helpful perhaps to focus on "the real issue" of font size and compose, rather to digress into how vendors choose to deliver the product.
font issues arose in the past year. I forget exactly when. It is quite a bad problem. My recollection is it was a serializer change not done by Thunderbird developers, and that part of it was fixed in version 24. But I could be wrong.
Would you be willing to try version 31?
Wayne, many thanks for your helpful comment and suggestion, and I will try version 31 asap. I followed your link: Zarro Boogs found!
Matt, a) Your suggestion of entering 4 times, touching my toes twice, and then using the arrow to go to the top of the page seems to work: thank you. But I shouldn't have to go through this (especially touching my toes). b) re Microsoft that wasn't a comment but an observation of facts, helpful to the person about to choose an OS or software. c) Is "Times Roman" an exotic font nowhere to be found?