Preliminary TX Fix Posted

We think we have a fix for the TX flashcard bug, so we're posting it here for any interested TX users:

http://www.pleco.com/ppupdate103.zip (updated to point to the finished 1.0.3 release)

Install the file inside of that .zip archive to your Palm and that should update your software. The version in the About screen will go from 1.0.2 to 1.0.2a if it installed successfully.

Assuming this fix works (it does on our test system anyway), the bug actually turned out to be a new manifestation of a bug we'd already fixed a while ago on the Tungsten T5. Essentially, it's possible in some cases for the TX's filesystem to think a piece of a file is in use even when it's not; for example, if you reset your TX while PlecoDict is running. It's pretty much entirely Palm's fault (there's no logical reason not to clear out those in-use flags when the TX resets) but fortunately it proved easy to work around once we isolated the cause of the problem.

This fix might also help a few T650/T5/E2 users (especially those who were running PlecoDict entirely in internal memory) so if you're using one of those models and have run into any flashcard-related crashing issues, you might want to download and try this out as well.

Assuming this works, we should be rolling this and some other fixes into a 1.0.3 update hopefully within a week or two.

Hi Mike,

great to see an update for the TX. I'm not sure if it fixes the problem I had before with the TX (I deleted all the programs that would have PD chrashing after use except for blazer) but it has brought a new problem about. Instant access makes the tx soft reset every time I try to use it both when used from an assigned button and the command bar.

So its kind of one step forward and two steps back for me.

Damn Palm!

Cool. One of the benefits of not being a first adopter is that sometimes the bugs are fixed (eh, worked around) before you even get your toy in the mail.

I love that you provide support personally on these (and other) forums. For anyone who has complained about the speed of the update, I can only imagine they were frustrated beyond reason (palm has a way of causing this kind of frustration), or they have NEVER dealt with another software company before, because the services provided by Pleco are extraordinary.

I'm actually excited about the chance to spend more money with you when the C-C dictionary becomes availible.

Frustrated TX owner - this is actually a different TX bug, one which we're aware of (and have reproduced) but are still working on a fix for. I should have been clearer in my original posting - this fix is specifically for the bug that could cause PlecoDict to either crash whenever you access the flashcard system or crash whenever you start it up until you delete the flashcard data files, it doesn't try to cover the other TX bugs. (the flashcard one seemed to be the highest-priority of the ones we've heard about)

The program conflicts are another unfixed bug, though we haven't managed to reproduce them yet on a TX with this update, and it may turn out that they were also covered by this same fix.

sui.generis - Thanks! But I certainly do sympathize with people's frustration, I remember getting pretty annoyed myself when the Tungsten T came out and several of my favorite apps were rendered temporarily (or in a few cases permanently) unusable. Of course it took us about half a year to get Palm OS 5 support working, so I can hardly complain.

And yes, we're very excited about the C-C dictionary as well; with the addition of that and (hopefully) a 100,000+ entry Chinese-made E-C dictionary our product line will really be complete. (at least until we decide to make a run at licensing Hanyu Da Zidian or Cihai)

We've just updated this file again (same link, but the version will now display as "1.0.2b") to fix this Instant Access bug. Turns out it was entirely our fault, an unintended consequence of the change we made to enable support for handwriting recognition in the demo version. The reason we were seeing it in our previous testing is that that change has been in place for several weeks now (we changed the source code at the same time on both Palm and Pocket PC).

It looks like the previous change does also fix the Blazer/EDGE/DTG crashing problems, or at least they're no longer reproducible here. (always happy to do compatibility testing when there's a cool game involved So that should pretty well take care of the reported TX issues.

Excellent!

Sorry if I ever doubted you guys

TX issue

This update seems to have worked.. Many thanks!

Problem with E2

I've just followed the instruction and installed 1.0.2b PlecoDict on my Tungsten E2. I am still facing the problem with Editing and Deleting entries in the USR Dictionary.

Have you written / posted about this problem before? What exactly happens when you try to edit/delete entries?

soft reset

Hi,

first of all thanks for taking this soft-reset-at-program-start problem serious, I really appreciate that you guys are trying to get a bug-fix to us.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still facing the reset problem also after installing the current bug fix. I think I have taken out every other software, but still - it seems to work just fine for a while and then - for me out of no special reason - it starts to soft-reset the TX at every program start. The issue can then only be resolved by reinstallation of the whole dictionary, a process which I have been facing countless times by now :?

any light at the end of the tunnel?

Hmm... so you're sure you're running the latest version, right? (version number is listed as 1.02b in the About screen?)

