crunch@well.UUCP (John Draper) (12/26/86)
EGAD "GOTCHAS"
--------------
After scanning through the net, I see a lot of you folks have
sucessfully gotten EGAD to compile. I have responded to EVERYONE'S
requests for help, and am in the process of compiling and catagorizing
everyones problems for a posting on the nets after the Xmas holidays.
I don't suspect there will be much Usenet activity over the holidays,
because everyone will be home with their familys. This lull in activity
is giving me time to "Catch up" with all that's posted on Usenet, CIS,
the WELL, and BIX. Judging from the reactions I read on the Nets, I'm
able to pick up on peoples problems with Egad.
SOME PROBLEMS PEOPLE ARE HAVING:
--------------------------------
In response to the more popular problems people are having, I have
a few suggestions:
**** If you have more than 512k of memory, and if you use Egad for
images, you better link your module to load in CHIP memory,
or copy the statically declared image data to allocated CHIP
memory. If not, then images won't work properly
**** Set the flags BEFORE you draw the gadget in the window. If you
draw out the gadget FIRST, then set the flags, they won't take
effect. (They used to, but subsequent changes broke this part,
and it's on the FIX list).
**** If you draw out a bunch of gadgets, but defer using the "Add new
gadget" until after all have been drawn, Only the FIRST gadget will
have the proper flag settings. This is related to the above problem
where the gadgets get CLEARED at the wrong time.
**** When drawing the gadget, ALWAYS start with the UPPER LEFT and
drag the mouse to the LOWER RIGHT, or else the GURU will visit.
(I had code that went both ways, but because of the Intuition bug
in DELTAMOVE, I re-hacked to code a little).
**** Always save your gadget set often. In case the GURU visits, you
can at least recover your gadget set.
**** If you create a gadget set with 4 bitplanes, then save it to disk,
If you forget to type "egad 4" and type "egad 3" or just "egad"
(2 bitplane default), and attempt to read in the 4 bitplanes,
unexpected results might occur. There isn't error checking,
but it's top on the FIX list.
**** If you make proportional gadgets and don't yet make an image for it,
then save it as a gadget list to disk, when you get them back, only
the FIRST gadget will be displayed.
Some of the items above have been written up as bugs, others are
"Operator errors", I'm still making up the bug list, will post it
within a few days.
EGAD FIX LIST
-------------
**** Fix multiple gadget entry so ALL gadgets have the same flag settings
(until changed).
**** Drag rectangle out BOTH ways.
**** Residual "small" rectangles should be "erased" instead of ending up
as "artifacts". "small" rectangles occurr when one makes a gadget
rectangle Less than 8 pixels (x) and 6 pixels (y).
**** Allow flag setting AFTER gadget is linked to the window (provided
that Intuition can handle it).
EGAD FEATURES REQUESTED
-----------------------
**** CLONE GADGETS
**** Work Bench ICON
**** Specify Filename, IE: "egad mygad", where "mygad" is the gadget
set that also has the number of bitplanes. Initially, one would
type "egad 3" for starting a NEW gadget set file with 3 bitplanes,
then this number will get stored in the file. Then when the user
saves the file, the number of bitplanes also get saved.
**** Want to be able to add "IntuiText" to the working window as opposed
to attaching to some gadget. Ie: If Gadget selected, attach it
there, if not, then attach it to the Window.
HOW WE WILL UPDATE
------------------
THE VER 1.0 on the Fish 46 disk will become known as the BASE system.
Any changes or DIFF's posted will always be based on the 1.0 release.
Feel free to fix any bugs you find. Although I plan on fixing them
eventually, but under a "no obligation" basis. This is why we included
the source. There are a lot more experienced Amiga programmers than
myself.
If you fix any bugs, just send me the DIFF's based on the Ver 1.0
so I can include them. Please include your phone number (if in USA)
in case I cannot reach you on net.