2.0.2 Beta 3 Bug Report / Feedback Thread
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
Just trying the new beta...
Two requests, rather than bugs:
In the Flashcards Statistics screen, would it be possible to add a "number of unlearned" cards total. In order words, the number of cards that have been presented at least once, so are in the pool of cards to be scheduled (using the limit unlearned option), but have not yet been learned?
Also, I think it would be quite handy if we could see some statistics on the number of "scheduled" cards which are coming up over the next 24, 36 and 48 hours.
At the moment I'm feeling that few if any completely new cards are being presented to me, and I assume this is because they are being swamped out by the 'unlearned' cards and/or learned cards which are scheduled for review. Without knowing how many cards are due for a retest and when, it's difficult to know how many cards I should be aiming to get through in each session.
Cheers,
Ben
Two requests, rather than bugs:
In the Flashcards Statistics screen, would it be possible to add a "number of unlearned" cards total. In order words, the number of cards that have been presented at least once, so are in the pool of cards to be scheduled (using the limit unlearned option), but have not yet been learned?
Also, I think it would be quite handy if we could see some statistics on the number of "scheduled" cards which are coming up over the next 24, 36 and 48 hours.
At the moment I'm feeling that few if any completely new cards are being presented to me, and I assume this is because they are being swamped out by the 'unlearned' cards and/or learned cards which are scheduled for review. Without knowing how many cards are due for a retest and when, it's difficult to know how many cards I should be aiming to get through in each session.
Cheers,
Ben
I did some testing with the album application with the new beta. Unfortunately still the same problem... I tried some more tests which might help pinpoint the problem:
1. Open Pleco , click on picture file to open. Result: black screen
2. Pleco not open. Open picture to view (shown OK), then goto start menu to open Pleco (ie ablum running in background). Switch back to album. Result: picture still shown
3. Open Pleco, open picture (black screen), switch to pleco with task manager (album still running) then close pleco & switch back to Album. Result: picture is displayed
4. Pleco not open. Open picture (shown ok), then open Pleco, switch to Album (still shown OK), close Album, then open Album again. Result: picture shown
Something else I have noticed. If you open the picture without Pleco running, it starts up and shows the picture almost immediately.
However, if Pleco is running, there is a 4-5 second delay after trying to open the picture, before it shows the black screen.
It doesn't seem to relate to the size of the picture. Ive tried a various sizes between 100k and 1.5Mb.
Your suggestion about it being related to file handling does seem more likely. Maybe running out of filehandles or something?
Oh yes, I did try to open some picture files in the main memory too (ie not SD card) and get the same results.
Hope this is useful.
Ben
1. Open Pleco , click on picture file to open. Result: black screen
2. Pleco not open. Open picture to view (shown OK), then goto start menu to open Pleco (ie ablum running in background). Switch back to album. Result: picture still shown
3. Open Pleco, open picture (black screen), switch to pleco with task manager (album still running) then close pleco & switch back to Album. Result: picture is displayed
4. Pleco not open. Open picture (shown ok), then open Pleco, switch to Album (still shown OK), close Album, then open Album again. Result: picture shown
Something else I have noticed. If you open the picture without Pleco running, it starts up and shows the picture almost immediately.
However, if Pleco is running, there is a 4-5 second delay after trying to open the picture, before it shows the black screen.
It doesn't seem to relate to the size of the picture. Ive tried a various sizes between 100k and 1.5Mb.
Your suggestion about it being related to file handling does seem more likely. Maybe running out of filehandles or something?
Oh yes, I did try to open some picture files in the main memory too (ie not SD card) and get the same results.
Hope this is useful.
Ben
Hmm... well I'm definitely still not seeing this in the Album application here, though this is on an original Diamond rather than a Diamond 2 - are you using the stock Diamond 2 firmware or is this a custom one from somewhere?
