Because OS X renders field rectangles with a 3D effect, it steals pixels from the area where Classic Helix data would normally draw. The result is that text is often shown in a smaller than intended size, as it must be scaled to fit inside the smaller area Apple gives us inside the rectangle.

As this technote points out, making rectangles taller is the easiest solution.

See R6405 and TS6405 for information on printing discrepancies.

Classic Helix always follows a Time Stamp command by tabbing to the next field. OS X Helix has a preference that allows you to control this action.

The default action is to stay in the same field after inserting the Time Stamp, which is different from the old spec.

This setting can be changed by editing the HxTimeStampAdvance preference — legal values are Yes (tab to next field) and No (stay in the same field). See Helix Help for information on editing preferences.

In Classic Helix, a Form Time tile referenced through a statistics or lookup tile is not recalculated when the view is cleared.

In OS X Helix, the Form Time tile is always recalculated.

Classic Helix allows you to place the Windows menu any place in the menu bar or as a hierarchical menu. OS X always places it on the menu bar, just to the left of the Help menu.

Dynamic Popups in OS X Helix recalculate when a menu item that relies on lookup data senses a change in the lookup target relation. Classic Helix continues to ignore those changes, just like before.

Classic Helix continues to use the Font, Size, Style, and Color menu items as it always has.

OS X Helix uses the font panel as provided by the System. The user menu where Fonts was placed (resulting in a list of fonts in Classic Helix) is replaced by a single Show Fonts… item, with a default command key of Shift-CMD-T. Choosing this item opens the OS X Fonts panel.

The Color, Size and Style commands are accessed from the font panel in OS X. Those commands are disabled in the user’s menu in OS X Helix.

About the font panel:

• The font panel in OS X Helix is modal: To use it, select the text you want to change, then choose Show Fonts from the menu. You can now specify font, size, style and color for the text. When you are done, close the Font panel, and the changes are applied to the selected text. (To make the font panel work as an inspector, allowing changes to flow both ways — i.e. select text and it changes the font panel, select a new style and it changes the selected text — is a major project, and is slated for a future release.)
• Because Helix is still bridging the Classic and OS X gap, certain font/style combinations do not work as expected. The ability to create ‘pseudo’ font styles (e.g. Geneva Italic) is not available in OS X Helix.
• Colors are set by clicking the color swatch in the Fonts panel. This opens the OS X Color Picker, from which you can choose any color, instead of the eight that are available in Classic Helix. You can also drag colors from the color wheel into the swatch palette to store frequently used colors.
• Classic Helix has an internal color palette of 256 colors, stored in the pltt resource of the collection. In order to maintain backwards compatibility, OS X Helix uses an algorithm (using Euclidean distance to identify the closest color within the RGB cube) to find a close match to the color specified in the color picker. That is the color that is actually stored in Helix, not the exact color specified. A future update will do away with the 256 color limitation imposed by Classic Helix.

Classic Helix insets text in data rectangles by 4 pixels. OS X Helix reduces this inset to 2 pixels.

This issue only applies to rectangles where the Scale Picture attribute is turned off.

The traditional PICT format stores images at 72 pixels/inch. However, PICT files created in OS X are (always?) 256 pixels/inch. These varying resolutions can cause display discrepancies when switching from Classic to OS X native Helix.

Helix uses the PICT format in three places:

• Graphics pasted into label rectangles
• Pictures pasted into Picture fields
• Pictures created when a document containing an image is rendered via the Picture tile

For the purpose of this note, these various uses are together referred to as PICT resources.

Classic Helix always displays PICT resources using either the traditional 72 pixels/inch rule, or the embedded EPS resolution. In OS X However, Helix is able display the full resolution of the PICT resource, expanding PICT resources with greater resolution to display at every pixel. (The same size as when viewed at Actual Size in the Preview application.) The result is a display that can be a different size as compared to its Classic counterpart.

In order to make PICT resources appear the same size in both Classic and Mac OS X Helix, OS X Helix resizes PICT resources to 72 pixel/inch before displaying them. This change of resolution results in PICT resources that display at a consistent size across Classic and OS X Helix.

If you wish to turn off this behavior, the HxClassicPictureCompatibility preference allows you to do so. With this preference set to No, a picture in OS X Helix displays at its full resolution. Working with a picture intended for use in this way will be difficult in Classic Helix, as it is resized to 72 pixels/inch, thereby appearing larger than expected.

This situation is further complicated by the fact that the Classic Mac OS (Mac OS 9 and earlier) also has the ability to embed EPS graphics of any resolution in a PICT file. In that case, OS X Helix is able to display more image detail, resulting in a larger image. If your PICT resources are of this type, turning the HxClassicPictureCompatibility preference off should result in display at the expected size.

See this page for more information on preferences in Helix.

AutoClose is an attribute of clickable lists that enables the entry view opened from a list to automatically close (i.e. AutoClose) after data changes have been made and the record replaced. In effect, the AutoClose attribute changes an Enter command into an Enter and Close command, leaving the original list as the active view.

Sequences are sequences of commands (menu selections, view openings, other sequences) that run is a specific order. A sequence can be placed in a user’s menus, or directly on a view. When placed on a view, they appear as standard Mac buttons. Clicking the button initiates the sequence. One sequence on a view may be specified as the Default Button, causing it to execute when the user presses the Enter key on the keyboard (or otherwise attempts to enter the record).

Pairing these two features, an interesting conundrum/quandary exists: if a view is accessed from a clickable list with the AutoClose attribute set and the view is entered as part of a sequence that also contains a Close command, how many Close events should there be?

In Classic Helix, the AutoClose was tied directly to the view so that if the view remained open after the sequence was completed, it was then closed, ostensibly returning the user to the original list. However, this leaves a potential for confusion, as many things can happen to interrupt a sequence before it completes. In short, it is possible for a view that the collection designer intended to be closed to instead remain open.

OS X Helix resolves this issue by immediately honoring the AutoClose attribute in all cases. An entry view that is opened via a clickable list that has the AutoClose attribute enabled now closes that entry view immediately after the record is replaced, even when the entry event is part of a sequence. The sequence’s Enter command (including Static Enter, Enter Override, and Static Enter Override) executes, followed immediately by the AutoClose of the entry view, followed by the rest of the sequence.

Other sequence rules — such as those governing nested and conditional sequences — are also applied without alteration. This makes Helix behave consistently and logically regardless of how these features are combined.

When specifying a background color for a popup menu (dynamic or static), Classic Helix uses that color for the menu itself. In OS X Helix, the color of the popup menu is controlled by OS X, so the background color is applied only to the actual background area.

In Classic Helix if you press a key when no windows are open, you get a Why? message telling you that Command key is not active. In OS X Helix, those key presses are ignored, and no Why? message is given.

In Classic Helix if you press a key that can not be handled when a window is open, you get a Why? message telling you either that the Command key is not active or that there is nothing selected to type into. In OS X Helix, the Why? message always says there is nothing selected to type into.

In Classic Helix pressing the Escape key in an entry view deletes the selected field. In OS X it simply removes focus from the field.