PlecoDict 1.0 Bug Report Thread
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
Yikes, this is a lot of posts... reviewing:
zig2101: try what chaiusa did and delete the Unihan database (if you've installed it) - a few other people have said by e-mail that they're also encountering crashes related to using Unihan, and it could easily cause the flashcard problem as well.
koreth (first few) - did you install your product keyfile the first time? The handwriting recognition files are part of that now, but it shouldn't be possible to unlock PlecoDict without installing the keyfile, so I'm surprised that the software was still unlocked.
koreth (next bug one) - that fatal exception crash may have also been related to Unihan (the Treo isn't always good about reporting error messages), try deleting that and see if it helps matters. Also, how much free space do you have on your Treo? If you've using a lot of custom dictionaries then a couple of MB would probably be best.
And nitpick bug reports are bug reports all the same, thanks very much for pointing that one out. (especially important on devices like the Treo which switch into number-shift mode for numeric fields)
goulniky - did you install the Unihan database? From what I've heard so far this seems like it could easily be Unihan-related too; if the dictionary can't find a match in the ABC then it'll scan through all of the other installed dictionaries, including Unihan.
Ross - this is related to your problem in the other topic, install the "Large High-Resolution Font" and this stuff should work. We really need to fix this in the manual...
haraldalbrecht - I second your recommendation to buy an external SD reader, they're dirt-cheap (< $10) and much more reliable than a HotSync. Of course if Palm simply did what Microsoft and Sony did and built drive-mounting functionality into every handheld we wouldn't have this problem...
Judy - I'll wait to see how the card-mounting turns out before weighing in in detail, but in general I think the best thing to do at this point would be to reformat the SD card, hard reset your Tungsten, delete the Backup, Install, CardInst, and QuickInstall subfolders in your Palm Desktop user folder, and start again from scratch. You might also consider updating to the latest version of Palm Desktop - on my system at least, installing a data file to an SD card brings up a helpful little progress meter that shows you the exact % transferred as it goes along.
zig2101: try what chaiusa did and delete the Unihan database (if you've installed it) - a few other people have said by e-mail that they're also encountering crashes related to using Unihan, and it could easily cause the flashcard problem as well.
koreth (first few) - did you install your product keyfile the first time? The handwriting recognition files are part of that now, but it shouldn't be possible to unlock PlecoDict without installing the keyfile, so I'm surprised that the software was still unlocked.
koreth (next bug one) - that fatal exception crash may have also been related to Unihan (the Treo isn't always good about reporting error messages), try deleting that and see if it helps matters. Also, how much free space do you have on your Treo? If you've using a lot of custom dictionaries then a couple of MB would probably be best.
And nitpick bug reports are bug reports all the same, thanks very much for pointing that one out. (especially important on devices like the Treo which switch into number-shift mode for numeric fields)
goulniky - did you install the Unihan database? From what I've heard so far this seems like it could easily be Unihan-related too; if the dictionary can't find a match in the ABC then it'll scan through all of the other installed dictionaries, including Unihan.
Ross - this is related to your problem in the other topic, install the "Large High-Resolution Font" and this stuff should work. We really need to fix this in the manual...
haraldalbrecht - I second your recommendation to buy an external SD reader, they're dirt-cheap (< $10) and much more reliable than a HotSync. Of course if Palm simply did what Microsoft and Sony did and built drive-mounting functionality into every handheld we wouldn't have this problem...
Judy - I'll wait to see how the card-mounting turns out before weighing in in detail, but in general I think the best thing to do at this point would be to reformat the SD card, hard reset your Tungsten, delete the Backup, Install, CardInst, and QuickInstall subfolders in your Palm Desktop user folder, and start again from scratch. You might also consider updating to the latest version of Palm Desktop - on my system at least, installing a data file to an SD card brings up a helpful little progress meter that shows you the exact % transferred as it goes along.
I haven't installed the Unihan database yet, so my crashes aren't related to that. All I have right now is the ABC and NWP dictionaries. I have about 7MB of free space in my main memory and 15MB free on my SD card. That should be enough, yes?
As for the HWR problem, when I restored from my hard reset, I didn't download a new keyfile. PlecoDict acted like it was still registered, but the HWR data wasn't there. If it happens again I'll try downloading a keyfile. (But hopefully it won't, since I've manually marked the HWR data file with the "backup" flag.)
