bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

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Hi there,

I am not a skilled Emacs user. I mainly use Emacs as a front end for 
Maxima with the help of imaxima. imaxima converts Maxima output into PNG 
image, which are then displayed in Emacs. I am using Windows 10.

It works fine on Emacs 28.2, when I type an expression, e.g. q^2 = 1; 
and return, Emacs 28.2 immediately displays the resulting PNG image.

If I use Emacs 29.1, however, all I get after returning is an empty 
square. And if I type another expression and return, a blank square 
appears. At the same time, the first empty square was replaced by a PNG 
image of the first expression. That's weird.

I saw the following messages in the *Messages* buffer:

Processing Maxima output...done
Unable to load image (image :type png :file 
c:/Users/Jinso/AppData/Local/Temp/imaximatU5Y9B/1 :scale 
1.001595744680851 :ascent center :mask (heuristic (color-values 
imaxima-bg-color)) :transform-smoothing t) [35 times]
Process imaxima finished

After (setq w32-use-native-image-API nil), imaxima has the same 
behaviour on Emacs 28.2 and 29.1.

Best,
Jinsong

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bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:52:00 +0800
> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> 
> I am not a skilled Emacs user. I mainly use Emacs as a front end for Maxima with the help of
> imaxima. imaxima converts Maxima output into PNG image, which are then displayed in Emacs. I am
> using Windows 10.
> 
> It works fine on Emacs 28.2, when I type an expression, e.g. q^2 = 1; and return, Emacs 28.2
> immediately displays the resulting PNG image. 
> 
> If I use Emacs 29.1, however, all I get after returning is an empty square. And if I type another
> expression and return, a blank square appears. At the same time, the first empty square was
> replaced by a PNG image of the first expression. That's weird. 
> 
> I saw the following messages in the *Messages* buffer: 
> 
> Processing Maxima output...done 
> Unable to load image (image :type png :file c:/Users/Jinso/AppData/Local/Temp/imaximatU5Y9B/1 :
> scale 1.001595744680851 :ascent center :mask (heuristic (color-values imaxima-bg-color)) :
> transform-smoothing t) [35 times] 
> Process imaxima finished 
> 
> After (setq w32-use-native-image-API nil), imaxima has the same behaviour on Emacs 28.2 and
> 29.1.

Thanks, but we'd need an example of such a PNG image to investigate.
Can you send one such image, which works with w32-use-native-image-API
nil, but not when it is non-nil?

In any case, it is perfectly okay to reset w32-use-native-image-API to
nil if the native image APIs fail to process an image you want to see.
That's why we support both modes.

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

On 2024/1/15 0:34, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:52:00 +0800
>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>
>> I am not a skilled Emacs user. I mainly use Emacs as a front end for Maxima with the help of
>> imaxima. imaxima converts Maxima output into PNG image, which are then displayed in Emacs. I am
>> using Windows 10.
>>
>> It works fine on Emacs 28.2, when I type an expression, e.g. q^2 = 1; and return, Emacs 28.2
>> immediately displays the resulting PNG image.
>>
>> If I use Emacs 29.1, however, all I get after returning is an empty square. And if I type another
>> expression and return, a blank square appears. At the same time, the first empty square was
>> replaced by a PNG image of the first expression. That's weird.
>>
>> I saw the following messages in the *Messages* buffer:
>>
>> Processing Maxima output...done
>> Unable to load image (image :type png :file c:/Users/Jinso/AppData/Local/Temp/imaximatU5Y9B/1 :
>> scale 1.001595744680851 :ascent center :mask (heuristic (color-values imaxima-bg-color)) :
>> transform-smoothing t) [35 times]
>> Process imaxima finished
>>
>> After (setq w32-use-native-image-API nil), imaxima has the same behaviour on Emacs 28.2 and
>> 29.1.
> 
> Thanks, but we'd need an example of such a PNG image to investigate.
> Can you send one such image, which works with w32-use-native-image-API
> nil, but not when it is non-nil?
> 
> In any case, it is perfectly okay to reset w32-use-native-image-API to
> nil if the native image APIs fail to process an image you want to see.
> That's why we support both modes.

Thanks for the reply.

The PNG image is created on the fly by imaxima, a front end for Maxima. 
I think it's a normal PNG image file, actually converted from a ps file 
by ghostscript. I also tried to use JPEG, it's the same.