This does lend support to the theory that it's a filesystem-related problem, though. The delay before opening a photo when Pleco is running could actually be related to a memory or a filesystem problem - it could be trying to free up memory or waiting for a file to become available - but the fact that it seems to be causing problems almost immediately after it opens (when the caches are still almost empty and the memory usage is well below its peak level) makes a memory issue seem less likely. Can you try running Pleco with just a minimal set of data files - i.e., delete / uninstall the audio files and all but a couple of dictionaries - and see if that helps matters?
(not much we can do on the programming end if this does turn out to be a too-many-files-open-at-once issue, but we could at least release consolidated versions of a few files - e.g. audio, where we could stick core/basic/x1-4 together in a single database)
This does lend support to the theory that it's a filesystem-related problem, though. The delay before opening a photo when Pleco is running could actually be related to a memory or a filesystem problem - it could be trying to free up memory or waiting for a file to become available - but the fact that it seems to be causing problems almost immediately after it opens (when the caches are still almost empty and the memory usage is well below its peak level) makes a memory issue seem less likely. Can you try running Pleco with just a minimal set of data files - i.e., delete / uninstall the audio files and all but a couple of dictionaries - and see if that helps matters?
(not much we can do on the programming end if this does turn out to be a too-many-files-open-at-once issue, but we could at least release consolidated versions of a few files - e.g. audio, where we could stick core/basic/x1-4 together in a single database)
another thing i should mention, although i have a touch pro (not the 2 version) i installed the album from the newer htc manila version (from the diamond 2 i believe). might be, that the older album version did not have the problem... maybe there are some more persons out in the wild that can confirm this...
i tried the same things ben_gb did, with the same results... its enough, that pleco is opened, then the album does not show any photo or thumbnails... with pleco closed everything normal. i even tried with some other applications additionally running, they did not influence the result...
i tried the same things ben_gb did, with the same results... its enough, that pleco is opened, then the album does not show any photo or thumbnails... with pleco closed everything normal. i even tried with some other applications additionally running, they did not influence the result...
mikelove said:
Hi Mike,
OK...I've tried this. It does seem to be related to the number of dictionaries activated. Normally I have 17 active .pdb files in the Pleco directory. After disabling 6 of these (including the audio files and the strokes file), the Album program starts working OK. If I re-enable one dictionary (so 5 are disabled) it stops working again.
Ben
radioman said:
Beta2 was horrible in terms of bug crashes... just horrible (no offense Mike!). Beta3 is somewhat improved from what I can see, but it still very ocassionally crashes. I've had 2 so far. I can't figure out a patten yet.
Mike, would it be possible to have an option in the next beta to be able to save ALL settings in a file inside of the Pleco folder? If a PDA becomes unstable and the user is forced to restore his PDA from a previous "image", he/she will lose their settings. Could we get at least get an option to save ALL settings in an individual file instead of the registry? Make the extension .love
mfcb - what if you try disabling some files like ben_gb did, does that make any difference in your case?
ben_gb - great! Now we're getting to the bottom of this... should be easy enough to get those consolidated audio files put together, though before we do that we can at least do a bit more testing to see whether there's any way we can lessen the impact of those file-openings on the system.
stisev - still not sure why it was so bad, actually; there weren't really very many low-level changes made between Beta 1 and Beta 2, the main potential culprit was the audio-playback-interrupting feature but we tested that very carefully (and it hasn't actually changed much in Beta 3) - if you launch Pleco (without it already running) and use it for a while without playing audio, does it still crash or does it seem to be more stable then?
A preferences backup feature would be a nice addition, but given the bugginess of the last couple of betas I'd really rather not add any more new features at this point - they can wait for 2.0.3. (which won't be too many months off, because I'm sure once the Palm Pre comes out we'll need to do a new Palm version - even if 2.0.2 works well on it - to deal with issues related to using a fingertip instead of a stylus for input)
ben_gb - great! Now we're getting to the bottom of this... should be easy enough to get those consolidated audio files put together, though before we do that we can at least do a bit more testing to see whether there's any way we can lessen the impact of those file-openings on the system.
stisev - still not sure why it was so bad, actually; there weren't really very many low-level changes made between Beta 1 and Beta 2, the main potential culprit was the audio-playback-interrupting feature but we tested that very carefully (and it hasn't actually changed much in Beta 3) - if you launch Pleco (without it already running) and use it for a while without playing audio, does it still crash or does it seem to be more stable then?
