Beta 1 Bug Reporting

[ipsi]

Ok, I've got it the stroke order stuff working... In that I can do one flashcard and then get a soft reset.

I'm about to install the Radical Fix.

EDIT: Ok, I can now use radicals, but I seem to need to repeatedly select the radical box, as otherwise I only get a very small selection of them, which is a bit strange. I can get all of them to appear, but they don't by default.

Also, it turns out that I can get more than one flashcard to work for the stroke order testing, but it doesn't do all of them. Not by a long shot. I get 4 out of the 15 or so in the list. It also just did a soft reset on me after I went through the list without actually entering any strokes.

Strange. It also will only show the same four characters each time... What's up with that? Also just got another soft reset after getting to the end of the list, having just added a new flashcard (which didn't appear).

Finally, I don't see PlecoDict (But I do see Pleco Engine) listed in the applications I can set my hardware buttons to open, which is a bit strange.

 

[ipsi]

Ok, after having played around with the stroke order testing for a bit, it seems that it will occasionally do a soft reset after I've added cards to the list (either when I start the mode, or when I finish the mode, but not during), and it will sometimes add new flash cards (I added four new zhe-based ones, but it only selected two or three or something...). It also starts the index at 0, not at one, but that's a minor point.

Ok, it's now stopped doing soft resets. Maybe I have enough cards in the list now? It's still not going through all of them, however, which makes it rather broken. I also don't see a pattern...

 

[ipsi]

roddy - glad to hear that fixed it, though I'm not exactly sure why those files would have interfered with it - the way we designed it, 2.0 and 1.0 shouldn't even be able to see each other's data files.

jugdish - have you tried putting the 1.0 and 2.0 fonts in different places (one set in internal, the other in external memory for example) and seeing if that helps matters?

Putting the font files in different places helped. But I can't use my 1.3 ABC, C&T or NWP dictionaries, as they were overwritten by the 2.0 dictionaries, and I've no real desire to put them into internal memory, though I could if I had to. Oh, and the Unihan dictionary was overwritten as well, so I can't access that either (not that I really need to).

 

[mikelove]

ipsi - check the Rare box in radicals and that should (hopefully) get all of them to appear consistently.

With the missing flashcards in stroke order, this probably relates to the problem I mentioned earlier about single-character flashcards from some dictionaries not being recognized as such. It's basically just a glitch in the data files, but it means that you have to be very careful about which dictionary you create the cards from; ABC is I believe the best bet. Actually if you just go into the Edit Card screen, make the cards custom instead of dict-based and make sure they only have 1 character in the headword field, that should get the lengths recorded correctly.

The other problems sound like standard haven't-tested-thoroughly-enough crashing bugs... Clearly we weren't kidding with all of those warnings about the software not being finished yet.

As for the file placement issue, PlecoDict 1.0 can read files quite happily from the \Palm\Programs\PlecoDict directory on the card, so if you put the 1.0 versions of files there and the 2.0 versions in \Palm\Launcher you should be able to get them to fully coexist.

 

[ipsi]

I think most of them did actually come from the ABC dictionary. I'll try creating some by hand.

Yay! All my stuff now works from /.../Apps/Pleco

Ok, everything's good. I'd just like to be able to put 1.3 on my hard button, rather than 2.0.

When is the 2nd beta coming out? I know you've told us, but I've forgotten...

 

[sfrrr]

No formal bug report form, but please include the following information in any report:

- Type / model of your Palm or Pocket PC
- Firmware version, if available
- Cellular carrier, if applicable
- Type / size of memory expansion card, if any
- Free memory available (internal and on the card)
- Names of any system extensions / Chinese OSes installed

Mike--What sorts of system extensions are relevant to you? Only Chinese-related ones?

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

ipsi - I'm leaving for Asia on the 23rd so Beta 2 should be out a few days before then. And will pretty much be all about bug fixes, which could actually cover a lot of the missing features too since most of those are missing either because bugs have made them inaccessible or because they were so buggy that we temporarily disabled them. I'm about to start a Beta 2 Priorities thread to try to get some sense of what's annoying people the most so far.

sfrrr - Chinese OSes and anything that has to do with pen capture or file storage/backup/organization/etc.

 

[roddy]

So I had 2.0 working, as well as can be expected. However, when I reinstalled 1.03 it wouldn't start - just reset every time I tried to open it. I don't have time to diagnose I'm afraid, so just wiped all pleco files and did a fresh install of 1.03, which is now running fine (and I've got my flashcards back).