As for the HWR problem, when I restored from my hard reset, I didn't download a new keyfile. PlecoDict acted like it was still registered, but the HWR data wasn't there. If it happens again I'll try downloading a keyfile. (But hopefully it won't, since I've manually marked the HWR data file with the "backup" flag.)
Actually Unihan would be listed there as "Unihan", so goulniky, you probably didn't install it. But if you've got two different User dictionaries showing up then something's definitely not right - have you added any custom entries yet? If not (or if you can stand to get lose them), try using FileZ to delete those two user databases (should be listed as PlecoDict User DB C-E, possibly with some numbers in there) and see if that fixes the problem.
And koreth, that should definitely be enough space, so it seems increasingly likely that this bug is not confined to Unihan. Which means you can all start looking forward to a 1.0.1 release (hopefully next week). Or perhaps we'll call it "1.0b" since this one's already listed as 1.0a in the about screen. Or maybe "1.0c" would be better since that way nobody will think it's a beta version (however much it may feel like one
)
And does this mean the handwriting recognition is working without you ever having installed a keyfile? That should be impossible - there's a whole separate key for the recognizer, without which it won't start up.
And koreth, that should definitely be enough space, so it seems increasingly likely that this bug is not confined to Unihan. Which means you can all start looking forward to a 1.0.1 release (hopefully next week). Or perhaps we'll call it "1.0b" since this one's already listed as 1.0a in the about screen. Or maybe "1.0c" would be better since that way nobody will think it's a beta version (however much it may feel like one
)And does this mean the handwriting recognition is working without you ever having installed a keyfile? That should be impossible - there's a whole separate key for the recognizer, without which it won't start up.
mikelove said:
Card mounting could not be done because CardInstall claims my free trial period is up (although it's supposed to be 21 days and I only downloaded it last night). It costs as much as a card reader, and so now I'm going out to buy one of those.
How do you reformat an SD card? No sign of any way to do it on my Tungsten. I did get the latest version of Palm Desktop (also last night). Too chicken to do a hard reset at this point, sorry.
Well, out to buy a card reader. Quem das finem, rex magne...
On the unmount, the CardExport II manual says that you need to eject the card volume from the Finder before disconnecting. This will ensure that any buffered information gets pushed out to the card.
Check out the upper right corner of the Card Export II page for information on the SDIO patch. http://www.softick.com/cardexport2/
Mike may be right about your rebuild, although I'd make sure I had a real good backup of the E and the card. I had to rebuild my T3 after an a beta test when I didn't have enough free memory and things got messed up.
Mike: Should Judy really remove the Backup directory if she is doing a hard reset?
No, I did install a keyfile after I blew away PlecoDict and reinstalled it from scratch. At that point it was obvious to me that a keyfile was needed. Before I did the complete reinstall, it acted like it was registered (wasn't limiting my dictionary searches) but no HWR. Haven't seen it act the other way around (HWR but not registered).
it does seem to be related to file Plecodict UserDict except PlecoDict always seems to recreate that file. When I first checked with FileZ there was one file with 2 children (same name followed by a string of numbers). Deleted them alright but when I go back to the dict. User C-E is still there, and sure enough it shows up in FileZ too.
The good news is by the time I wrote this post the search had completed so the Palm was no longer frozen :wink:
The good news is by the time I wrote this post the search had completed so the Palm was no longer frozen :wink:
Judy - you can reformat the card by going into the "Card Info" appliation and choosing the "Format Card" command from the menu bar.
And I suppose you don't have to delete the backup folder, just rename it - the main point is to make sure that nothing is initially reinstalled. But if you get a card reader then none of this other stuff is likely to matter.
koreth - thanks for the explanation.
goulniky - one of them should be there (and if it doesn't exist then it gets created on startup), but more than one means that all but one of them have some sort of data corruption, since that's the only reason why PlecoDict ever creates a new one. Perhaps this was related to a previous crash... I'm glad the search completed, but if it took that long then something is definitely not right.
And I suppose you don't have to delete the backup folder, just rename it - the main point is to make sure that nothing is initially reinstalled. But if you get a card reader then none of this other stuff is likely to matter.
koreth - thanks for the explanation.
goulniky - one of them should be there (and if it doesn't exist then it gets created on startup), but more than one means that all but one of them have some sort of data corruption, since that's the only reason why PlecoDict ever creates a new one. Perhaps this was related to a previous crash... I'm glad the search completed, but if it took that long then something is definitely not right.
