Disappearing selection bug - still not fixed...

[dangerboybb]

As annoying as this bug is, it's a biggie when it comes to web developers for sure. I'm sorry, but it's simply unacceptable to have your selections cut off at the bottom through a simple deselection process.

--My Workaround--
When you have reached the point where you have a floating selection, simply promote that floating selection to it's own layer... accomplished through either right clicking in the layers area on the floating selection layer, or from the Selections menu at the top, and choosing Promote Selection to Layer.

Someone may have listed a workaround, I'm not quite sure as people start to get lost in too much text, or very wordy responses. I know, I'm doing that very thing, right?! Hopefully you find this workaround useful if you're still having troubles. At least there's a workaround for now til they get it fixed... IF they get it fixed. LOL

Rock on...

[cactushead]

I contacted Corel about this issue nearly 9 months ago and after several emails, including a screen cast of the problem, I got a final reply:

We have been able to reproduce the issue and it has been reported. There may be an update to fix the issue and we will let you know you it becomes available.

Well, it has been silent since then and I have consequently hardly used X3 since - an expensive and complete waste of a so called "upgrade" from X2.
With 4 service packs released and for a fundamental fault to still exist is staggering to put it mildy.

The problem is bad enough but coupled with the lack of response and urgency, it looks from a loyal customers point of view that Corel are either ignoring us or trying to loose out custom. Either that or they just want to string us along until the next upgrade to X4 can be offered to us for yet more cash.

I am longing for the days of Jasc as I have used PSP since the very first version and this is the only one which I've had any real problem with. And with such a fundamental problem like this I would have expected it to have been priority one for Corel to fix and update ASAP as Paint Shop Pro is one of their leading products.

I will NOT even consider an upgrade until I have confirmation that this basic flaw is corrected, and to be honest I believe that all of us who have experienced this should receive a free version for the absolute disaster that X3 has been.

[SForr57]

I purchased PSP X3 at the end of Jan 2010. I reported this error within 2 weeks of the purchase. A support tech confirmed the error by remotely using my installation. He told me that they (him and his supervisor) were not aware of the issue, but it would be reported to engineering and they would get back to me. About a week later I recieved a message from engineering saying they were already aware of the problem and were working on a solution. Then nothing. I switched back to X2 and started waiting for updates and monitoring this forum.

When X3 Ultimate was released, I contacted customer service and asked if this issue had been addressed. I was told they were not aware of the issue, but suggested I buy X3 ultimate and try it. Not what I would call the best advise.

I'd have to say, I'm not frustrated, I'm angry. I am a long time Corel Graphics and PSP user. Every two years or so I faithfully upgrade to the new version, typically with little or no problems. I don't often use customer support, so I can't really comment on the level of service. It has been adequate for me up until now. I am still using X2, and don't intend to reinstall X3 regardless of the updates. At this point I have no intention of upgrading from CGX5 (which was unusable for 7 months after purchase because of pallete problems) or going over to PSPX4, whenever that becomes available.

[Oatmeal]

--My Workaround--
When you have reached the point where you have a floating selection, simply promote that floating selection to it's own layer... accomplished through either right clicking in the layers area on the floating selection layer, or from the Selections menu at the top, and choosing Promote Selection to Layer.

ahhhhh relief. Thanks a million for that.

I posted a link to this thread on Corel Photoshop's twitter. Hopefully it helps this problem get more attention.

[LeviFiction]

The problem already has their attention. They've been working on it, a lack of a fix does not indicate a lack of effort. One person I talked to at Corel says he hopes the fix will be in patch #5.

It should also be noticed that this is not a selection bug per-say, you'll notice that it happens when you use Merge Down on the newly created layer as well.

[Oatmeal]

has this bug been there the whole time or was it introduced in a patch? Seems like a pretty major bug to get by four and possibly five patches.

[LeviFiction]

It's been there the whole time as far as I'm aware. But there were more pressing bugs to deal with. This bug cuts off a few pixels, most bugs crashed the whole program. Stability improvements usually come first. But if you consider that they have to do a lot of work just to deal with one bug, as the bug may be related to something else (this one is a great example of that) it takes time to go through everything and get the right answer as well. How major we think it is, or hard or easy this bug was to fix is only part of the equation.

We can judge from a limited point of view all we want. The important part is they are working on it and have a potential fix on the way. Five patches or even 10 patches later. As long as it gets fixed.

[wick]

@Oatmeal: My thoughts exactly. I disagree with LeviFiction -- I'd say the lack of a fix for the past year (when people first started posting about the bug) CLEARLY indicates a lack of effort. I'll hazard an educated guess Corel hasn't been intent on troubleshooting/fixing it until recently. This type of easily reproducible, consistently recurring bug simply does not take a full year for a well-established dev team to fix -- judging from the complaints, keep in mind this bug involved a single product & didn't involve software or hardware conflicts or platform differences. Obviously I'm not at all familiar with the PSP codebase, but speaking as a programmer for 17 years.

