Lots of Text - Input Window Glitch

I've noticed a bug when typing something long (like an email in the gMail app). After there is about 2 paragraphs worth of text, if you keep on typing, it doesn't show the text you have just typed. When you close the keyboard however, everything I tried to type (but it didn't show up in the input window) now appears in the text box. Clicking on the text box again to begin inputting text doesn't fix the problem. I've found that if I switch to the stock Android keyboard and then back to Smart Keyboard PRO, it fixes itself for a while, and then the problem occurs again.

By the way, I appreciated the update today, if just for the sake of an update. Keep up the good work!

Hello and congratulations, you did the first post
Is it something you have only in landscape mode or does it also happens in portrait ? I will check if I can reproduce this problem, that's a bit strange...

It appears to only happen in landscape mode. When it starts to happen in landscape, I turn it to portrait mode and everything I typed (and didn't show up) appears after it has switched to portrait view.

I have the same problem, and in my experience it doesn't appear to be related to paragraph length (I had it happen once after just typing a couple words). This happens to me very frequently, probably about one in every five times I use the keyboard -- very annoying! Also, I have not observed this in portrait mode, but typically only type in landscape.

Great job on the keyboard otherwise.

Just wondering, are you any closer to understanding this issue? It is still happening to me very frequently. Thanks!

Not at all
And the emulator behaves strange in landscape mode, I will have a closer look
In which app do you have this ? any ?

Unfortunately it occurs in all applications, and I can't figure out how to reproduce it reliably, even though it happens to me very frequently. It kind of seems like it has something to do with either pressing too many letters simultaneously, or with accidentally drawing gestures on the keypad. It also seems to happen relatively often when using the delete key, but that may just be coincidental.

Are you doing any work in a background thread, e.g. queuing and processing touch events? It kind of feels like there's a deadlock somewhere that the main thread is still receiving input, but a worker thread is locked. The fact that it also occurs at random without clear repro steps sounds an awful lot like a thread problem.

im actually having a similar issue. for example, im typing in a chat message and then i type and send, when i type a new sentence the last word from the previously sent message is showing up and i have to erase it and type the new one. it's happening often and it's getting frustrating that i've just switched back to the stock android keyboard for now. only thing that has changed with my phone is the nexus one update and the 2nd to last update of the smart keyboard app.
thanks hope this problem can get solved as i love the keyboard otherwise!

Actually I just installed handcent sms (good app by the way ) and indeed started to notice problems, like keyboard disappearing by itself. And I also have the text disappearing in landscape !

There is something wrong with handcent... I'll have a closer look at this app, it seems it has some strange interactions with the soft keyboard

I can attest to Handcent being a common factor in some of the bugs. I have tried letting them know about the issues, but the developer doesn't seem too interested in responding to emails (or releasing updates).

Handcent is not the only responsible The code to support suggestions for hard keyboard was quite intrusive, and I broke some things in v1.2.1
I hope everything is back to normal in v1.2.2 which I just released

i have this app too! but im having this problem still with the app uninstalled. is there a way to remove this app interaction?

Well, if you have this problem in another app (which one by the way?) I don't know what I can tell... I never experienced such problems (except when using Smart Keyboard v1.2.1 but there were bugs in this version) and don't know how to reproduce them (neither on my phone nor in the emulator)

I am still having the freezing problem in 1.2.2 -- is this the issue you guys are talking about that is supposed to be resolved? I see it in the stock sms app, Talk, Touchdown, and the browser -- anywhere that I use the keyboard. It happens to me every 10 minutes or so of constant use, e.g. chatting with a friend or composing an email.

That's quite disappointing for me, I keep trying to reproduce this problem, everyday, and never had it...
So either you all do something which I never do with my keyboard (I don't know what it could be...), or you all have a bug in the android framework which I don't have in my custom 2.1 ROM..
The only thing I can tell is that it used to happen to me at the very beginning of this project, when I had a different ROM (but still 2.1) and it never happened to me again since I upgraded to a more recent ROM. So I can only guess what happens to you, and at the moment I cannot guess (I already tried some things but it seems it doesn't solve the problem so far)

Thanks, Cyril. FYI I am not running any custom ROM, my Nexus One is stock 2.1.

