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Post by George on Mar 17, 2021 13:36:31 GMT -5
Hi, Here's the first real beta. It's not a full release with installer, but at least it contains the CHM, PDF doc files, and the CFGMaint tool. Again I must say - BUT FIRST!This may be a Beta, but unlike the previous early Betas, this will access and use your normal production CFG file. So Copy / Backup your SPFLite.CFG file first, just to be safe.I have done many runs against my old V2.3 CFG file and I think this release should run just fine. It will make some changes to the CFG file, but the old 2.3 version should also run happily with the converted CFG file.
The CHM file has the altered topics flagged in the left hand column with the small page icon with a red asterisk so you don't have to scan the whole document.
If you 'play' with the CFGMaint tool be aware that I have cleaned up and coordinated the handling of LastAccess timestamps within the CFG file, so you will receive messages about correcting these entries, allow CFGMaint to perform the cleanup.
As always, comments, bug reports, whatever are all welcome and wanted.
The ZIP file contains:
SPFLite24.EXE
CFGMaint.EXE
SPFTest.EXE
SPFlite.CHM
SPFLite.PDF
SPFLite Edit Macros.CHM
SPFLite Edit Macros.PDF
Just copy this stuff to your Install folder to test it. Creating a Desktop Shortcut for SPFLite24.EXE is handy.
Use the following link to download the ZIP file.
SPFLite2.4.21099Beta.zip Updated Apr 9@ 12:21 EDT
George |
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Post by Jo on Mar 17, 2021 16:18:51 GMT -5
George: First, thanks a lot for your great work !
2nd, CFGMaint.EXE is not there, it's CFGMaint.bas instead 3rd, I have a problem in reading SPFLite.chm, can not see any text.
[update: 3rd solved, does not work from download folder, had to extract to a private folder]
Jo
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Post by George on Mar 18, 2021 8:40:28 GMT -5
Robert: The OO and WW are there, just overlooked them in the Doc. BTW, there were lots of other Doc. tweaks to do that were missed in previous releases.
George
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Post by George on Mar 18, 2021 8:42:12 GMT -5
Jo: Dumb error. I'll recreate the ZIP file and re-upload it.
Not sure why the CHM didn't work, they should open properly no matter where they are. Or did you attempt to open it while in a ZIP file browse mode?
George
===> I was able to open the Zip with WinZip and then open the CHM, that's how I found the missing doc. Didn't have any problem opening the CHM at all. - R |
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Post by George on Mar 18, 2021 8:56:47 GMT -5
The ZIP file as been replaced with a corrected one. It includes CFGMaint.EXE (not .BAS - Oops!) and now includes the Macros CHM file and slightly updated CHM and PDF for the main Doc. files. The main SPFLite24.EXE has not changed.
George
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Post by Stefan on Mar 18, 2021 11:04:08 GMT -5
George,
This is my own FAULT! I failed to note the small print in your opening note that this v2.4beta will use MY NORMAL CFG file. The previous one used a .CFG2 file.
So on loading this 2.4beta, it ingested my 'live' the v2.3 SPFLITE.CFG file.
Re 2.4 and CFG file compatibility....
The very latest 2.4beta released in the ZIP file with the CFMAINT.EXE in it, doesn't seem to like the CFG file left by the version 2.3. When I start the latest v2.4beta SPFLite.EXE with the 2.3 CFG file it fails to start:
First I see a Pop-Up... The FM Layout String is invalid:
NAME(60).EXT,LWDATETIME,SIZELONG
Error: Invalid Operand: EXT, the layout will be ignored
Then Clicking <OK> I see...
Untrapped Error #76 (Path not found) has occurred following execution of DOLOOPHA Press OK to continue, Cancel to terminate
Always the optimist I go for <OK> and get... Untrapped Error #52 (Bad file name or number) has occurred following execution of DOLOOPHA
Press OK to continue, Cancel to terminate
If I stick with replying <OK>, I see the same twice more, then followed by
SPFLite V(2.4.21076) SPFLite has encountered an execution exception (C00000005)
Last Interactions were: Module Back Trace: 00 | REALPBMAIN
Note: A copy of this message is in C:\$User\SPFLITECFG\SPFLiteCrash.2021031815370773.txt
By the way, that last statement isn't true. There's no such file. I mention this only as it may help you find why it died.
For reference, (1) V2.3 runs fine with this CFG file. (2) I exported the offending CFG file with the latest version (2.4.21076) of CFGMAINT and it reported 3 errors:
CFGMaint - Table: ODEFAULT, Entry: $LASTPROFUPDATE=210318@14:13:23.47 is Obsolete / Invalid, Dropped
CFGMaint - Table: ODEFAULT, Entry: FMRECENTSORT=NAMEUP is Obsolete / Invalid, Dropped
CFGMaint - Table: ODEFAULT, Entry: FMAUTOMEDIA=30 is Obsolete / Invalid, Dropped
I guess I now get to reconstruct a valid CFG file from a virgin v2.4beta one, merging in my profiles and ODEFAULT settings and then importing it via CFGMAINT. What joy, but it's my fault, hence I must suffer so I learn my lesson!.
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Post by George on Mar 18, 2021 13:42:19 GMT -5
Stefan: Do you have a backup of your original CFG, or an Export of it? What you experienced is very worrisome.
The start-up code in 2.4 has specific code to remove the EXT and NOTE definitions from the FMLayout, so I'm not clear how it then ends up complaining about EXT.
The export complained about FMAUTOMEDIA, that couldn't have been in your 2.3 CFG file, and 2.4 doesn't even have that string within the code, as the variable was added at one point in the early Beta, and ultimately taken out. So where did it come from?
Somewhere, somehow your production CFG and Beta CFG2 files have gotten muddled together. I'm at a loss.
