Beta 8(b) and 8(c) / Release Candidate 2 Bug Report Thread

[beirne]

I'm found a way to make 8(c) crash on a Palm. I can easily switch between English and Chinese until I try playing the audio of a character. Then if I click on the 中 to switch back to English the Palm crashes. This happens every time and on both of my Palms, a TX and a T3. I removed all old Pleco files on the TX before intalling 8(b) and 8(c) but just installed on top of the files on the T3.

Beirne

 

[mikelove]

ctop - we're thinking about adding support for that in a future version like 2.1.

beirne - hmm, I'm not seeing this here - which dictionaries are you switching between? Have you changed any of the search settings from their defaults? Have you installed both sets of audio files? Try deleting all of the audio files, installing just the latest set of male ones and see if that gets rid of the crashes. It sounds a bit like an out-of-memory error (that would explain the crash on a dictionary switch, since it can't find a way to load that dictionary's data into its memory cache) though the audio system seems to be pretty reliable about clearing out the memory it's using in the latest versions.

 

[beirne]

beirne - hmm, I'm not seeing this here - which dictionaries are you switching between? Have you changed any of the search settings from their defaults? Have you installed both sets of audio files? Try deleting all of the audio files, installing just the latest set of male ones and see if that gets rid of the crashes. It sounds a bit like an out-of-memory error (that would explain the crash on a dictionary switch, since it can't find a way to load that dictionary's data into its memory cache) though the audio system seems to be pretty reliable about clearing out the memory it's using in the latest versions.

Mike,

While getting the information to answer your questions, I found that playing audio isn't the key, it is selecting text. Here's my minimal steps to reproduce the problem:

- Start Pleco
- Select English with the NWP dictionary (others may fail too)
- Tap on the 英 to get to the Chinese-English side
- Select the ABC dictionary (once again it may not matter)
- Using the cursor select some Chinese characters
- Tap on the 中 in the upper left. It crashes every time.


I also just tried turning off Fitaly and CJKOS. As it happens, when I started Pleco it put me right into Chinese. I selected some characters and tapped the 中 and got an instant crash again.

Thanks,
Beirne

 

[mikelove]

OK, found/fixed I think - you've enabled the "Fall back on full-text search" option, right? I'm emailing you a test update now, let me know if it makes a difference.

 

[dom]

when i look up "otter" in the NWP, i get the definition for "Ottoman" attached to the bottom of it. looks like a dictionary file problem? i am running this on a Palm Centro.

 

[zoltairwright]

I might be in the distinct minority with this one, but here goes... I own a device with a hardware number pad (iPAQ 614c), which uses the xT9 input method (produced by Tegic). It's a non-standard input method that catches the number key input and turns it into proper T9. (I think it's used in a few other devices with number pads, including the HTC Touch Dual.) Usually, you use the D-pad to select among possible entries, but unfortunately PlecoDict catches the D-pad input and scrolls up and down the dictionary entries instead. It makes selecting among words sort of a pain when entering English text.

EDIT: The bug is actually worse than I thought. When in ABC mode instead of T9, I can't see the letters I'm entering until I select them.

 

[stephanhodges]

Tapcis Palm

When in flashcard mode (landscape), I switched to portrait mode and finished the session and the review session. At that point, the small button that allows switching landscape / portrait mode is disabled. Quitting the manage flashcard dialog and returning to the dictionary does reenable it, however, so it's just something to note in the "known problems" release documentation, unless you need to fix it for some other reason... :~)

 

[tsibbs]

I think I discovered part of the problem

If the entire dictionary entry is input in search, it will find the dictionary entry, but if only the first character(s) is/are input it will not find words starting with those characters. Is there a way to change this: a setting somewhere, or will I be stuck having to type the full entry in order to find definitions?

I will send you the dictionary file as soon as I get a chance,
Tim

 

[beirne]

OK, found/fixed I think - you've enabled the "Fall back on full-text search" option, right? I'm emailing you a test update now, let me know if it makes a difference.

