PE6: How do you prevent the simulator buttons from disappearing?

Goeytex

Senior Member
When I click on the simulate tab, it opens up a "ribbon" with some buttons like Run,Step,Break , etc. However as soon as you click on one of them, the ribbon automagically disappears. This makes trying to step through code a real pain. If you even move the program window whatever ribbon is open will disappear.

How to stop this disappearing behavior ?
 

Hemi345

Senior Member
Assuming the toolbar is auto-hiding, look for a downward-facing arrow/caret on the far right of that toolbar (or upward facing if toolbar is currently visible). That will set it to always show the toolbar.
 

Goeytex

Senior Member
Assuming the toolbar is auto-hiding, look for a downward-facing arrow/caret on the far right of that toolbar (or upward facing if toolbar is currently visible). That will set it to always show the toolbar.
Thanks, that did it. I figured there must be a way ... Such annoying behavior sometimes and no real user guide yet.

Now, why do I have to open the file tab to get to options? Why is there not an options tab?
Why does the file tab stay "blue" when I click on the home tab?
 
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Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
Auto-hiding option is a standard Windows ribbon behaviour, found on almost all applications that use a ribbon. It is available for use on smaller screens, although if your screen is large enough it is more convenient to leave the ribbon visible all the time.

The File tab staying blue is also standard ribbon GUI behaviour as you would see on Word or Excel or similar.

If you don't like Ribbons in general you can always use the toolbar legacy mode instead.

As with PE5 and most other applications, options is a separate dialog. There are too many options to fit on a ribbon tab.
You can also click on any of the 'spanner' toolbar icons to get there quickly e.g. in workspace explorer or simulation panel.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
Hi Goeytex,

Sorry, I misunderstood your problem.

I thought you were referring to the 'Quick Action Toolbar', (QAT), which is what I use most of the time.

My preference is to have just the 'most used buttons' permanently on show, and only open the ribbon for anything a bit out of the ordinary.

The behavior of the QAT, and most of the other frippery, is forced upon us by the developer's reliance on Microsoft's tools.

Cheers,

Buzby
 

Goeytex

Senior Member
That explains my ignorance of "ribbons" (whatever a ribbon is), as I avoid Microsoft apps as much as possible, preferring the open source stuff. I find the MS apps to be memory hogs & slow. I removed MS OFFICE from my laptop (except for Excel) because it was so dodgy.

Even with a 3 Ghz Dual Core Processor with 2 Gigs of ram, PE6 running on (Win7 -64) takes about 10 seconds to load. What's up with that?

On a positive note, PE6 simulator uses far less CPU resources than PE5 ... about 3% vs 60%. And the PE5 terminal dang near hijacks the CPU.
 

BeanieBots

Moderator
Even with a 3 Ghz Dual Core Processor with 2 Gigs of ram, PE6 running on (Win7 -64) takes about 10 seconds to load. What's up with that?
I wish, mine takes about 30 seconds.
This 'feature' became apparent several versions ago in PE5. It was questioned at the time with a response that pointed a finger at Bluetooth and comms ports. I was hoping it would be fixed in PE6 but obviously not.
In it's defence, it is almost instant on my desktop which does suggest something to do with the OS.
If anyone knows what needs to be 'fixed' on my laptop, please speak up.
 

inglewoodpete

Senior Member
Even with a 3 Ghz Dual Core Processor with 2 Gigs of ram, PE6 running on (Win7 -64) takes about 10 seconds to load. What's up with that?
10 seconds is not too bad. My 3.4MHz quad code/8GB RAM and solid state drive (W7/64bit) loads in about 6 seconds. The SSD makes the difference here, I think. More RAM may help you if you're using a 64-bit operating system.

My dual core AMD E1 laptop with 8GB RAM (W8.1/64bit) takes 40 seconds to load. That's what I call lethargic!
 
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