5. Known Problems and Workarounds


5.1 Cosmo Create


   The current implementation of Cosmo Create has a few
   limitations, as described in the following sections.

5.1.1 General


      o The localization of Cosmo Create covers the main
        application and the Packager. Certain areas of these
        applications such as the Help menu, and help content
        have not been localized.

      o Due to a bug in PC NFS, Cosmo Create will hang while
        trying to work on files mounted from a PC.  This
        includes opening files from, saving files to and
        browsing such directories.  This problem has been
        reported to the manufacturer of the PC NFS software.
        There is no known workaround.

      o Please install Patch 2715 if your LD LIBRARY PATH is
        set to anything longer than around 100 characters.  The
        runtime linker (rld) shipped with IRIX 6.2MR sometimes
        core dumps if your LD LIBRARY PATH is too long.

      o Please install Patch 1537 to work around a bug in the
        File Alteration Monitor shipped with IRIX 6.2MR.  The
        visible symptom requiring this patch was that changes
        saved from Helper Applications were not always noticed
        by Cosmo Create.

      o If you have both an evaluation and a permanent license
        in your /var/flexlm/license.dat file, the first one
        matching the product will be found.  Thus, if the
        evaluation one occurs first, you will continue to see
        the expiration notification until the evaluation
        license expires, at which point the permanent one will
        be used.  To avoid this problem once you've obtained
        your permanent license, edit the
        /var/flexlm/license.dat file and remove the evaluation
        one.  See Chapter 6 for more information about
        licenses.

      o If you are running Cosmo Create in the Japanese locale
        please install Patch 2906 included with the Japanese
        World View product to ensure that type-in text fields
        provide a composition window.

      o The Spyglass eMosaic browser is run from a shell script
        called eMosaic.  Due to a bug in this script, eMosaic
        will not launch from Cosmo Create unless the following
        line is added to the top of the script: #! /bin/sh.

      o Pressing the "Default" button in preferences should
        clear the values in the Proxy and Cache entries.
        Currently it does not.

      o Cosmo Create does not always correctly undo/redo the
        insertion of a horizontal rule.

      o Insertion of a horizontal rule into preformatted text,
        a list, or a text flow around an inline may not produce
        the expected visual results in all cases.  Use preview
        to determine the actual result.

      o When you delete numerous lines that contain alternate
        HTML, the lines do not join into a single line.

      o The network fetching code for the Netscape plug-in
        architecture is not yet implemented, making plug-ins
        that depend on it unstable.  Also, there is no java
        runtime in Cosmo Create, so plug-ins that depend on
        Java will also be unstable.

      o Cosmo Create may cause your system to run out of swap
        space.  If this happens, you will probably get a system
        error dialog.  Running out of swap space may cause the
        application to crash, may prevent you from launching a
        browser for previewing, or may prevent you from
        launching the packager. If this occurs, consider
        closing down other applications or adding more swap
        space.

        To add swap space, choose "System->System Manager" from
        the Toolchest.  On 6.2, you can launch the swap manager
        from the "Administration Tools" panel of the system
        manager.  On 6.3, selecting "System Performance" from
        the system manager will guide you through adding swap
        space.  On either system, you can look at the man page
        for "swap".

      o To insert a paragraph before a left-aligned image at
        the top of a page, make sure that View->Symbols is on,
        position the cursor before the aligned image marker at
        the start of the line and hit return.  The marker looks
        like a little triangular flag pointing left.

      o Pages containing ISO Latin 1 characters outside the
        ASCII range should not be processed by Cosmo Create in

        an Asian locale. This limitation is placed on Cosmo
        Create by the character encoding schemes used for Asian
        locales.

5.1.2 Tables


      o If a table is the first or last thing in a document,
        and you want to add something above or below it, select
        "Add Paragraph Before Table" or "Add Paragraph After
        Table" from the Format menu. Alternatively, click to
        the left of the table or above it, or the right or
        below it, and when you then start typing, the new text
        will go in a new paragraph automatically inserted above
        or below the table, as appropriate.

      o If a table isn't being drawn completely, slightly
        resizing the document window will usually correct the
        problem.  This may happen particularly after adding a
        table, or adding rows or columns to a table.