Yes, I see that I have the option enabled. I just turned the option off and the crash doesn't occur anymore. I then installed your test update and tried the scanario with the option turned off and on and it no longer crashes. Thanks!

Beirne

 

[radioman]

With regard to Palm and Graffiti on my E2, I am seeing behavior that is related to my previous comments about Pleco going off and running before the input is finished. Not a big deal, just a bit of an annoyance with the less than stellar digitizer in the palm always providing a good chance for input error.

The situation I am seeing is that, If I start writing in Graffiti on my Palm to enter a word into the dictionary, where backspaces are then utilized, the program goes off and searching for results before I am done entering the input.

For instance, choosing a simple word like "pengyou"... If I make a mistake in the input and enter "pengou" then immediately hit the backspace (a reverse dash), the "u" disappears, then I hit back space again and the "o" disappears. However, I think it is at this point the program is off and running.

The timing I have set for starting the search is 1.5 seconds. However, my entry of the word and the backspaces at no time is more than a half second. It seems like the back spaces might not be resetting the 1.5 second timer (but I am guessing).

 

[radioman]

@koreth,

I also have parallels running XP here on my mac so might give it a try in the hopes that will not screw up the file names (if there are other limitations anyone knows about that are showstoppers, please pass along).

Thanks.

@radioman -

You can move most of the files over using a USB reader but be careful about upper and lower case. At least on my Mac, by default the files get created on the SD card with all-caps filenames, which means Pleco (Palm version) doesn't recognize them. Rename them to all lower case and you should be good to go. Would be cool if Pleco were case-insensitive when it looked for its files but I'm not sure that even counts as a bug since this isn't how you're really supposed to install that stuff.

And an actual bug report in 8c: In the "Manage Dictionaries" dialog, switching between "English" and "Chinese" doesn't change the list of dictionaries.

 

[The Duelist]

@koreth,

I also have parallels running XP here on my mac so might give it a try in the hopes that will not screw up the file names (if there are other limitations anyone knows about that are showstoppers, please pass along).

Thanks.

@radioman -
You can move most of the files over using a USB reader but be careful about upper and lower case. At least on my Mac, by default the files get created on the SD card with all-caps filenames, which means Pleco (Palm version) doesn't recognize them. Rename them to all lower case and you should be good to go. Would be cool if Pleco were case-insensitive when it looked for its files but I'm not sure that even counts as a bug since this isn't how you're really supposed to install that stuff.

Hi Radioman

On My MacBook (Pro C2D) Files Are Copied To An SD Card With Their Names Intact.
(ie. No Need To Run Through Parallels/Bootcamp)
It's Only The Name Of Drives That Are Formatted FAT32 That Seem To Get Converted To Upper-Case.

I Am Able To Install Software To My Palm T5
By Putting It (.prc File) On An SD Card,
Then Moving It To The Device.

Hope This Helps
The Duelist

 

[mikelove]

dom - interesting, looks like those were combined in 1.0 too - I'll add it to the corrections list for the next time we update NWP.

zoltairwright - a few other people have mentioned T9, actually, but we don't have a good way to fix this yet unfortunately - capturing hardware button presses on Windows Mobile is really tricky and in order to get the direction buttons to reliably work for scrolling between entries we have to make it difficult for other controls to take them over. Might be fixable in a future version, though, depending on how successful we are with working around other hardware button issues.

stephanhodges - the Zodiac's wacky screen orientation control strikes again - we'll take a look at this for 2.0.1.

tsibbs - by "not find words," do you mean that it shows you a "no matches were found" error or does it just switch you to another dictionary? If the latter, that's actually normal behavior since it assumes you'd prefer a match for the exact query that you entered - to turn that off and have it always stay in the current dictionary, enable the "Search only in current dictionary" option in the Results panel of Preferences. (no need to send the dictionary file if that fixes this) If the former, I'm not sure what might be causing this - this is a regular dictionary search, right, not in the document reader or the Edit Card screen?

beirne - great! This was a bug of the missing-punctuation-mark variety so thankfully it won't require another test release to make sure we didn't screw anything else up in the process of fixing it.

radioman - yeah, because of the way that "don't search on backspace" option is implemented the software doesn't actually know that all you did was enter a backspace until it's already reset the timer; we can take a look at this for 2.0.1 though.