I have this problem too. I only really type in SMS. Doesn't even need to be a lot of text. I've seen it in both landsape and portriate mode. The only way I've been able once to fix it once it starts is switching back to the default keyboard. It usually happens after about 10 minutes of use, sometimes more sometimes less. Basically I can type, and anything I type appears after I press "send" but the preview of the text never shows up. Even the "autosuggest" still works. Just no preview.

Using: Motorola Droid,
Firmware: 2.0.1
Kernel version 2.6.29-omap1-g0dd7e0b android-build@apa26 #511
Build number: ESD56

If there's anything I can do to help you track this down I will do what I can. I love the keyboard, but I have to keep switching back to the default

@all: Can you install the "Log collector" app and send me your logs by email (android@cdeguet.net) just after this problem happens ?
It may help me to understand

Thanks

Sent a crash log your way. Here's a snip:

02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): ReferenceTable overflow (max=1024)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): Last 10 entries in JNI pinned array reference table:
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1014: 0x44972f18 cls=[I (84 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1015: 0x44972900 cls=[C (1556 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1016: 0x44972f18 cls=[I (84 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1017: 0x44972900 cls=[C (1556 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1018: 0x44972f18 cls=[I (84 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1019: 0x44972900 cls=[C (1556 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1020: 0x44972f18 cls=[I (84 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1021: 0x44972900 cls=[C (1556 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1022: 0x44972f18 cls=[I (84 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1023: 0x44971ce8 cls=[I (3092 bytes)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): JNI pinned array reference table summary (1024 entries):
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 511 of [C 1556B (1 unique)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 512 of [I 84B (1 unique)
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): 1 of [I 3092B
02-10 20:59:49.349 W/dalvikvm(24784): Memory held directly by native code is 4732 bytes
02-10 20:59:49.349 E/dalvikvm(24784): Failed adding to JNI pinned array ref table (1024 entries)
02-10 20:59:49.349 I/dalvikvm(24784): "main" prio=5 tid=3 RUNNABLE
02-10 20:59:49.349 I/dalvikvm(24784): | group="main" sCount=0 dsCount=0 s=N obj=0x4001b260 self=0xbd18
02-10 20:59:49.349 I/dalvikvm(24784): | sysTid=24784 nice=0 sched=0/0 cgrp=default handle=-1343993192
02-10 20:59:49.349 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.BinaryDictionary.getSuggestionsNative(Native Method)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.BinaryDictionary.getWords(BinaryDictionary.java:94)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.Suggest.getSuggestions(Suggest.java:183)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.SmartKeyboard.updateSuggestions(SmartKeyboard.java:1026)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.SmartKeyboard.access$0(SmartKeyboard.java:1008)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at net.cdeguet.smartkeyboardpro.SmartKeyboard$1.handleMessage(SmartKeyboard.java:155)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
02-10 20:59:49.359 I/dalvikvm(24784):
02-10 20:59:49.359 E/dalvikvm(24784): VM aborting
02-10 20:59:49.379 I/DEBUG (19177): *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Thanks !
The dictionary was the last place I would have thought about to explain this!
(Quite funny it crashes in the only part of the app which is written in C++ )
So I'll have a look at this part and try to understand why it happens

By the way, to make investigation easier, do you have an idea of what words you typed before it happens ? It may be just a particular word (and I never had this problem as I never write in english on my phone)

I was just typing gibberish into a notepad app. The last 'word' I was typing before the crash was apparently 'ext'

So !! thanks to your log report I have been able to reproduce the problem ! There is a resource leak in the native dictionary code (I still have to find why), so if you type more than about 300 words, the dictionary will crash
Working on it !

Ok I found out the problem. It is FIXED in 1.2.4 (hopefully) !!!

Awesome, I'll give it a shot! Thanks! I assume the resource leak may also explain why SmartKeyboard Pro seems to get slower over time?

Does it get slower ? The main factor which can impact performance is the JVM garbage collection, which can freeze the phone for several hundreds of milliseconds. The leak I just fixed may also impact memory (I don't know to which extent), which would imply more garbage collection.
But anyway I am quite relieved now, I can work on more interesting things

Yeah, although I can't prove it, the performance does seem to decrease over time. I'll let you know if I still observe this behavior in newer builds. Thanks again for fixing this bug!