      o Undoing some table operations may not work correctly.
        Sometimes undoing an edit of a nested table, or a
        deletion of a table immediately above another table may
        change the nesting structure.  If this happens, the
        Edit Source function can be used to clean it up by
        hand.  Undoing an edit of a table at the very end of
        the document or undoing an insertion of a table within
        a table may cause Cosmo Create to crash.

      o If you copy a table that contains two immediately
        adjacent sub-tables, the nesting structure may be
        changed.

      o Table cell and caption alignment is not shown WYSIWYG.

      o In a table heading cell (<TH> tag), the text may not be
        displayed bold if it has a character style such as
        <CITE> or <KBD>.

      o The sizing of tables, rows and cells is not exactly the
        same as in Netscape Navigator.  In particular, if a
        cell or a subtable width is specified as a percentage,
        it is draw at that percent of the document's width,
        rather than that percent of the parent table or cell's
        width.  Also, the minimum width of a cell containing a
        left- or right-aligned image is calculated differently
        from how it is done in Netscape Navigator.

      o If a table width is specified as 100%, resizing the
        window may cause the table to be displayed too wide.

        Also, editing in a wide table may cause it to be
        displayed too wide.

      o A cell can span into the next row only if the cell
        below it spans the same number of columns as the
        original cell.  Likewise, a cell can span into the next
        column only if the cell to the right spans the same
        number of rows as the original cell.  Therefore, for
        example, if you have a table with no spanned cells, and
        want to make one cell span two rows and two columns,
        you have to do it in two steps.  First increase the row
        span of both that cell and the one to its right to 2
        and apply that change, then set the column span of the
        original cell to 2 and apply that change.

      o A table inside a list may not be indented correctly,
        nor will a table with a list item at the beginning of
        the first cell.

      o If there is an ordered list item at the end of a table
        cell, and another at the beginning of the very next
        cell, the numbering of the lists will be combined.
        This can be avoided by putting a plain (Body) paragraph
        between the lists.

      o Cosmo Create requires a table to be in its own
        paragraph. If you try to create a table in the middle
        of a paragraph, it will split the paragraph into two
        pieces, with the table going between them.

      o The cursor may be displayed in the wrong location,
        especially after horizontal scrolling and adding or
        removing table rows or columns.  If this happens, just
        click the cursor in the desired cell to reset its
        position before typing.

      o If you want to delete a subtable within another table
        along with some other table contents, first delete just
        the subtable, then delete the rest.  Otherwise Cosmo
        Create may crash.

      o Deleting and undoing editing involving tables together
        with form elements or list items is somewhat unstable.

      o Sometimes inserting HTML or pasting a copied selection
        containing nested tables into another table will cause
        Cosmo Create to hang.

      o Some table editing actions cause Cosmo Create to use a
        lot of memory.

5.1.3 Inlines


      o If you're editing a new, unnamed document, save and
        name it before inserting any inline content.  Also,
        when editing a new file created from a template, save
        the file under a new name before inserting any inline
        content.

      o If you have installed any of the Beta releases of Cosmo
        Create, and experience problems with Button Magic or
        other inline objects not appearing, then you may have
        outdated conversion preferences.

        To check for a valid Button Magic converter:

        Select File->Preferences and open the "Converting"
        panel.

        Find the converter for "CosmoButtonAsciiData." The
        conversion command should read:

                /usr/lib/CosmoCreate/apps/bmrender %i %o

        If not, clear the "Conversion Command" field, save the
        preferences, and restart Cosmo Create.

        If you are unable to determine which converter is
        failing, you may resort to renaming or removing,
        ".cosmocreate/cosmocreate-preferences" in your home
        directory and starting Cosmo Create again.  Beware! You
        will lose any other preferences you may have saved.

      o For inline plug-ins, the right mouse button is not
        interpreted by the plug-in but is intercepted by Cosmo
        Create to pop up its own menu.

      o Plug-ins don't print.  However, plug-ins don't print in
        Netscape Navigator, either.

      o If two images are adjacent on the same line, and one is
        resized so that it wraps to the following line, it can
        be difficult to position your cursor after the
        remaining image on the previous line.  It will always
        go to the start of the next line.  The workaround is to
        cursor back from the next line.

      o Reacharounds for inline objects are not dealt with
        correctly.  A "reacharound" is when you launch Cosmo
        Create from inside one directory, edit a file in
        another directory, and attempt to make inline objects
        that reside in or below the first directory.  A

        workaround is to make URL mappings that match your
        directory structure.