Regarding the patching-stability aspect LeviFiction mentioned, that would make sense if that's all they concentrated on. That wasn't the case. They also spent dev time fixing Tkinter, Silverlight compatibility, plugin issues, etc.

I think it's far more likely the select bug wasn't on their radar or recognized as critical until recently, & I think that's the main flaw with the whole situation ... never mind that it was a serious bug with a very basic editing operation that shouldn't have made it past internal QA to begin with, but that's beside the point now. Sounds like Corel will be addressing this type of issue with a beta test program in the future & that's what is important now. Hopefully they also find a way to prioritize bugs a little better, granted everyone thinks the bug that effects their workflow is more important, but I'd argue the ability to move a selection should have preempted fixing Tkinter etc.

...I realize discussing hypotheticals is always kind of useless, but that's my $0.02
-Wick

[LeviFiction]

I agree it is a waste of time. I should be pointed out that I was by no means suggesting that they have been working on this problem from the beginning. Simply that it hasn't been ignored for the past 4 patches either or full year. But I suppose I've been taking similar liberties with your statements. As to me you make it sound like they hadn't even looked at it until three weeks ago, made a quick fix, and then did a quick beta test and are now sitting on it.

My point, above all else, is it's pointless to get frustrated by something you don't know. I don't care if my proposed situations don't meet all criteria, neither does anyone else's. "Educated" or otherwise it's all assumption that serves no good at all. That's all I was ever trying to get at.

[Oatmeal]

at least we have some workarounds.

I came back to PSP last month(after getting hosed on PSP 9 I went to Photoshop Elements) and only stumbled onto this problem... yesterday? I think it was when I was trying to add text actually. But I may have been adding the text to a raster layer instead of a vector.

[wick]

Yea I'm totally just guessing, so I hope I'm not offending anyone at Corel if by some small chance it really did take a year to troubleshoot. But the patch is one file & only a few Kb difference, so once again I'm making an pretty solid educated guess they simply didn't get around to looking at this bug until recently.

As to me you make it sound like they hadn't even looked at it until three weeks ago, made a quick fix, and then did a quick beta test and are now sitting on it.

Ha, that sounds pretty accurate. Except I didn't say anything at all like they're "now sitting on it"... (did I?) ... If we're taking that level of "liberties", where's that $1000 you said you'd wire me?

[LeviFiction]

A solid educated guess is no more impressive than a shot in the dark. Right or wrong it's no more truly informed because there is more to the fix than the final code change. Especially when you add in company policy and dynamics. And as a programmer of 17 years I would expect you know that. We could just ask and see if we can't get it sorted out instead of randomly guessing.

Not saying you're wrong of course. But it's still worthless even if you're right.

"You make it sound like" is not the equivalent of "completely making it up out of thin air." So your comparison is flawed. Especially since even if I was just making it up mine at least had to do with the topic at hand. Silly. So my "liberty" with your statement not quite as extreme.

[wick]

Damn, I wanted that $1000.

PS. "A solid educated guess is no better than a shot in the dark." ... No? I wouldn't trade an educated guess for a whole clip of shots in the dark. Hopefully you don't hunt.

PPS. So what you're saying is that making something up on-topic is better than off-topic? I don't get it. I was joking. Yes, silly, thank you. Point made, I think.

[LeviFiction]

Considering I don't even have $20 dollars in my bank account right now so would I. XD

P.S. Wouldn't trade a solid educated guess for a clip of shots in the dark?

Why you would take the educated guess to begin with still has me perplexed. I wouldn't take either of them. Both are highly suspect, and I have to take your word that you're educated guess is truly educated. Not that it isn't educated, mind you, just saying that it just ends up being yet another assumption that isn't worth anything.

I don't take making a guess and being right (educated or otherwise) as meaning anything other than you guessed and were right. I know just as many educated guesses that were completely logical and reasonable to begin with and were still way off. It's all worthless. Especially the overly pessimistic ones that just get people all up in a dander over something they don't actually know.

P.P.S. Yes I was under the assumption you were joking. Maybe I should have included an emoticon to make that clear.

Of course I wasn't making it up. The phrase "sitting on it" has many connotations, one includes "waiting until the right moment" which is what the rest of the situation would imply as they haven't released patch #5 with this fix yet. So if you agreed with the rest of my interpretation the last part would be valid.

[wick]

Ha, okay. I'm done abusing poor, dead horses