Filename displaying issues

[milen-prg]

Some filenames displays strange. For example:
Just create empty file with this name:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa😭.txt

It not displays at all. I use the default Segoe UI font. (Windows 11 Pro 64 bit).

IMPORTANT!!!: The display way depends on two things:
1. Must have anywhere special UTF symbol like 😭.
2. The display way differs at different name length. For example:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa😭.txt - do not displays at all (background color)

but little shorter for example:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa😭.txt - it is shown with strange symbol for the "a" (see the attach).
At most of other length (number of symbols "a"), it displays ok (except the special UTF symbol; not completely research).

[milen-prg]

The issue is not encoding-related. Multi Commander appears to incorrectly handle UTF-16 surrogate pairs (e.g. emoji like 😭).

This leads to broken text measurement and rendering, especially for long filenames. The behavior depending on string length strongly suggests a layout calculation bug.

Additionally, font fallback for emoji (Segoe UI Emoji) does not seem to work correctly, resulting in missing glyphs.

The same filenames render correctly in Windows Explorer and Double Commander, so the issue is specific to Multi Commander.

[Mathias (Author)]

might depend on what font you used and also other system settings. If you use a font that does not include the unicode character you enter then it can render it.
MC do not do any special processes on the filename. Windows return unicode (UTF16) name. and MC just accept what Windows give it. and then WIndows render it.
MC don't do any special processing. everything is handled by Windows. All API call in Windows are UTF16, So no special handing for it are needed

The filename you show as example works without issue for me.

[Jungle]

MC don't do any special processing.

Then maybe it should ? Personally, I don't experience any problem, but this is not the first report. Since other programs are not affected, this is most probably indeed MC-related.

@milen-prg,
just in case can you attach a real file (not a copy/pasted filename) ?

[milen-prg]

@Mathias,
I have Segoe UI and Segoe UI Emojis fonts... I also tried Consolas font like it is monospace... the same result.
As I said, the Windows Explorer and Double Commander shows the file properly.

I suppose that the text size in drawing is not processed correctly. You also can try with my current font:
Segoe UI Black 12.

But the font choice does not changes anything at me.
Also I see that the emoji at you also is not shown as must be (crying face).

I attach my settings, please, can you try them temporary for experiment. I like Multi Commander more than all alternatives, but can't understand this problem by myself.

[milen-prg]

@Jungle,

This displays as strange symbols.

[Jungle]

@milen-prg,
For me it looks the same in MC and Explorer. But at the moment I use Win10. Will check later on Win11

[Mathias (Author)]

MC don't do any special processing.

Then maybe it should ? Personally, I don't experience any problem, but this is not the first report. Since other programs are not affected, this is most probably indeed MC-related.

I don't think so. There is nothing MC can do. ALL text in MC are UTF16. all APIs in Windows are UTF16. It should just work. No conversions are needed.
BUT there are lots of things in Windows that affect rendering of some apps. Like 3rd party theme things and combability settings or app that mess with scim settings (stuff for accessibility stuff)

[Mathias (Author)]

Packing filename with strange characters with zip is not good.  zip does not support UTF16. standard zip only support 7bit.,  But  modern zip will support UTF8..  and when unpacking they get converted to UTF16. but then conversion between different things are being done and if there are something specially strange with the filename. it might be lost..
I think 7z store names as UTF16

However. I can't replicate it.
Are you running any 3rd party Windows theme tool in windows ? or something else that hook it self deep into Windows that you know about ?
Something else that is special with your setup ?

In Windows 10/11. There is a new hidden settings.. Make sure it is not on. (maybe some other app have activated it, even if you have not done it maually)
In region settings dialog (the old one..) There is a "Administrative" page.
Clicking in "Change system locale.."
There is a checkbox that say

"Beta: Use Unicode UTf-8 worldwide language support"

Make sure this is NOT check.  This is a new Win10/11 thing that is buggy.. (They say that this will only affect Store apps. but some people are reporting issues in other old desktop apps)

[milen-prg]

[SOLVED]

I experimented with the settings long time and I FIND IT!

This is the change, which breaks the display:

Explorer Panel Settings > Display > Gridlines > Auto adjust text if it is too long

If I remove this option (I prefer to keep the text size, because of the eyes problem), the name do not displays properly, but if this is ON - as default - everything displays OK.
I admit the Chatgpt helped me in investigation.

But why this option breaks the displaying?!