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x basic and action scritping

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    x basic and action scritping

    In my endeavors to learn this tool, I continuously find bugs - one after the other, and consequently find myself submitting many bug reports to support. I shouldn't be finding them with this frequency... As most of these bugs present themselves while using a5 at a beginner / intermediate level!

    How can this be? Obviously, these bugs I continue to find may not be "project stopping" and many are quite benign in nature. But in the great scheme of things, it's probably no wonder why many serious developers avoid using this tool.

    I've always thought that this tool has great potential. The developer(s) of a5 show great talent. BUT I always end up with reservations.....

    All the little stuff adds up, and thus makes me leery with regards to pursuing x-basic (and this tool) at any great depth. This has been an ongoing dilemma I have contemplated throughout many different version releases of a5. Each time, I finally end up "just walking away" thinking "I'm going to wait, and hopefully the next version will be much cleaner.

    After all, this is a5 version 9, which has been out for for quite some time. How is it that I find all these issues that have never been corrected? Sure it's great we can finally connect to any back-end database as if it's "a5 native." But what about fixing all the "simple little things" that don't work as presented in the gui? It never seems to happen.

    If not corrected before it's too late, I'm afraid the eventuality of all of this will lead to a "dead-end" product. It's got to be a quality control issue. (And by no means am I bashing the product. As I stated earlier, it's got HUGE potential!)

    I give a5 a thumbs up to features and overall performance. And I can live with the "eccentrics" of the gui which many other users complain about in these forums. But as for quality control, that's a different story....

    Any thoughts out there?
    Last edited by SNusa; 03-02-2009, 04:36 PM.
    Robert T. ~ "I enjoy manipulating data... just not my data."
    It's all about the "framework." (I suppose an "a5-induced" hard drive crash is now in order?)
    RELOADED: My current posting activity here merely represents a "Momentary Lapse Of Reason."

    #2
    Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

    I'm new to A5 and have been reading quite a few threads on this board about the buggy behaviour. Not encouraging but I like the concept & simplicity for as far as I know A5 by now. I do have this practical question: how do I revert from eg build 2005_3252 to an earlier build ? I know there is a download site http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/A...chDownload.ASP but how do I proceed ? Can I just "update" to an earlier version or what ? Thx for your input!
    Frank

    Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

      Originally posted by Clipper87 View Post
      I'm new to A5 and have been reading quite a few threads on this board about the buggy behaviour. Not encouraging but I like the concept & simplicity for as far as I know A5 by now. I do have this practical question: how do I revert from eg build 2005_3252 to an earlier build ? I know there is a download site http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/A...chDownload.ASP but how do I proceed ? Can I just "update" to an earlier version or what ? Thx for your input!
      you can download any previous build, and simply 'run it' to revert back.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

        Thx John; what is considered to be a stable release today ?
        Frank

        Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

          Originally posted by Clipper87 View Post
          Thx John; what is considered to be a stable release today ?
          Actually, a stable release is one that works for you on your specific project(s). I have found 1581_3193 to be stable, 1847 is reported as stable (although there are some calculated field issues with that build). That latest build seems stable and includes fixes on 3 bugs that I personally reported.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

            Does Alpha post specific info on each update release with specifics on what has and has not been fixed?

            There should be a concise listing of "known outstanding issues" along with (user validated) "date fixed" & version info columns.

            Then we could search for known issues.
            And consequently, we wouldn't all have to bombard product support with redundant error report submissions.

            I think this info should be available (directly) on the welcome screen of a5. Or at least available via a link on the a5 download page.
            It would be nice to know why something won't work. (Is it my fault, or a bug. Lots of time gets wasted on this!)

            "Life is like a box of chocolates when you send in a bug report."

            I have submitted bug reports and sometimes receive replies. (not always) And on occasion, the reply has indicated it is already fixed.
            (And every so often, when I download the newer version, the issue is still there.)

            On occasion I've also sent in reports on what I consider to be significant bugs which are never replied to, thus I have no idea whether the bug report is even acknowledged. (Or is being addressed / evaluated for that matter.)
            Last edited by SNusa; 03-02-2009, 04:58 PM.
            Robert T. ~ "I enjoy manipulating data... just not my data."
            It's all about the "framework." (I suppose an "a5-induced" hard drive crash is now in order?)
            RELOADED: My current posting activity here merely represents a "Momentary Lapse Of Reason."

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

              Not sure what to think now; build 1581_3193 is way back it seems to me.

              I am purely interested in building webapps; does the buggy behaviour show rather in the desktop programs built with it or just as much in webapps ?

              Thx for replying
              Frank

              Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                Originally posted by Clipper87 View Post
                Not sure what to think now; build 1581_3193 is way back it seems to me.