 

[radioman]

I will do some experimentation next go and see how it goes. I think it would simplify things, and make housekeeping easier. Thanks to all for the input.

@koreth,

I also have parallels running XP here on my mac so might give it a try in the hopes that will not screw up the file names (if there are other limitations anyone knows about that are showstoppers, please pass along).

Thanks.

@radioman -
You can move most of the files over using a USB reader but be careful about upper and lower case. At least on my Mac, by default the files get created on the SD card with all-caps filenames, which means Pleco (Palm version) doesn't recognize them. Rename them to all lower case and you should be good to go. Would be cool if Pleco were case-insensitive when it looked for its files but I'm not sure that even counts as a bug since this isn't how you're really supposed to install that stuff.

Hi Radioman

On My MacBook (Pro C2D) Files Are Copied To An SD Card With Their Names Intact.
(ie. No Need To Run Through Parallels/Bootcamp)
It's Only The Name Of Drives That Are Formatted FAT32 That Seem To Get Converted To Upper-Case.

I Am Able To Install Software To My Palm T5
By Putting It (.prc File) On An SD Card,
Then Moving It To The Device.

Hope This Helps
The Duelist

 

[stephanhodges]

Had my Tapcis crash while showing off the full text search stuff to someone. I did a number of things, so I really can't report on the steps. (Too bad there isn't an automatic recorder of the last 100 steps / things done by the user!)

Anyway, I was cycling through all the dictionaries, and did some highlighting of characters and pop up small dictionary window. I also used the highlight text and the move to input line control (the crooked arrow) during this. I think I had full text search on the whole time (I have a soft button configured on the second toolbar for this). I might have also followed a couple links to other words.

Lastly, I remember using the large back arrow a bunch of times (the second button on the top row) and then the combo box to reselect the original item.

Shortly after that, I exited the full text search by tapping the button again. It crashed either immediately, or shortly thereafter. Strangely, that's the part I can't recall -

 

[radioman]

Fatal Crash as follows on my Palm E2.


enter "#jiuxiang"

The dictionary will then search and find nothing (I do believe).

Now "add a card to the flashcard deck", and the fatal exception occurs repeatably.

I am using tealscript right now so not sure if that exacerbates the issue.

 

[mfcb]

i wonder if i am alone with that problem, i think i read the whole bug-thread, even the audio one...

i'm using a Dell Axim X51v, german os. i have the option "play audio automatically" enabled. sometimes during a flashcard session the audio stops playing and it is by no means possible to enable it again. it also does not play the sound, when the audio button is pressed. it also does not play the "beep" that is normally played when resuming a stopped flashcard session... the only way to reactivate the sound is, to quit pleco and start again.

yesterday i had the situation, that the frequency of failure raised to "every card". i rebooted the dell, since then no problem yet...

 

[tsibbs]

It used to just cycle to the other dictionaries (If I clicked on the dictionary icon, it would cycle through the other dictionaries, but not the user one)

If I select "Search only in current dictionary" and enter a partial query, I get a "No matches (exact or approximate) were found for the search query entered."
If I finish entering the query, it finds the entry.

I emailed you the dictionary file.

tsibbs

 

[mfcb]

EDIT: sorry for the post, i found that the bug is not like i described it... still searching for the truth...

 

[zoltairwright]

... capturing hardware button presses on Windows Mobile is really tricky and in order to get the direction buttons to reliably work for scrolling between entries we have to make it difficult for other controls to take them over. Might be fixable in a future version, though, depending on how successful we are with working around other hardware button issues.

Is there maybe a way to disable Pleco catching the directional keys? I use FTouchSL for scrolling and don't need them to navigate.