Best,
Jinsong

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:30:26 +0800
> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> 
> On 2024/1/15 0:34, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> >> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:52:00 +0800
> >> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> >>
> >> I am not a skilled Emacs user. I mainly use Emacs as a front end for Maxima with the help of
> >> imaxima. imaxima converts Maxima output into PNG image, which are then displayed in Emacs. I am
> >> using Windows 10.
> >>
> >> It works fine on Emacs 28.2, when I type an expression, e.g. q^2 = 1; and return, Emacs 28.2
> >> immediately displays the resulting PNG image.
> >>
> >> If I use Emacs 29.1, however, all I get after returning is an empty square. And if I type another
> >> expression and return, a blank square appears. At the same time, the first empty square was
> >> replaced by a PNG image of the first expression. That's weird.
> >>
> >> I saw the following messages in the *Messages* buffer:
> >>
> >> Processing Maxima output...done
> >> Unable to load image (image :type png :file c:/Users/Jinso/AppData/Local/Temp/imaximatU5Y9B/1 :
> >> scale 1.001595744680851 :ascent center :mask (heuristic (color-values imaxima-bg-color)) :
> >> transform-smoothing t) [35 times]
> >> Process imaxima finished
> >>
> >> After (setq w32-use-native-image-API nil), imaxima has the same behaviour on Emacs 28.2 and
> >> 29.1.
> > 
> > Thanks, but we'd need an example of such a PNG image to investigate.
> > Can you send one such image, which works with w32-use-native-image-API
> > nil, but not when it is non-nil?
> > 
> > In any case, it is perfectly okay to reset w32-use-native-image-API to
> > nil if the native image APIs fail to process an image you want to see.
> > That's why we support both modes.
> 
> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> The PNG image is created on the fly by imaxima, a front end for Maxima. 
> I think it's a normal PNG image file, actually converted from a ps file 
> by ghostscript. I also tried to use JPEG, it's the same.

Well, we cannot do anything with this bug report unless we have an
example of an image to work with.  So please find a way to ask imaxima
to save the image on a file, and then send it.

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

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On 2024/1/15 11:34, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 10:30:26 +0800
>> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>
>> On 2024/1/15 0:34, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>>> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:52:00 +0800
>>>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>>>
>>>> I am not a skilled Emacs user. I mainly use Emacs as a front end for Maxima with the help of
>>>> imaxima. imaxima converts Maxima output into PNG image, which are then displayed in Emacs. I am
>>>> using Windows 10.
>>>>
>>>> It works fine on Emacs 28.2, when I type an expression, e.g. q^2 = 1; and return, Emacs 28.2
>>>> immediately displays the resulting PNG image.
>>>>
>>>> If I use Emacs 29.1, however, all I get after returning is an empty square. And if I type another
>>>> expression and return, a blank square appears. At the same time, the first empty square was
>>>> replaced by a PNG image of the first expression. That's weird.
>>>>
>>>> I saw the following messages in the *Messages* buffer:
>>>>
>>>> Processing Maxima output...done
>>>> Unable to load image (image :type png :file c:/Users/Jinso/AppData/Local/Temp/imaximatU5Y9B/1 :
>>>> scale 1.001595744680851 :ascent center :mask (heuristic (color-values imaxima-bg-color)) :
>>>> transform-smoothing t) [35 times]
>>>> Process imaxima finished
>>>>
>>>> After (setq w32-use-native-image-API nil), imaxima has the same behaviour on Emacs 28.2 and
>>>> 29.1.
>>>
>>> Thanks, but we'd need an example of such a PNG image to investigate.
>>> Can you send one such image, which works with w32-use-native-image-API
>>> nil, but not when it is non-nil?
>>>
>>> In any case, it is perfectly okay to reset w32-use-native-image-API to
>>> nil if the native image APIs fail to process an image you want to see.
>>> That's why we support both modes.
>>
>> Thanks for the reply.
>>
>> The PNG image is created on the fly by imaxima, a front end for Maxima.
>> I think it's a normal PNG image file, actually converted from a ps file
>> by ghostscript. I also tried to use JPEG, it's the same.
> 
> Well, we cannot do anything with this bug report unless we have an
> example of an image to work with.  So please find a way to ask imaxima
> to save the image on a file, and then send it.

I could provide the PNG files, please see the attachments.

File "1" and "2" are PNG files that were displayed in Emacs.

File "11.png" and "33.png" are the screenshots with 
w32-use-native-image-API set to nil after the first and second input.