      o If you enter a non-existent file as the source for a
        plug-in, the data filename will not be saved with the
        document in the EMBED tag.

      o There is currently no way to drag-resize a running
        plug-in.  To resize, either enter the new width/height
        in the attributes panel or turn plug-ins off (using the
        View menu) and drag resize its placeholder.

      o Alignment TEXTTOP, ABSMIDDLE, and ABSBOTTOM for inlines
        that are the first thing on the line does not always
        work as expected, though it does work the same way as
        in Netscape Navigator.  They only align with things
        that precede them on the line.

      o When inserting parameters on applet and embed inlines,
        the parameter fields are redrawn slowly.

      o It can be difficult to drag-resize an inline if another
        inline is immediately to the right.  Workaround by
        putting a space in between them, and then removing it
        when you have the inline the right size.

      o It is somewhat difficult to select left and right
        aligned images, especially in tables.  Clicking towards
        their upper left corners seems to work, but an
        alternative method is to View->Symbols and select the
        aligned image placeholder instead.  The placeholders
        appear as small triangular flags in the text that point
        towards the margin the image is aligned with.

      o Sometimes the server and client map fields on the image
        attributes dialog show incorrect info.  The correct
        info is always shown in the Image Map Tool.

5.1.4 Out of Place Editing / Automatic Conversion


      o If you try to edit a file you don't have write
        permission on, the file is copied to the current
        document directory.  No attempt is made to copy it to a
        new name in the directory it previously resided in.

      o Automatic conversion always puts the converted file in
        the current document directory rather than trying to
        first put it in the directory in which the original
        source file resides if write permission is granted
        there.

      o Some showcase files fail to convert when the last page
        in the showcase document is blank, resulting in either
        a small or invalid GIF file (sometimes the GIF file is
        0 bytes long).  To remedy the problem, open the file in
        showcase, delete the last (empty) page, and try again.

      o There is no cleanup of the auto generated files from
        conversion or copying.

      o Double clicking on inlines doesn't launch an editor, as
        it should.

5.1.5 Links


      o When you type after a link to continue the linked text,
        sometimes the link does not continue with the new text.
        The workaround is to first delete one character of the
        old text before adding the new text.

      o Cosmo Create does not correctly resolve paths in the
        link dialog.  If you're linking to a file in a parent
        directory of the current directory, Cosmo Create should
        write out the link as ../document.html.  In fact it
        writes out the link as working directory/document.html.
        A workaround is to manually specify the link as known
        to be correct.

5.1.6 Tags and Tag Ordering


      o Unrecognized attributes on font tags (e.g. B, I, FONT)
        are stripped when an HTML document is read. If these
        tags are meaningful they must be manually placed back
        into the file after it has been saved. Unrecognized
        attributes on all other elements are preserved.

      o Empty HREF anchors are consumed by Cosmo Create but
        empty NAME anchors are preserved by attaching them to
        adjacent markup.

      o Lists in Alternate HTML for Applets can have their
        close tag written outside of the </APPLET> tag, causing
        parser warnings.

      o Cosmo Create will allow multiple consecutive empty
        non-PRE paragraphs.  Most HTML browsers will ignore
        these empty paragraphs. Use line breaks instead of
        empty non-PRE paragraphs for spacing. Paragraphs and
        lines that are ignored by browsers are indicated by the
        paragraph symbol enclosed in square brackets.

      o The BASEFONT tag is not processed and will be displayed
        as unrecognized markup. As a result, any subsequent
        relative font sizes will be relative to the default
        font size, 3, rather than the size specified in the
        BASEFONT tag.

      o The SUB, SUP and DIV tags are not processed and will be
        displayed as unrecognized markup.

5.1.7 Image Maps


      o Clientside imagemaps can be read and written, but the
        map must be in the same HTML file. (That is,
        USEMAP="otherfile.html#foo.map" will not work, and will
        be changed by Cosmo Create).  Also, an HTML file
        contains a clientside map that isn't used by that file,
        the map data will not be written back out.

      o Cosmo Create may add extra empty paragraphs when
        reading a document file containing a clientside
        imagemap. These paragraphs are ignored by browsers.

      o If a document contains a clientside imagemap that is
        not referenced by that document, Cosmo Create will not
        write the map information when it saves the file.

      o If you change the preference for what type of image map
        to write, no map will be written unless you save the
        document.  However, if you have made no other document
        changes, Cosmo Create does not indicate that the
        document needs to be saved.

      o Launch Cosmo Create from the directory where your files
        are; it might not find imagemap files that are in
        directories other than where you launched from.

      o If you edit a document from the web (as opposed to a
        local file), and that document uses serverside
        imagemaps, the map files will not be found, and an
        error dialog will be posted.

