Roger Meier's Forums

I have recently installed CoolTerm as a replacement for the Arduino IDE console and found it easy to configure and operate. However, given my old eyes I made the terminal text size larger and noticed the top of the text was badly clipped. It's as if the size of the text was larger then the height space allotted.

Even at the default text size (12) it was clipped but very slightly and barely noticeable. Increasing the size to 18 made the clipping much worse and not really readable.

I tried many different Fonts, but all were clipped. I looked around but could not find any configuration options that helped.

Interestingly when viewing in hex the text was perfect no matter what hex font size I configured.

I have tried other Arduino console replacements, but they all disappointed. I am excited that CoolTerm seems like an excellent Arduino console replacement except for this clipping problem.

While the other Arduino replacements were unsatisfactory they did not have this clipping problem, nor does any other App that I have.

I love Coolterm otherwise, it's far superior to the Arduino console. Please tell me there is a fix or workaround. I am using W10.

Thank You
Frank

Hi Frank,

are you using CoolTerm on macOS, Windows, or Linux? I'll see if I can replicate what you're seeing.

Roger

Hi Roger,

I'm using W10. Coolterm v2.4.0 build 1425 x86

Perhaps the following observation provides a clue. That is, the "condense line spacing (aka CLS)" box does not seem to affect the operational(aka Op) window. If the box is checked or not there is no change to the Op window and clipping is severe and the spacing does not change. Here's some detail:

When the CLS box is checked. The CLS settings window shows minor clipping and is probably usable but it is there. However the clipping in the Op window is severe, not usable at all. When the CLS box is not checked the text is perfect in the CLS settings window but there is no change in the Op window it's still badly clipped. IOW, checking the CLS box seems to have no effect on the Op window clipping problem, nor does the spacing change it's always condensed. Also the font size doesn't seem to matter as it's always clipped. Although the larger size seems slightly worse.

Thank you, Frank

I have only Windows 11 for testing, and I'm not seeing any clipping. However, I can confirm that enabling "Condense Line Spacing" does not seem to affect the plain text view contents on Windows. At some point this must have broken without anyone noticing until now.

Would you be able to try a few older version to see if they also show the clipping? Even if I can't get it to clip on my system, if there is a particular version where this started happening, I can at least compare the code to see what changed between releases.
You can access previous releases here: http://freeware.the-meiers.org/previous

I tested a few versions and It broke starting with CoolTermWin64Bit220. That is, the Op window clipping happens which is my major problem.

The prior version to 220, CoolTermWin64Bit211, had no clipping in the Op window (hooray).

A side issue, that may or may not be related, is that the "condense line spacing(CLS)" check box had no effect on the Op window, although it worked in the CLS settings widow. That problem exists on all versions I tested starting from CoolTermWin64Bit201 through the current version(240). This issue is not a problem for me.

Until the above issue is fixed I can use CoolTermWin64Bit211 as my Arduino console. I think that will be a big improvement.

Thank you,
Frank

Thanks for tracking this down! I'll take a closer look at the change history to see if I can find what exactly broke it.

The one thing I'm wondering about is why this only broke on Win 10 but not on Win 11. I have to see if I can get my hands on a Win 10 machine.

Roger

One other thought, the problem seems related to the default CLS setting which is different for clipping and non-clipping versions.

That is, the versions that don't have the clipping actually startup with CLS in wide spacing, while the versions with the clipping actually startup with CLS in narrow spacing. Because CLS spacing change doesn't work the larger fonts are forced to clip due to CLS in narrow spacing.

BTW, I have another W10 machine that does not have the clipping problem. However, it has v240 and it starts up with cls in wide spacing mode.

In any case, fixing the CLS problem may solve the issue. Even simply defaulting to wide spacing may fix things.

NEWSFLASH: WHILE WRITING THIS I NOTICED THAT IF I START V2.4.0 AND FIRST-THING CHANGE THE CLS TO WIDE SPACING, THEN CONFIGURE THE PORT AND DO A CONNECT THERE IS NO CLIPPING!! AS BEFORE YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE CLS AFTERWARD THIS JUST SEEMS TO WORK ONLY IMMEDIATELY AFTER STARTUP.

So now I can use the latest version as my Arduino console!!!

Frank

Thanks for the detective work! I can actually reproduce this on Win 11. You're correct, when CLS is turned on, it's clipping at the top. And when it's off, then it's not clipping. And you're also correct that, for some reason, changing this setting has no effect once the terminal is connected and text has been added to the display. The work around is to clear the data and to disconnect. Then changing the setting will work again. I'll have to track that down. It's not doing this on the Mac or Linux, only on Windows.

Meanwhile, the next time you start CoolTerm 2.4.0, turn the CLS setting off, and then save the settings as default (File -> Save as default). Then it should always start with CLS turned off.