File "22.png" and "44.png" are the screenshots with 
w32-use-native-image-API set to non-nil after the first and second input.

I don't know if I am clear.

Best wishes,
Jinsong


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bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 15:48:55 +0800
> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> 
> >> The PNG image is created on the fly by imaxima, a front end for Maxima.
> >> I think it's a normal PNG image file, actually converted from a ps file
> >> by ghostscript. I also tried to use JPEG, it's the same.
> > 
> > Well, we cannot do anything with this bug report unless we have an
> > example of an image to work with.  So please find a way to ask imaxima
> > to save the image on a file, and then send it.
> 
> I could provide the PNG files, please see the attachments.
> 
> File "1" and "2" are PNG files that were displayed in Emacs.
> 
> File "11.png" and "33.png" are the screenshots with 
> w32-use-native-image-API set to nil after the first and second input.
> 
> File "22.png" and "44.png" are the screenshots with 
> w32-use-native-image-API set to non-nil after the first and second input.
> 
> I don't know if I am clear.

Thanks.  I have no problems displaying the 2 PNG files with
w32-use-native-image-API set to a non-nil value.  So I don't know why
this doesn't work for you.  Are you able to display the files you sent
in your Emacs with w32-use-native-image-API set to its default non-nil
value?

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

On 2024/1/15 21:08, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 15:48:55 +0800
>> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>
>>>> The PNG image is created on the fly by imaxima, a front end for Maxima.
>>>> I think it's a normal PNG image file, actually converted from a ps file
>>>> by ghostscript. I also tried to use JPEG, it's the same.
>>> Well, we cannot do anything with this bug report unless we have an
>>> example of an image to work with.  So please find a way to ask imaxima
>>> to save the image on a file, and then send it.
>> I could provide the PNG files, please see the attachments.
>>
>> File "1" and "2" are PNG files that were displayed in Emacs.
>>
>> File "11.png" and "33.png" are the screenshots with
>> w32-use-native-image-API set to nil after the first and second input.
>>
>> File "22.png" and "44.png" are the screenshots with
>> w32-use-native-image-API set to non-nil after the first and second input.
>>
>> I don't know if I am clear.
> Thanks.  I have no problems displaying the 2 PNG files with
> w32-use-native-image-API set to a non-nil value.  So I don't know why
> this doesn't work for you.  Are you able to display the files you sent
> in your Emacs with w32-use-native-image-API set to its default non-nil
> value?
My problem is not that I can't display images, but that the same action 
doesn't work the same way with either setting.

When w32-use-native-image-API is nil, image "1" can be displayed as soon 
as the Enter key is pressed (before "(%2)" appears, see 11.png). 
However, if w32-use-native-image-API is t, image 1 will not be 
displayed, just an empty box (see 22.png).

Now we enter another expression. If w32-use-native-image-API is nil, 
image "2" can be displayed immediately after pressing enter, and it will 
not affect the display of the previous image "1", see 33.png. If 
w32-use-native-image-API is t, instead of displaying an empty box, image 
"2" is not displayed, but the first empty box is replaced by image "1", 
see 44.png.

Best wishes,

Jinsong

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 22:17:37 +0800
> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> 
> > Thanks.  I have no problems displaying the 2 PNG files with
> > w32-use-native-image-API set to a non-nil value.  So I don't know why
> > this doesn't work for you.  Are you able to display the files you sent
> > in your Emacs with w32-use-native-image-API set to its default non-nil
> > value?
> My problem is not that I can't display images, but that the same action 
> doesn't work the same way with either setting.
> 
> When w32-use-native-image-API is nil, image "1" can be displayed as soon 
> as the Enter key is pressed (before "(%2)" appears, see 11.png). 
> However, if w32-use-native-image-API is t, image 1 will not be 
> displayed, just an empty box (see 22.png).
> 
> Now we enter another expression. If w32-use-native-image-API is nil, 
> image "2" can be displayed immediately after pressing enter, and it will 
> not affect the display of the previous image "1", see 33.png. If 
> w32-use-native-image-API is t, instead of displaying an empty box, image 
> "2" is not displayed, but the first empty box is replaced by image "1", 
> see 44.png.

