🚀 go-pugleaf

"Paul Rees" <paulrees@page87.invalid> wrote in message
news:OzrkirGZrv87EwnT@kabsi.at...
> Hi,
>
> I previously posted most of the following points over the course of
some
> days, spread out among several messages and 2 newsgroups. I didn't get
> much of a response so I though I'd get consolidate everything here and
> try my luck one more time before leaving it.
>
> In short, I recently downloaded the demo version of CW 8.0 and, whilst
> working my way through the tutorial, encountered several possible
bugs.
> I am not sure whether they are related to CW as a whole or just the
> specific code provided with the demo.
>
> I'm very much interested in purchasing CW but have some reservations
as
> a result of my tutorial experience. If anyone is able to confirm,
refute
> or explain the problems I would be very grateful.

OK, I'll see what I can do.

> 1. Chapter 7 is all about bitmaps. At one point one is asked to create
> an image with a coloured background. I found that there seems to be a
> bug in the Palm Constructor bitmap editor. If you use the Paint Bucket
> Tool (for the 8 bit colour image, maybe other resolutions as well) the
> image becomes corrupted. You can see the result by immediately
> attempting to edit the image once it has been saved - multicoloured
> vertical lines where your image once was. Should you try to 'make' the
> project, the CW IDE closes down without any warnings. Using a 'shape
> fill' tool (for example) instead within Palm Constructor bitmap
editor,
> all is well.

First, Constructor is a Palm product, not a Metrowerks one.  It is
supplied as part of the Palm OS SDK, and bug reports and new versions
come from Palm, not us.  Palm should be releasing a newer version of
this sometime soon, but I've not heard a confirmed date.  Many people
have seen the color bugs -- I don't have any real solutions, other than
to suggest you use the PilRC plugin to import bitmap files rather than
create and edit them in that program.

The IDE is crashing due to a bitmap import problem in the Palm Rez
PostLinker, another Palm-supplied component that handles building the
final program from the MacOS format resources output by Constructor.

> 2. If you start Constructor for Palm OS by double clicking on a
resource
> file in the CodeWarrior IDE, Constructor for Palm OS cannot find it's
> help file:
>
> 'Cannot find c:\Program Files\Metrowerks\CodeWarrior\Palm
> Tools\Help\Constructor for Palm OS.HLP'
>
> BUT if you open Constructor for Palm OS 'normally' (as a separate
> application), it finds it's help file here:
>
> 'c:\Program Files\Metrowerks\CodeWarrior\Palm Tools\Constructor\'

This seems to be a problem with the default directory concept in
Constructor.  This is another bug to report to Palm.

I hate to pass these bugs off as Palm problems which we can't fix, but
thats the current reality.  We're trying to improve our relationship
with Palm and get them to have a quicker turnaround for user problems.

> 3. From as soon as it is introduced, the database aspect of the
tutorial
> application just plain doesn't work. Information entered into the
> database keeps cropping up in the wrong places, i.e. Tues Errands
appear
> in Sun in the 'Create' form, but sometimes correctly in the 'View'
form.
> The more you click around and enter and view data, the less sense it
> makes. Also, eventually, spurious ASCII characters are pre-pended to
> your data. This problem can be clearly seen when using a de-bug ROM
and
> selecting 'Sun' in the create form. Immediately the (garbage) contents
> of presumably some other memory location appear...
>
> Additionally, using  a 3.3 debug ROM, when running the app, select
> 'Complete' form... if you then select 'View Errands...', for any day
> other than Wednesday (the longest string) you get to see the 'spill
> over' characters. i.e.,
> Sun shows Sundaysday
> Mon shows Mondayday
> ...etc.
>
> Using a 3.5 ez ROM, all looks as expected.
>
> These database problems are still visible right at the end of the
> tutorial after copying a 'clean' version of the last chapter - which
> rules out operator error.

I've not personally tried the tutorial, so I don't know about these
issues.  However, I'm sure we will be revising it before long, and I'll
file these as bug reports against it so they'll be fixed in the next
version.

> 4. Tutorial, page 93, 'Create a Large Application Icon', second
> paragraph, the line that says:
>
> set the Bitmap ID to 1101
>
> ... should say:
>
> set the Bitmap ID to 1011

I'll file this one too.

Hi Ben,

Thank you for the reply.

> > In short, I recently downloaded the demo version of CW 8.0 and, whilst
> > working my way through the tutorial, encountered several possible
> bugs

> > I found that there seems to be a
> > bug in the Palm Constructor bitmap editor. If you use the Paint Bucket
> > Tool (for the 8 bit colour image, maybe other resolutions as well) the
> > image becomes corrupted.

> First, Constructor is a Palm product, not a Metrowerks one.

Ah. I wasn't sure of the distinction - bundled product, preferred
Development
Environment, all that.... I'll report this one to Palm OS. In the meantime
though you might like to consider ammending that part of the tutorial so
that it
doesn't naturally lead one to use the Paint Bucket Tool, thus triggering a
confusing
IDE crash. Perhaps the tutorial should suggest making the logo itself a
different color
rather than play with the background...?

> > 2. If you start Constructor for Palm OS by double clicking on a
> resource
> > file in the CodeWarrior IDE, Constructor for Palm OS cannot find it's
> > help file:
> >
> > 'Cannot find c:\Program Files\Metrowerks\CodeWarrior\Palm
> > Tools\Help\Constructor for Palm OS.HLP'
> >
> > BUT if you open Constructor for Palm OS 'normally' (as a separate
> > application), it finds it's help file here:
> >
> > 'c:\Program Files\Metrowerks\CodeWarrior\Palm Tools\Constructor\'
>
> This seems to be a problem with the default directory concept in
> Constructor.  This is another bug to report to Palm.

Fair enough, I'll do so.

> > 3. From as soon as it is introduced, the database aspect of the
> tutorial
> > application just plain doesn't work. Information entered into the
> > database keeps cropping up in the wrong places, i.e. Tues Errands
> appear
> > in Sun in the 'Create' form, but sometimes correctly in the 'View'
> form.

> > Additionally, using  a 3.3 debug ROM, when running the app, select
> > 'Complete' form... if you then select 'View Errands...', for any day
> > other than Wednesday (the longest string) you get to see the 'spill
> > over' characters. i.e.,
> > Sun shows Sundaysday
> > Mon shows Mondayday
> > ...etc.

> I've not personally tried the tutorial, so I don't know about these
> issues.  However, I'm sure we will be revising it before long, and I'll
> file these as bug reports against it so they'll be fixed in the next
> version.

Thanks.

> > 4. Tutorial, page 93, 'Create a Large Application Icon', second
> > paragraph, the line that says:
> >
> > set the Bitmap ID to 1101
> >
> > ... should say:
> >
> > set the Bitmap ID to 1011
>
> I'll file this one too.

And thanks again. So, there is nothing inherent in the way that CW
produces code that would cause the DB confusion?

All the best,
--
Paul Rees
http://www.page87.net
[change 'invalid' to 'com' to reply by mail]

> And thanks again. So, there is nothing inherent in the way that CW
> produces code that would cause the DB confusion?

No... lots of great commercial and free apps have been build with
CodeWarrior for Palm OS; I'm 99% sure its just a problem with the code
in the tutorial.  The quality of code the CW outputs is entirely up to
the quality of code that you feed to the compiler. :)  I'll try to
review it soon and see about getting an update posted.