Better Experimental Beta 3 Palm Crashing Fix

[mikelove]

Is now posted here:

(link removed, fix now incorporated into Beta 3a - see the announcement for a download link for that)

We finally managed to reproduce the startup crashing bug that has been plaguing ipsi et al - it turns out that it only comes up when the software is NOT being run with a debugger, which is why we couldn't reproduce it before. And it did indeed have something to do with the radical database; there was a bug that in some cases could cause a variable in the radical table load function to be non-32-bit-word-aligned, which would result in a crash when it went into ARM processor mode. Where that variable ended up remained consistent on a specific system/build, which is why some people could start up the new beta without any problems and others would have it crash every time. Anyway, this should now be at least as stable as Beta 2 for everyone so once we get a little more feedback we'll put these fixes and the PPC ones into an official consolidated Beta 3(a) release.

 

[ipsi]

Yay! It works! It works!

 

[mikelove]

Great! How's it look so far?

 

[ipsi]

Not bad, but there seriously needs to be a popup version of the [document reader] definition window. With the added space requirements of the navigation menus, I'm really hurting for screen realestate on my poor 320x320 screen...

There's also all sorts of miscellaneous issues with the reader, but I'm sure you're aware of those (can't select one character from a word, buttons don't work, etc).

I'll have a look at the flashcards and post in the feedback thread when I've got an opinion.

 

[mikelove]

Oh yeah, the reader's definitely the least refined part of Pleco right now. And a definition window is certainly coming, particularly since I've been spending more time with Pleco's Treo 680 lately...

 

[ipsi]

The 680 is a pretty nice device . I'm very happy with mine. Much better for me than a TX.

One other thing I would like is to be able to scroll like in a normal program (i.e. web browser), so I can drag the scrollbar down to get to the end of the file, rather than the current way of repeatedly hitting the button to scroll a screenful at a time. This made more frustrating by the small amount of text shown at any given time.... Not sure if this can be done with your special code for reading only the minimum possible data off the card though.

 

[mikelove]

It's not a problem with loading chunks of the file, actually, the issue is word wrapping - calculating the exact number of lines in a long document would take way too long to be practical, and a scrollbar that resized as you scrolled through a file like you might see in MS Word would be very hard to get working correctly on Palm. But you can jump to the end of a document with the jump palette; just tap on the percentage counter at the bottom of the screen and then tap the End button. (doesn't work on PPC yet, sorry guys)

 

[ipsi]

You've got some fairly obvious issues with wrapping as it stands...

I also would never have discovered the jump feature, which fully makes up for the lack of a scroll bar. You need to make the buttons slightly more obvious...

 

[haraldalbrecht]

While the first beta3 patch a.x fixed the audio issue for me and I never had the stroke issue on my TX, I just checked your a.x2 to make sure that it does not break in a new way. So far, it looks also good over here.

Is it considered to be normal for beta 3 that when running a flash card session only the abort button is visible, but no other buttons?

Now, if only the redraw problems would go away: whenever I have to use the dialog for inputting drawn characters, the right part of the TX screen (landscape mode) is left in a state of mess.

 

[Alexis]

Mike, Thanks for the fix!

I can now start up pleco on my Tungsten T3 with no problems.

 

[The Duelist]

this should now be at least as stable as Beta 2 for everyone so once we get a little more feedback we'll put these fixes and the PPC ones into an official consolidated Beta 3(a) release.

Hi Mike

The Palm Beta3 Release Seems To Be a Bit of a Mess :?
(There are Bits & Pieces In Downloads All Over the Forum.)

If Things Have Stabilized,
Could A Set Of Palm Beta3 Files be Packaged, Along Instructions of What Beta2 Files Need to Be Cleaned Up.

TIA
The Duelist

 

[mikelove]

ipsi - yeah, we really need to put in a dedicated jump button there. And figure out a way to integrate it more nicely with the new bookmark feature.

haraldalbrecht - if you enable some other buttons in the Display part of the settings panel, does that get them to appear or does it stay just the one exit button? And yeah, we haven't really done any testing at all with landscape mode yet so it's expected there'd be some graphical messiness.

Alexis - glad to hear it!

The Duelist - done, thanks for reminding me.

 

[ipsi]

Yep. Also, does the bookmark button work? I pressed it repeatedly, and I'm not sure what was supposed to happen...

 

[mikelove]

Not yet, no. The backend is actually mostly implemented, we just haven't gotten around to connecting it to the UI yet.

 

[The Duelist]

8) Thanx, I Now Have PlecoDict2 Beta3 Up And Running On My T5.

 

[haraldalbrecht]

Missing buttons

Hello Mike,

I'm not sure which preferences page you are referring to: the "Display" tab in PlecoDict's overall preferences dialog doesn't have any buttons to switch on or off. So you are probably referring to the FlashCard preferences, that is, the profile settings, right?

Now: checked in the "Display" tab of Profile Settings the boxes for "Magnify chars in headword" and "Card Info". Tapped "Done", then "New Flashcard Session". Next: checked test on "Reading", "Start Session". Now: if the silk screen area is shown (320x320 px resolution), then PlecoFlash shows the proper buttons for "i" (info), "X" (exit), and reveal. But if the silk screen area is retracted (480x320 px landscape) before I open the PlecoFlash dialog, then later some buttons are missing (which buttons are missing depends on whether I started Pleco in 480x320 or 320x320 mode). However, I can see the reveal button shortly getting displayed and then vanishing, as it probably gets moved out of the visible screen estate.

For fun: showing and retracting the silk screen area while the flash card dialog is shown will throw the reveal button out of sight.

-- Harald

Palm TX with 2GB SD card, PlecoDict 2.0 Beta 3(a.x2)

 

[mikelove]

Yes, I was referring to the profile settings. Not sure what's going on with the buttons disappearing but it sounds like yet another example of us not having tested the software enough - anyway I'm glad to know they're showing up at 320x320 at least.

 

[haraldalbrecht]

(thanks for the long-term support!)

Dear Mike,

I'm just noticing that I joined the forum some four years ago -- and that means that I'm already for more than four years a happy customer of yours. Thank you very much for developing such a fine product and for the fine support all the time! It is good to see that you are constantly improving your dictionary product in such great ways.

-- Harald

 

[Smoodo]

Took the plunge and what a nice one. Last night I decided to give Pleco 2.0 a try and think that it's fabulous. I'm using a Treo 680 to run it. I like the direction the flashcards are going, sound is an interesting addition and the stroke order is very well done. I love the addition of "what other words use this character" and the like. Very nice, very nice.

The software is sexy like Mac OS, in the end, it's beautiful and done right. Very good job Mike. I'm looking forward to the final version and as I learn more about the software at this point I'll give more feedback.

Thank you and everyone else here for your hard work and insights that make this a great community site and culminate in such a wonderful tool.

 

[mikelove]

haraldalbrecht - you're very welcome! I didn't realize PlecoForums had been up and running for that long, in spite of my 2000+ post count - glad to have you still coming back after this long.

Smoodo - thanks! 2.0 still needs a lot of cleaning up but I'm glad to hear it's looking good for you so far, particularly as a user of the often trouble-prone 680.