The next time you encounter one of these chains of soft resets, try this: use FileZ to delete just the PlecoDict application program (shown in the file list as simply "PlecoDict"), soft reset your TX, then reinstall just the bug-fix update file again. See if that enables PlecoDict to start reliably.

If that doesn't work, use FileZ again to delete "PlecoDict Flashcard Database" and "PlecoDict User DB C-E" and see if that improves matters.

that was quick.

well, thanks for the suggestion - and yes, it shows 1.02b. I 'll try and report later
I'm on my way to China in two weeks and sure hope to get it running till then...

reset chains

Hi Mike,

here is what I found out: It seems that plecodict right now can't work together with Henk Jonas' new pdfviewer (http://www.metaviewsoft.de/en/Software/ ... index.html)

and here is how it happens:
install pleco-dict. install the bugfix.
then the chain-resets start after the next time a pdf has been opened on the palm. But: the pleco-dict flashcard function seemingly must have been used before.

For now I haven't found any other software that has this effect on plecodict, but if so I will let you know.
If you can find a solution to this problem I will be more than happy, because the pdfviewer is excellent, but as long as only the pdfviewer has this effect I can live with it for now...

We've managed to reproduce this problem here, however it appears to be an issue with PalmPDF rather than PlecoDict and there isn't much we can do about it. Perhaps owing to its nature as a port of a desktop app, PalmPDF doesn't seem to handle low-memory situations very well, corrupting its own data files and wreaking various other sorts of havoc with the OS.

One thing you could try, however, is to put as many of PlecoDict's data files as you can on an SD card instead of in your TX's internal memory - because of the way that the Palm OS' memory caching system works, doing this will cause PlecoDict to have less of an impact on other programs than if its databases are installed to internal memory. This is good advice for any TX owner, actually, but particularly one who's trying to run extremely memory-intensive programs like PalmPDF.

Hey Mike, just checking in.

The 1.02b update has been working good for me. No weird reboots anymore.

School has started up again so I've been using it alot over these past couple of weeks. I normally just stick to the basic dictionary and flashcard functions, so nothing too advanced.

Can't say too much about software interactions since I really don't use any other apps extensively.

So far so good! Thanks for all of your help! -willy

Glad to hear it! So it seems like we're offiically TX/Z22-compatible now. Which we can announce with considerable fanfare for the 1.0.3 update. Of course then Palm will inevitably change everything again with whatever new PDA they're releasing this Spring and we'll have to go through this whole process all over again :x

sorry to spoil the party...

Hey Mike,

sorry to bother you yet once more, but I did it again... I am running now on a clean, freshly hard-reset system, with the only non-palm-bulit-in software installed being the plecodict.
I have managed to reproduce the following chain reset now a couple times:
install everything, including your bugfix.
then add some flashcards and make a couple of sessions.
if afterwards the built-in calender function is used to add a new appointment, you run into the chain reset again.

now, I can live without palmpdf, but I definitely need the calender :? ...

is there any downside to running plecodict entirely from an expansion card?

the still frustrated user said:

is there any downside to running plecodict entirely from an expansion card?

Click to expand...

I'm running PlecoDict entirely from my expansion card and I don't experience any issues (other than a slower start-up time).

The only thing that is on my Treo 600's main memory RAM is the flashcards, user databases, and the handwriting recognition which I believe must be in the main memory. All my PlecoDict dictionaries (add-ins & purchased), fonts, and the main PlecoDict application are on my SD memory card.

intermittently frustrated user - OK, I just tried that exact sequence of steps on a hard-reset TX here and didn't see the same crashing problem. Which leaves only a few possibilities:

1) There's something different about your TX. Is this a US model or is it from some other country? Does it come with a built-in Chinese OS or anything similar?
2) There's something different about your PlecoDict installation. Was there an SD card inserted into your TX when you ran the installer? How big? Did you check the "Install to card if present" box in the installer? Was this the Complete or the Basic ("Oxford E&C Dictionary Only") installer? Did you install any add-on databases or just the basic set that came with PlecoDict?
3) Your TX's memory wasn't completely cleared on the hard reset. Did you go to your Backup folder (c:\program files\palm\(your username)\Backup) and rename it to "Old Backup" or something similar before you reset and re-synced? If not, some of the files from your old TX setup could have been copied over to your new one.
4) There's something wrong with your TX's hardware. If our two TX software setups are completely identical and the software crashes on yours and not on ours, the only remaining explanation is that your TX is defective in some way.