A preferences backup feature would be a nice addition, but given the bugginess of the last couple of betas I'd really rather not add any more new features at this point - they can wait for 2.0.3. (which won't be too many months off, because I'm sure once the Palm Pre comes out we'll need to do a new Palm version - even if 2.0.2 works well on it - to deal with issues related to using a fingertip instead of a stylus for input)
mikelove said:
it does:
disabled:
p2adso
p2audio-man-*
p2cedict
p2dehandict
p2handedict
p2ldc
p2stroke
enabled:
p221cn
p2abc
p2b5
p2ctbiz
p2gb
p2gfcd
p2nwp
p2oxce
p2oxec
p2radicals
p2tuttle
p2unihan
did not touch any of the my userdict or flashcard db. there is another pqb file in my pleco dir called Radical_Dict.pqb also did not touch this one.
one more thing to mention: album works in above config even with pleco running, also the camera application, if i enable the p2stroke and instead disable the p2b5 (just 69kb compared to 16mb) then the album does not work, but the camera does... it means, same amount of files disabled, but maybe filesize has some influence... but generally the camera does not work at the same amount of files enabled (+/-1) as the album application. interestingly the camera says "not enough memory to start application" and then a second message box tells me that the camera could not initialize a device. so thats why i first had the impression that i have a memory problem on my pda, where at almost every time i have about 80% memory free :roll:
PS: album version installed in my case from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=499428
camera application is stock version
Nothing specially to this beta but a question in general:
I have sometimes problems that the IA via taskbar icon conflicts with the taskbar icon of my Lingosoft Dictionary so that the Lingosoft Dictionary could not be launched any more until I do a softreset.
Some time ago you said that there are "third-party application launcher (different program that lets you launch files from the toolbar)". As far as I understand that means that I can use another software that has its own task bar icon that could be configured to start Pleco IA. Is that correct?
I searched the web but I could not find any. Can you help me finding a good one that should work with Pleco.
THX
Daniel
I have sometimes problems that the IA via taskbar icon conflicts with the taskbar icon of my Lingosoft Dictionary so that the Lingosoft Dictionary could not be launched any more until I do a softreset.
Some time ago you said that there are "third-party application launcher (different program that lets you launch files from the toolbar)". As far as I understand that means that I can use another software that has its own task bar icon that could be configured to start Pleco IA. Is that correct?
I searched the web but I could not find any. Can you help me finding a good one that should work with Pleco.
THX
Daniel
mfcb - interesting... what if you disable the stroke file but enable another similar-sized file (handedict, say) - does that similarly cause albums to stop working? I'm just wondering since ben_gb disabled stroke as well whether there's something specific about that file that sets off the problem...
The file size issue is interesting, though; it would mean that combining the audio files wouldn't do much good (since there'd still be the same amount of data involved). Perhaps it has something to do with Windows' file cache - there's unfortunately no mechanism in Windows CE to tell the operating system not to cache files because we're already caching them ourselves. I'm really not sure why anything we changed between 2.0.1 and now (or even 2.0.0 and now) would set off this problem, though - is there any chance that Albums might have been acting up in earlier versions too but you just didn't notice it before? (or weren't running it before now)
daniel123 - I'm actually not too up-to-date on those, so someone else will have to chime in with something that works well on Windows Mobile 6 - I've seen them built into the ROMS of a few phones but can't remember any of their names. With an iPAQ, though, since you've got all of those configurable program launch buttons on the bottom anyway, why not just assign one of those to PlecoLaunch? That way you can bring up Instant Access without needing a taskbar icon at all. Start / Settings / Buttons, select a button and set it to open PlecoLaunch.