5.1.8 Fetching


      o If you open a page from the web, and cancel the fetch
        before the page is completely loaded, you must open a
        new window in order to initiate another fetch.

      o The "Browse" feature (see chapter 3) only parses HTML.

      o Saving inline images in web fetched documents can only
        be accomplished by making a modification to the page,
        which causes the "Remote Document Modified" dialog to
        come up, which has a check box that allows you to save
        the inline images.

      o Saving a web fetched page from the Edit Source window
        will not save the inline images.  To get around this,
        save the page from the main document window.

      o Opening Cosmo Create twice on the exact same URL in the
        same editing session causes Cosmo Create to hang.
        Pressing "Cancel" on the Progress meter will unhang the
        program, allowing you to close the window.

      o Occasionally, when downloading a page over the web, the
        page will not layout correctly after the download is
        done.  In these cases, resizing the window will cause
        the page to correctly layout.

5.2 Button Magic


      o Palettes and Editors

        The Material Palette and Texture Editor look for data
        installed in /usr/share/data/materials and
        /usr/share/data/textures, respectively.

        If you do not have showcase installed, these editors
        will still function, though no default material
        palettes or textures will be shown.

        For best results, you should install showcase.sw.data
        and showcase.sw.textures.

      o International font support.

        Button Magic supports international fonts, such as
        Japanese.  However, due to limitations in the
        interface, only the first font in a font list may be
        changed. If you wish to change the font list, you must
        add the font to the button's fontlist by hand.

        A sample font has been inserted in each button magic
        file to get you started:

                HonMinchoLtBT--H;HonMinchoLtBT--Hankaku

        If you wish to use some font other than the above, you
        must add it by hand to the Button Magic file.

        To do so, perform these steps:

        1) Create a button by clicking on the "Go" button in
           the Create panel and sweeping out an area on the
           HTML page.

        2) When Button Magic appears, select "Change inline
           object" from Cosmo Create's "Editors" palette.
           Launch your favorite text editor on the file
           shown in the "Original File" field.

        3) Find the line beginning with the text "fontName" and
           add your fonts to the right of the first semicolon.

           Example:

           fontName  "Palatino-Roman;HonMinchoLtBT--
        H;HonMinchoLtBT--Hankaku"

           To

           fontName  "Palatino-Roman;HeiseiMin-W3--
        H;HeiseiMin-W3--Hankaku"

        4) Save the file. The button should automatically
           re-render with the new font. If not, launch Button
           Magic on the inline object and press Apply.

      o When a new document has not been saved before, Button
        Magic writes images to the current working directory,
        if writable.  If the current working directory is not
        writable, it will attempt to write the images to the
        user's home directory.  Workaround: save the document
        once before launching Button Magic for the first time.

      o Symbol and Zapf Dingbats fonts are not supported in
        Button Magic.

      o Due to a bug in PC NFS, Button Magic will hang while
        trying to work on files mounted from a PC.  This
        includes opening files from, saving files to and
        browsing such directories.  This problem has been
        reported to the manufacturer of the PC NFS software.
        There is no known workaround.

5.3 Cosmo Package


   The current implementation of Cosmo Package (invoked by
   choosing the "Package..." menu choice under the "File" menu
   in Cosmo Create or Cosmo Worlds) has a few limitations.
   Here is the list:

5.3.1 General


     1.  Due to a bug in PC NFS, Cosmo Package will hang while
         trying to work on files mounted from a PC.  This
         includes packaging files from, packaging files to, and
         browsing such directories.  This problem has been
         reported to the manufacturer of the PC NFS software.
         There is no known workaround.