Not sure what was causing the problem. My TX is a couple of years old and to be honest there's a lot of 'legacy' (ie undeleted rubbish) lying around in the memory. When a stable version of 2.0 comes out I might just take the opportunity to do a hard reset and start from scratch. But unless others are reporting similar problems with trying to have both versions running side by side I'd assume I'm just an anomaly.

 

[gato]

- Handwriting recognition-based entry doesn't seem to trigger a search for some reason.

Anyone notice this bug?

 

[ipsi]

- Handwriting recognition-based entry doesn't seem to trigger a search for some reason.

Anyone notice this bug?

Yeah. I've noticed that, but for me it's all forms. I need to use the search button to get it to search (or actually enter a fully different screen, likeb prefs). Annoying, but workable.

 

[Jamie]

Mike,

I loaded the latest version of the Beta, plus the audio files. I was able to keep my old Pleco v. 1.3, so I'm not dead in the water. Pleco Beta loads and I can scroll through dictionaries and words.

Some problems:

1) I tried the audio files and all I heard was screeching.

2) When using the Search function, nothing appears in the bottom screen.

3) Using the Search function causes the program to freeze up, causing me to re-boot.

4) I would like to have a scroll bar along the right-hand word list. Clicking on the up-down arrows is too cumbersome.

4) Even when looking for an "A" word, the auto-search has quite a delay.

Mike, keep up the good work. It's a great product.

Jamie

- Type/model of Palm = Sony Clie PEG TH-55
- Firmware version = Palm v. 4.55S
- Internal Memory = 22233 K Free
- Card Memory = 751 M Free

 

[courtlandre]

1. The font rendering seems very slow compared to Plecodict 1.0. This may be due to something I installed incorrectly or something to do with the ROM I am using already has support for chinese characters.

I am using an HTC Hermes with a custom WM6 rom, voice works perfectly, albeit it could be a bit faster imo (as is they speak faster).

UPDATE:

I tried the mono-font (fonts with no anti-aliasing) on page 2 and it did not seem to make a difference.

- Type / model of your Palm or Pocket PC - HTC Hermes
- Firmware version, if available - GM360CJT Gold
- Cellular carrier, if applicable - China Mobile
- Type / size of memory expansion card, if any - 2GB SD card
- Free memory available (internal and on the card) Internal: lots on both
- Names of any system extensions / Chinese OSes installed - Some built in chinese support...

 

[ipsi]

The slowness thing is a known issue as far as I'm aware. Especially on Palm, they're aware there's a lot they need to do to get stuff working faster. Should be much better in the final .

Also, the screeching noise thing has been answered (in this thread, I think). You'll need your 2.0 keyfile to get it working properly. Though I think Mike said you'd need Palm OS 5.X for it somewhere. not sure though.

 

[beirne]

The big things that make the beta 1 unusable for me are that I can't get search to work, meaning I can't really do anything with the program at all. I can type something in the search box but nothing comes up underneath. The other problem is that my licensing gets lost, so that the 21st Century dictionary goes from having the full list of words to only having the demo set. I have to reinstall the keyfile to fix this.

- Type / model of your Palm or Pocket PC - Palm TX
- Firmware version, if available - 5.4.9
- Cellular carrier, if applicable - N/A
- Type / size of memory expansion card, if any - 1GB SD card
- Free memory available (internal and on the card) Internal: 57.2MB free, Card: 678MB free
- Names of any system extensions / Chinese OSes installed - CJKOS, Fitaly Virtual, UnCache

 

[ipsi]

The big things that make the beta 1 unusable for me are that I can't get search to work, meaning I can't really do anything with the program at all. I can type something in the search box but nothing comes up underneath.

Not sure about your licensing thing (maybe Uncache?), but to search you'll need to add the search button for now. Not sure where in the prefs (EDIT: 'Search Cmd Bar' preference menu), you'll find you can change the icons shown at the top of the screen. Make one the search button. I'd recommend either the '入' button or the 'Menu' button, personally.

 

[mikelove]

roddy - we didn't actually do any significant testing with 1.0 and 2.0 on the same system (hence the initially botched application file name), so there are probably at least a few other people experiencing the same problem; should be improved in the next beta, though given the potential for crashes / memory wipes / etc it's not necessarily a good idea to be installing this on your main Palm anyway, particularly not if you need 1.0 for work or school.

search bug - strangely enough this never came up in our testing, which leads me to think it might have something to do with preferences (which are the only part of the Palm version that have been seriously overhauled within the last week or so); there's actually supposed to be a "None" option in Delay Before Search so maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway the Search button should provide an interim fix, you can also put it in the Search Bar (the second-level one where the Input Field is) if you prefer having it right next to the Input Field; right below Cmd Bar in the Preferences panel.