The file size issue is interesting, though; it would mean that combining the audio files wouldn't do much good (since there'd still be the same amount of data involved). Perhaps it has something to do with Windows' file cache - there's unfortunately no mechanism in Windows CE to tell the operating system not to cache files because we're already caching them ourselves. I'm really not sure why anything we changed between 2.0.1 and now (or even 2.0.0 and now) would set off this problem, though - is there any chance that Albums might have been acting up in earlier versions too but you just didn't notice it before? (or weren't running it before now)
daniel123 - I'm actually not too up-to-date on those, so someone else will have to chime in with something that works well on Windows Mobile 6 - I've seen them built into the ROMS of a few phones but can't remember any of their names. With an iPAQ, though, since you've got all of those configurable program launch buttons on the bottom anyway, why not just assign one of those to PlecoLaunch? That way you can bring up Instant Access without needing a taskbar icon at all. Start / Settings / Buttons, select a button and set it to open PlecoLaunch.
Yes, that's true. But I use IA very very often inside Manage Flashcards and inside a Flashcard session when editing entries. So when marking characters with the stylus it is much faster and feels much more compfortable just to tap with the stylus on the IA icon than pressing a hardware button. I could also go via Start and PlecoLaunch but this is also one click more than going directly.
But it is not so important just to feel more convenient.
mikelove said:
Hi Mike,
In my case, I only noticed this since I switched to using the Touch Diamond 2 a week or two ago (though to be honest, I hadn't really used the Album feature on my previous Touch HD). Also, I've only used 2.02 on the TD2. I just ran a quick check on my old HD, and it also has a problem with the album, though this time it gives an error message "Unable to open this type of JPG file." when Pleco is running, but opens file fine if pleco isn't running. It's only got the older 2.02b2 running on that.
mikelove said:
hi mike, sorry to say that, but i could not repeat yesterdays behaviour... first i disabled yesterdays files again (after only stroke file disabled both album and camera did not work, after disable audio files additionally surprisingly camera worked, album not), only to find, that the album does not work in that config today... i disabled 2 more files (p2gfcd + p2radicals) until it worked.
this behaviour surprises me quite a lot, as yesterday i did the test with maybe 2 days no reboot. today i had a reboot just when i started the tests, so there should not be any interfering other applications, that disturbed the test (appart from totalcommander which i used to rename the files, but that was the same yesterday)...
the only conclusion can be, that it has to do with the amount of opened files by pleco, but the number is uncertain, and its not always the same. it can be different by quite a large number (see camera, yesterday i disabled 12 to get it working, today i had it working with 7). as i disabled the same files as yesterday i think you can safely ignore my "filesize" comment from yesterday, i think it was just a fluctuation in number of files, like observed today.
Intermittent, but easily repeatable system reset during interruption of audio output.
Start a flash card session. Mine are configured to play the audio file when showing the answer. The audio starts to play (this never fails). If I press the play audio icon repeatedly it will reset the system very often. Doesn't occur if I wait for the audio to complete each time.
Palm T/X
Internal memory contains Pleco 2 application, Pleco HWR Database, Pleco2CommandBarBitmap
SD card contains:
meyer:-> ls -l PALM/Programs/pleco/
total 404384
-rwx------ 1 stone root 52400654 2008-10-21 00:05 p221cn.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 20003428 2008-10-14 22:45 p2abc.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 17873140 2009-02-22 08:41 p2adso.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 45370816 2008-10-18 14:55 p2audio-man-basic.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 9029898 2008-10-18 14:55 p2audio-man-core.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 49548122 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x1.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 48149438 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x2.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 48163058 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x3.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 42716730 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x4.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 70710 2008-09-09 01:45 p2b5.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 750668 2008-10-21 00:07 p2ctbiz.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 513162 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font10.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 683616 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font12.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1107148 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font18.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 2157088 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font24.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 6145274 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font48.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 20594738 2008-10-10 22:58 p2font96.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 59180 2008-09-09 01:45 p2gb.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 12950558 2008-10-14 22:48 p2gfcd.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 4692536 2008-09-09 01:32 p2nwp.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 3316952 2008-10-17 23:46 p2oxce.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 3234668 2008-10-21 00:08 p2oxec.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 69172 2008-09-09 01:45 p2radicals.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 16838178 2008-10-18 15:07 p2stroke.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1307932 2009-05-18 09:12 p2tuttle.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 4674964 2008-09-09 01:23 p2unihan.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1246172 2005-07-27 09:13 Pleco HWR Database.pdb*
Start a flash card session. Mine are configured to play the audio file when showing the answer. The audio starts to play (this never fails). If I press the play audio icon repeatedly it will reset the system very often. Doesn't occur if I wait for the audio to complete each time.