George
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Post by Stefan on Mar 19, 2021 6:41:36 GMT -5
George,
FIRST: On further reflection, I don't think this is necessarily an issue as users will typically switch from "v2.3 official release" or earlier to "v2.4 official release". As long as that transition works, they won't encounter what I encountered with several beta versions and also repeated switching between v2.3 and v2.4beta in between. And despite my experience, that switch from v2.3 to v2.4 worked (see below). It was a subsequent switch from (I think!!!) v2.4beta(1) to 2.4beta(now) that didn't work.
I can't really tell any more which of several config files 'belongs' to which SPFLITE version. Suggestion 1: Would/might it be useful if there were an entry in the CFG file which records which version created or last converted it. SPFLIte might even check that the CFG is in a supported format)
SECOND: I believe I deploy insufficient separation between versions when testing. I shall need to provide a separate SPFLite config folder in future to keep stuff like the CFG more separate than presently.
Presently, I have 3 desktop icons to start SPFLite v2.3 (official release), SPFLite v2.3 (update) and SPFLite v2.4 (several beta version one after the other) And I (probably unfairly) rely on your wizard skills to tolerate the CFG format regardless (which thus far has always been the case).
(Note that while the 3 icons mean I can manually start any version I like, the same is not true if I double-click a file to edit it.
In that case Windows opens the associated application, which is always SPFLITE2.EXE (not SPFLITE2n.EXE). This starts using whatever SPFLite.CFG file it finds, which might already be open by another instance of a different level or have been modified by another level) While the new version tolerates an older-format CFG file, it is probably unreasonable to expect the older SPFLite version to play nice with a newer format CFG)
Boring Bit: My approximate time line:I had the official v2.3 (SPFLITE 2.EXE) as released in January, plus later v2.3 (SPFLITE 23.EXE) updates. They all shared the same SPFLite.CFG file. For the first 2.4beta I created a .CFG2 copy as instructed. So now I had a separate SPFLite2.CFG2 for v2.4beta (SPFLITE24.EXE). At at this stage I decided to "visually" separate v2.4 from v2.3 by changing some of the colour scheme so I could tell which version I was looking at.
Then another v2.4beta came along but I didn't realise you had switched back to using SPFLite.CFG (not CFG2). My bad! v24beta started without a hitch (hence I doubt normal users would see would I saw), but I immediately noticed that it didn't reflect my revised v2.4 colour scheme.
But by then, I had overwritten the v2.3 SPFLITE.CFG file.
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Post by Stefan on Mar 19, 2021 10:49:17 GMT -5
George, EXTRA to my previous post... If you want to see why the startup crashes occurred, the attached CFG file is the culprit that caused the described scenario. But I do not know the sequence of events that occurred to make it go bad when v2.4beta looked at it.
As I said, v2.3,21053 and 2.3.21056 are quite happy with it, but 2.4.21076 still raises the above failure events on startup.
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Post by George on Mar 19, 2021 10:49:48 GMT -5
Stefan: OK, that explains properly what you were describing.
I've always strived to make the upgrade as automatic as possible. This Beta unfortunately suffered from too many good ideas from the Beta testers and revisions to what was actually changing, the old moving target problem. And my cautiousness in using a CFG2 file for a while ended up making some things more awkward.
The other problem is my normal tendency to 'clean up' stuff I stumble on as I work. In this release there was LastProfUpdate and LastAccess variables. One being obsolete, the other having inconsistent format. I should really honor the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' procedure.
George
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Post by Stefan on Mar 19, 2021 13:04:09 GMT -5
Hi George,
The latest v24beta.ZIP package for v2.4.21076 at the top of this thread contains two .chm documentation files.
The SPFLite,CHM file functions properly once extracted from the ZIP archive. The SPFLite Edit Macros.chm file does not.
Even when extracted from the archive, it displays the left panel (Contents) but none of the links go anywhere.
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Post by George on Mar 19, 2021 14:51:33 GMT -5
Stefan: I just downloaded and unzipped the latest ZIP file pointed to by the initial post. The macros CHM opens and displays perfectly for me.
??
Anyone else having problems?
George
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Post by George on Mar 19, 2021 15:12:25 GMT -5
Stefan: Had a look at the failing CFG file you uploaded.
It is NOT a 2.3 CFG file, it is one from some earlier 2.4 Beta test. The FMLayout string in there is:
NAME(60),EXT,LWDATETime,SIZELONG
Which 2.4 looks at and says - "Ooh, I see a ( character, which wasn't legal in 2.3, so this must already be a 2.4 corrected Layout string."
So it does nothing to migrate the string. Then later it sees EXT (which is no longer valid, and which would have been removed as part of string migration) and complains loudly.
But it still shouldn't crash, I will track that down and correct it.
George
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Post by George on Mar 20, 2021 12:32:17 GMT -5
Stefan: Robert: I have been looking at the problem of FilePath reverting back to C:\ occasionally. This is educated conjecture based on what I see in the code, but I believe it will only occur when SPFLite is started via a command line operand to open a file or path. i.e. by dropping a file on the icon, or via a real command line.
So I corrected the way command line overrides are injected into the normal flow, we'll just have to see if it does the trick.
There is a new Beta uploaded - V2.4.21079 - available in the 1st posting in this thread.
George
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Post by Jo on Mar 20, 2021 18:35:25 GMT -5
.CHM file problem: Maybe the same issue I had some days before. When doubleclicking the .chm file, there is a windows security popup telling you that the file is from internet. Usually I just click "Öffnen" (open) and thats it. But not with .chm ... then only the left side is filled, right side data is missing. But on this popup, there is a checkbox which must be unchecked to work for me: Jo
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