Jamie - #1 is probably a demo version issue, unfortunately there's not yet any way to try out audio without purchasing it first. #2 is likely this same search-not-updating issue others have discussed, though I'm not sure about #3 - what type of Palm is this? How much free memory does it have? For #4, we've wanted to add this for a long time (and have done so on Pocket PC) but the problem is that Palm OS scroll bars can only support lists with a maximum of 65000 entries in them, so we'd essentially need to design our very own scrollbar system if we wanted to let people quickly scroll through our larger dictionaries.

courtlandre - yeah, known problem, though oddly enough font rendering speed seems to be fine on the couple of Pocket PCs we've tested it on; it's quite usable even on a VGA Dell Axim, though the 624 MHz processor might be contributing to that. Anyway we should definitely be able to improve this once we implement a glyph caching system and some of the other performance enhancements we haven't gotten around to yet; worst-case we can always enable the bitmap-only font system we use on Palm (which ran quite happily on 33 MHz pre-OS5 models) as an option for people who can't get decent performance out of the FreeType-based one we're using now.

beirne - search is probably that same bug, for the license getting lost I'd suggest that you unlock the software, immediately exit to your TX's application launcher, then do a soft reset; hopefully that will get the license committed to memory well enough that it'll stay there when you reopen Pleco.

 

[sfrrr]

I've yet to use PD2 b1 because I made the mistake of trying PD1x and it has well and truly messed with my Axim's system. During a soft reset, something renamed my 4 GB SD Card to SD Card2, making everything unavailable unless I use File Explorer to launch them manually. (Can't use the more powerful Resco File Explorer because it's on the SD Card.) This happened to me once before (caused by another beta crashing and renaming SD Card to SD Card 2). Trouble is, I can't remember how I fixed it. Probably in the registry.

As a result of all this, I can't transfer the fixed files onto my Axim. I'll remember later tonight.

Sandra
Dell Axim x51v running WM5 (OS 5.1.195, build 14957.2.3.1), 190.5 MB of which 120 MB are still free Main Memory storage, 49.4 MB total Program Memory of which 178 KB are still free, 4GB SanDisk SD card with 1354 MB free, 16 GB SanDisk CF Card with almost 15 GB still free, Mobem's CE Star IME.

 

[TaiwanSwedey]

There are no flashcards added to the flashcard lists (or categories as they are now called) after I've hit the the PLUS-button or clicked "add entry to flash" in the Modules menu.

The only categories available are "Default" and another one that I have created. They are both empty although I have clicked "add entry to flash" on loads of entries.

Eten Glofiish x500+ WM6, Internal storage total 52.52 MB with 8.04 MB free, Program memory total 45.20 MB with 10.77 MB free, 2GB Sandisk SD card with 1578.69 MB free, CE star installed

 

[mikelove]

Are you sure the flashcards aren't being created? Go to Manage Flashcards and choose some search that will cover every card (e.g. created date >= October 1st) and see if the flashcards come up on that. The most likely possibility is that the cards are being created but aren't being assigned to categories for some reason; the Default category isn't actually set to be on every card by default, you have to specifically go into the categories screen and enable it (with the Default button, which is rather confusing) before it'll be applied to all new flashcards. Unlike with lists in 1.0, in 2.0 cards exist independent of categories, so they can be assigned to more than one or can not be a member of any category at all.

 

[Alexis]

1) Cancel Button on Preferences can totally mess up the interface:

If you go to Dict->preferences, and go to any preferences change, when you hit the cancel button it does "something" that changes the user interface. The more you hit cancel, the more things that change. Finally when you hit 'done' all the graphical components are moved all over different areas of the screen and many no longer function. The most obvious ones are 'Search Cmd Bar' or 'Search Search Bar' (where the first column of numbers actually change when you hit cancel).

2) Search does not work for me either.

-------------------

Is there any easy way to delete my preferences so that I'm back to the original beta pleco install? Or is it necessary to re-install?

Thanks!
Alexis

- Type / model of your Palm or Pocket PC :Tungsten T3
- Type / size of memory expansion card: 512MB SD
- Free memory available (internal and on the card): internal (36.4MB), Card (287.2MB)
- Names of any system extensions / Chinese OSes installed: None