#281 macOS: Options → Preferences… raises "invalid command name .preferences.c.f.3.n.number.popdown.f.l"

[Douglas Squirrel]

Scid version 5.2.202603, Mar 6 2026
MacOS: Version 26.6.2 (25G83), Apple M3 chip

To reproduce: Options -> Preferences, see error window with text below
invalid command name ".preferences.c.f.3.n.number.popdown.f.l"
input string does not match supplied format
while executing
"clock scan $movetime -format {%H:%M:%S}"

Claude's opinion in case it helps: In tcl/windows/preferences.tcl (around line 247, in the internationalization page), $popdown.f.l configure -font font_Fixed assumes a ttk::combobox popdown structure that doesn't exist with the Aqua theme on macOS. Because ::preferences::Open builds the pages in a loop, the error stops the dialog after the Board, Fonts and Toolbar pages. Wrapping that line in catch or checking winfo exists would avoid it.

Thanks for providing this software, it's helping me describe a bit of computer chess history in my book!

[Douglas Squirrel]

By the way, I worked around this by modifying ~/.scid5.2/config/options.dat directly