Curiouser and curiouser
Well, I bought the card reader ($21.95). Copied the ABC.pdb file to it. The result was the same as with Card Install: the screen shows that the right amount of memory is occupied on the card, but no title appears. Nor does PlecoDict see it. ZFile sees it, though.
Within the card (as seen by ZFile, or when mounted on my desktop) there are two folders, Palm and, within that, Launcher. I have tried putting the file in different places, no difference.
Is the file somehow corrupt? I have downloaded it from the Pleco site more than once.
Well, I bought the card reader ($21.95). Copied the ABC.pdb file to it. The result was the same as with Card Install: the screen shows that the right amount of memory is occupied on the card, but no title appears. Nor does PlecoDict see it. ZFile sees it, though.
Within the card (as seen by ZFile, or when mounted on my desktop) there are two folders, Palm and, within that, Launcher. I have tried putting the file in different places, no difference.
Is the file somehow corrupt? I have downloaded it from the Pleco site more than once.
Where on the card did you copy the file? PlecoDict only searches certain directories - /Palm/Launcher (where HotSync'ed files normally go), /Palm/Programs/PlecoDict, and /Applications, so you'll want to put it in one of those three folders. As long as you do that, it should work.
mikelove said:
I tried it in Palm/Launcher. There was no folder saying /Programs/PlecoDict, or /Applications. Should I try to create them?
But I have no hope that it would work, since the handheld does not seem to see anything when I look at "Card" -- either in the home screen, or "delete" screen.
OK, I tried it in all of those places, nothing. It's not a matter just of PlecoDict not seeing the file; the handhold doesn't see it at all (although it takes up memory space, shows up in ZFile, and shows up if I mount the card on my desktop).
There's nothing wrong with the card; everything else copied to it shows up. I tried having the whole PlecoDict on the card. Everything worked fine but it didn't see the ABC file right next to it. I tried downloading a new copy of ABC from the Pleco site. The same. The rest of PlecoDict works fine and I installed CEDICT. So the handheld itself is fine. Just the abc file doesn't work and I am convinced never will. So now I have the same functionality I had before I installed the new software -- just $100 poorer.
There's nothing wrong with the card; everything else copied to it shows up. I tried having the whole PlecoDict on the card. Everything worked fine but it didn't see the ABC file right next to it. I tried downloading a new copy of ABC from the Pleco site. The same. The rest of PlecoDict works fine and I installed CEDICT. So the handheld itself is fine. Just the abc file doesn't work and I am convinced never will. So now I have the same functionality I had before I installed the new software -- just $100 poorer.
Hmm... the card reader might have formatted the card in FAT32 instead of FAT format, which the Palm can't read (one of a dozen Ridiculous Things You Have To Worry About, I know...) try going into "Card Info" on your Palm, use the "Format" command in that, then copy the file over to /Palm/Launcher again.
I'm embarrassed to say that I think I might have just figured out the problem and it was something that could have been happening all along. Try tapping-and-holding on the dictionary switcher button; does the ABC appear in that list? PlecoDict normally skips over demo dictionaries when paid ones are installed, unless you cycle to them specifically; we added that feature by popular request, since a lot of people were installing the demo ABC and the paid Oxford and getting confused.
If this doesn't work, the next thing I'd do is delete PlecoDict again (from your Tungsten's internal memory), and then install all of PlecoDict's data files *except* the PlecoDict application to the /Palm/Programs/PlecoDict directory. Install the PlecoDict program to /Palm/Launcher.
Insert the card back into your Palm, and use the Copy function (in the application launcher) to copy PlecoDict from your memory card to your Tungsten's main memory - because you put only the PlecoDict application in /Palm/Launcher, only that will copy over, and everything else will stay on the card.
If that doesn't work I'm going to start thinking a poltergeist is infecting your Tungsten...
Insert the card back into your Palm, and use the Copy function (in the application launcher) to copy PlecoDict from your memory card to your Tungsten's main memory - because you put only the PlecoDict application in /Palm/Launcher, only that will copy over, and everything else will stay on the card.
If that doesn't work I'm going to start thinking a poltergeist is infecting your Tungsten...