     2.  The Packager handles only HTML, VRML 2.0 Draft 3, VRML
         2.0, and Cosmo Worlds files.  All other document types
         are treated as "black boxes" -- they aren't searched
         for references to other local documents, they aren't
         optimized, their references aren't patched -- they are
         merely moved to the packaging directory.  This will be
         most noticeable when you package HTML documents
         containing Java Applets.  Only the main ".class" file
         will be moved.  None of the supporting files will be
         moved.

     3.  Cosmo Package relies heavily on the File Typing Rules
         (FTRs) which are installed as part of your desktop.
         If files are not being typed properly, they may not be
         packaged properly.  On each line claiming that a file
         is being discovered or packaged, the packager shows
         the file's FTR type.  If the right thing isn't
         happening to the files, check that the FTR looks
         reasonable.  If it doesn't please talk to your system
         administrator to have your FTRs checked.

     4.  Package directories created by the beta version of
         this tool will not be recognized by this version of
         the packager.

     5.  Cosmo Package strips whitespace from directory index
         filenames, mappings, and trusted references.  This may
         make it difficult to use directories containing
         whitespace in their names.

     6.  Cosmo Package may cause your system to run out of swap
         space.  If this happens, you will probably get a
         system error dialog.  Running out of swap space may
         cause the application to crash, may prevent some media
         conversions from being done, or may prevent you from

         launching a browser for previewing. If this occurs,
         consider closing down other applications or adding
         more swap space.

         To add swap space, choose "System->System Manager"
         from the Toolchest.  On 6.2, you can launch the swap
         manager from the "Administration Tools" panel of the
         system manager.  On 6.3, selecting "System
         Performance" from the system manager will guide you
         through adding swap space.  On either system, you can
         look at the man page for "swap".

5.3.2 VRML


5.3.2.1 URL discovery The packager searches for all urls

   found in "url" fields of the various node types.  It does
   not check to see what values might flow to those fields
   through routes.  For instance, if a script generates urls
   and routes them to url fields, the packager will not
   discover these urls.  Similarly, if you have a PROTO and
   route one of its event-ins to the url field of a texture
   node, the URLs in given in uses of those protos will not be
   found by the packager.

   A partial work around for these blind-spots is to use those
   urls elsewhere.  For instance, put the urls in the texture
   node of a shape which you arrange to never display. (One way
   to avoid showing the shape is to put it under a switch and
   set whichChoice -1).  This will at least ensure that the
   urls are discovered by the packager and that their fiels are
   packaged.  It will also patch the "fake" uses of the urls
   based on where those files are mapped to.  It is only a
   partial solution because you will still have to check that
   the urls you use in your scripts and routes will properly
   refer to the files once they've been packaged.

5.3.2.2 Media Conversion The VRML packager's media

   conversions are done "best effort".  If you are not happy
   with the conversion done by the packager, you may do the
   conversion yourself in your authored files or you may or
   leave the files alone.  Here are the known problems:

     1.  Movies

            o If you request that a movie be converted to MPEG,
              it may have its size changed by the converter. To
              avoid this resizing, don't request automatic

              conversion of your movie files.

     2.  Image textures with alpha channels

         The VRML packager may drop alpha channel data in some
         cases if you ask it to do conversions for you.
         Notably:

            o (PNG --> GIF)
                   We allow this, but any alpha data in the PNG
                   is likely to be dropped.  (Ask yourself...
                   why are you converting "away from" a media
                   format which all VRML 2.0 browsers are
                   required to support?)

            o (GIF --> PNG) and (GIF --> JPEG)
                   We allow these conversions, but alpha data
                   in your GIFs will be lost.

     3.  Audio

         Cosmo Package won't convert from audio files out of
         MIDI or WAV format.

5.3.2.3 File Suffices


     1.  Using the "Use .wrl suffix for VRML files" makes the
         packager propose new filenames for VRML files which do
         not end in ".wrl".  Even with this option enabled, you
         can still override these recommended names with the
         mappings.  Doing so is not recommended.  Without this
         suffix, Netscape Navigator probably won't recognize
         your content as VRML.

5.3.3 HTML


          1.  Server-side includes are not discovered or
              packaged.  For instance, "<!--#exec cmd="basename
              `pwd`"--></P>" looks like a simple comment to the
              HTML packager.

          2.  Image map files which are referenced other than
              as image maps may not be properly discovered and
              packaged.  We don't expect this to cause a
              problem since normal servers won't server image
              map files unless they are being used as image
              maps.