I see.  But in that case, this is something that involves imaxima and
what it does, and I'm not familiar with that.  The empty box means
Emacs cannot display the image for whatever reason -- it could be that
the image is invalid, or there's not enough memory, or something else.
Since when you press enter twice, you see the first image instead of
the second, this is something related with how imaxima outputs the
image and passes it to Emacs.  Sorry, I cannot help you more than that
since I don't know enough about imaxima and its interfaces.

So I suggest that you set w32-use-native-image-API to nil, and use
imaxima that way.

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

On 2024/1/15 22:53, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 22:17:37 +0800
>> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>
>>> Thanks.  I have no problems displaying the 2 PNG files with
>>> w32-use-native-image-API set to a non-nil value.  So I don't know why
>>> this doesn't work for you.  Are you able to display the files you sent
>>> in your Emacs with w32-use-native-image-API set to its default non-nil
>>> value?
>> My problem is not that I can't display images, but that the same action
>> doesn't work the same way with either setting.
>>
>> When w32-use-native-image-API is nil, image "1" can be displayed as soon
>> as the Enter key is pressed (before "(%2)" appears, see 11.png).
>> However, if w32-use-native-image-API is t, image 1 will not be
>> displayed, just an empty box (see 22.png).
>>
>> Now we enter another expression. If w32-use-native-image-API is nil,
>> image "2" can be displayed immediately after pressing enter, and it will
>> not affect the display of the previous image "1", see 33.png. If
>> w32-use-native-image-API is t, instead of displaying an empty box, image
>> "2" is not displayed, but the first empty box is replaced by image "1",
>> see 44.png.
> I see.  But in that case, this is something that involves imaxima and
> what it does, and I'm not familiar with that.  The empty box means
> Emacs cannot display the image for whatever reason -- it could be that
> the image is invalid, or there's not enough memory, or something else.
> Since when you press enter twice, you see the first image instead of
> the second, this is something related with how imaxima outputs the
> image and passes it to Emacs.  Sorry, I cannot help you more than that
> since I don't know enough about imaxima and its interfaces.
>
> So I suggest that you set w32-use-native-image-API to nil, and use
> imaxima that way.

Thanks a lot. I will try to dig into imaxima.

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Jinsong Zhao]

On 2024/1/15 22:53, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 22:17:37 +0800
>> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
>> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
>>
>>> Thanks.  I have no problems displaying the 2 PNG files with
>>> w32-use-native-image-API set to a non-nil value.  So I don't know why
>>> this doesn't work for you.  Are you able to display the files you sent
>>> in your Emacs with w32-use-native-image-API set to its default non-nil
>>> value?
>> My problem is not that I can't display images, but that the same action
>> doesn't work the same way with either setting.
>>
>> When w32-use-native-image-API is nil, image "1" can be displayed as soon
>> as the Enter key is pressed (before "(%2)" appears, see 11.png).
>> However, if w32-use-native-image-API is t, image 1 will not be
>> displayed, just an empty box (see 22.png).
>>
>> Now we enter another expression. If w32-use-native-image-API is nil,
>> image "2" can be displayed immediately after pressing enter, and it will
>> not affect the display of the previous image "1", see 33.png. If
>> w32-use-native-image-API is t, instead of displaying an empty box, image
>> "2" is not displayed, but the first empty box is replaced by image "1",
>> see 44.png.
> 
> I see.  But in that case, this is something that involves imaxima and
> what it does, and I'm not familiar with that.  The empty box means
> Emacs cannot display the image for whatever reason -- it could be that
> the image is invalid, or there's not enough memory, or something else.
> Since when you press enter twice, you see the first image instead of
> the second, this is something related with how imaxima outputs the
> image and passes it to Emacs.  Sorry, I cannot help you more than that
> since I don't know enough about imaxima and its interfaces.
> 
> So I suggest that you set w32-use-native-image-API to nil, and use
> imaxima that way.


I was able to confirm that my question is not related to 
w32-use-native-image-API. The reason is that the image is not valid. In 
fact, it's empty because Ghostscript on Windows doesn't flush the image 
to the file. So this bug should be closed. Thanks for your help.

Best wishes,
Jinsong

bug#68452: w32-use-native-image-API makes weird behavior

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2024 13:09:52 +0800
> Cc: 68452@debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Jinsong Zhao <jszhao@yeah.net>
> 
> I was able to confirm that my question is not related to 
> w32-use-native-image-API. The reason is that the image is not valid. In 
> fact, it's empty because Ghostscript on Windows doesn't flush the image 
> to the file. So this bug should be closed. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, closing.