Palm T/X
Internal memory contains Pleco 2 application, Pleco HWR Database, Pleco2CommandBarBitmap
SD card contains:
meyer:-> ls -l PALM/Programs/pleco/
total 404384
-rwx------ 1 stone root 52400654 2008-10-21 00:05 p221cn.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 20003428 2008-10-14 22:45 p2abc.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 17873140 2009-02-22 08:41 p2adso.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 45370816 2008-10-18 14:55 p2audio-man-basic.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 9029898 2008-10-18 14:55 p2audio-man-core.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 49548122 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x1.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 48149438 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x2.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 48163058 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x3.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 42716730 2009-01-04 13:08 p2audio-man-x4.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 70710 2008-09-09 01:45 p2b5.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 750668 2008-10-21 00:07 p2ctbiz.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 513162 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font10.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 683616 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font12.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1107148 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font18.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 2157088 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font24.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 6145274 2008-09-09 01:35 p2font48.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 20594738 2008-10-10 22:58 p2font96.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 59180 2008-09-09 01:45 p2gb.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 12950558 2008-10-14 22:48 p2gfcd.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 4692536 2008-09-09 01:32 p2nwp.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 3316952 2008-10-17 23:46 p2oxce.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 3234668 2008-10-21 00:08 p2oxec.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 69172 2008-09-09 01:45 p2radicals.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 16838178 2008-10-18 15:07 p2stroke.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1307932 2009-05-18 09:12 p2tuttle.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 4674964 2008-09-09 01:23 p2unihan.pdb*
-rwx------ 1 stone root 1246172 2005-07-27 09:13 Pleco HWR Database.pdb*
ben_gb - well it may be older than 2.0.2, then; wouldn't be surprising if it only showed up in some recent WM devices / ROMs, and since 2.0.2's been in beta for a while now there might not be very many people using 2.0.1 who'd notice it (or who'd associate it with Pleco / report it as a bug).
mfcb - that would actually point things back in the direction of a memory problem, except that since the memory usage in 2.0.2 should now be lower even than 2.0.0 it's hard to see where the problem might be - perhaps it's just an inconsistently-unstable filesystem driver, something which depending on the layout of files in the cache / order they were opened / etc might fail with 7 files or might work fine all the way up to 15 or 16.
amosnomor - I'm not seeing this here, oddly enough - you're sure that 2.0.2b3 is the version you've installed now, right? (check the About box) Are your flashcards configured to play audio only when showing the answer or do they play audio when a new card first appears too?
mfcb - that would actually point things back in the direction of a memory problem, except that since the memory usage in 2.0.2 should now be lower even than 2.0.0 it's hard to see where the problem might be - perhaps it's just an inconsistently-unstable filesystem driver, something which depending on the layout of files in the cache / order they were opened / etc might fail with 7 files or might work fine all the way up to 15 or 16.
amosnomor - I'm not seeing this here, oddly enough - you're sure that 2.0.2b3 is the version you've installed now, right? (check the About box) Are your flashcards configured to play audio only when showing the answer or do they play audio when a new card first appears too?
mikelove said:
It is 2.02b3. My flashcards are configured to play audio only when showing the answer. I have also just been able to demonstrate the problem on the dictionary side. Choose word with multiple syllables for which there is a single recording (as opposed to the built up audio pronunciations) and press the audio play button repeatedly. For example, 女朋友. It interrupts and restarts several times, but then crashes.