                I am purely interested in building webapps; does the buggy behaviour show rather in the desktop programs built with it or just as much in webapps ?

                Thx for replying
                Take any build you like, test your app with it, and if the most complex or problematic form, etc. works, that's the build to use.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                  Robert,

                  Go to the control panel, click Help, click on "View Release Notes"... It will bring you to the Alpha Web site, that will show all the historical release notes.

                  Or here:

                  http://downloads.alphasoftware.com/A...easenotes.html


                  Regards

                  Ed

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                    Originally posted by SNusa View Post
                    In my endeavors to learn this tool, I continuously find bugs - one after the other, and consequently find myself submitting many bug reports to support.
                    I'm courious, how many bug reports have you submitted and how many have been confirmed?

                    kenn
                    TYVM :) kenn

                    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                      Hi Robert,

                      It doesn't seem you posted your problems (bugs) here on the message forum, so without knowing what they involved it's hard to comment.

                      However, I can also say that most issues for newer users I've seen are either action script related (it doesn't generate great code and can have errors covering thousands of permutations of the settings for an action script line that could never be 100% checked) and bad programming technique. Many times they are just doing it wrong.

                      It's often good to run a potential bug (when possible) by the forums so that all can look at it and maybe confirm it.

                      I do believe that Alpha could be better with their bug and release notes so that we could better understand what has been addressed. I know many fixes that were in patches that I could only verify by regressive testing. However, publishing an extensive bugs/bugs repaired list is interpreted by many as faulty software, so many companies tend to list only key ones in their release notes unfortunately.
                      Regards,

                      Ira J. Perlow
                      Computer Systems Design


                      CSDA A5 Products
                      New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
                      CSDA Barcode Functions

                      CSDA Code Utility
                      CSDA Screen Capture


                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                        Ira:
                        I agree completely with your points. Also of note may be that too many patches make the program look like it has a lot of problems, when in fact Alpha is one of the few companies that responds so quickly to the needs of its users, rather than just having to make due.
                        "Ollie, remember how dumb I used to be? Well, I'm much better now."

                        Pete

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                          [
                          Originally posted by csda1 View Post
                          ....I can also say that most issues for newer users I've seen are either action script related (it doesn't generate great code and can have errors covering thousands of permutations of the settings for an action script line that could never be 100% checked) and bad programming technique. ....
                          Ira, I agree with the "bad programming" part of your either/or statement but I think you are perhaps unintentionally giving Action Scripting a bad rap here as far as it being the cause of lots of issues newer users have. AS may not create the best code in the world but good lord it creates better code than most newbies create on their own with xbasic. And in my experience AS is seldom (I did not say never) the cause of errors being thrown up that cause newbies to think they have found a bug in the software. That's where the other side of your OR statement comes in, plus just bad design to begin with.

                          Raymond Lyons

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                            Originally posted by Raymond Lyons View Post
                            [

                            Ira, I agree with the "bad programming" part of your either/or statement but I think you are perhaps unintentionally giving Action Scripting a bad rap here as far as it being the cause of lots of issues newer users have. AS may not create the best code in the world but good lord it creates better code than most newbies create on their own with xbasic. And in my experience AS is seldom (I did not say never) the cause of errors being thrown up that cause newbies to think they have found a bug in the software. That's where the other side of your OR statement comes in, plus just bad design to begin with.
                            I don't really want to give AS a bad rap, because, as you say, it enables those with less experience to create something that they couldn't otherwise create on their own.

                            However, AS has lots of options, and there are choices that less experienced users select from the AS dialogs, that never seem to be selected by the more experienced. AS has many impossible combination of settings that probably never are seen nor tested in "correct" use, but end up being chosen by less experienced who tend to take a shotgun approach trying anything and everything. In a way, that's good that they find AS settings holes that should be plugged, but I suspect only so many development dollars can go to plugging them.

                            My experience, though is that AS causes more issues than code. But it would be interesting to count the AS versus system function bugs reported.
                            Regards,

                            Ira J. Perlow
                            Computer Systems Design


                            CSDA A5 Products
                            New - Free CSDA DiagInfo - v1.39, 30 Apr 2013
                            CSDA Barcode Functions

                            CSDA Code Utility
                            CSDA Screen Capture


                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Bug after bug after bug.....

                              To All --

                              We have been using Build #1938 for several months in a desktop application, and it seems quite stable. (No bugs to report.) We did see some problems with Build #1984, which is why we stayed at #1938. We have begun testing Build #2055, and have seen no issues. However, we will not upgrade until we have done more testing.

                              We are not using the web development capabilities of A5 yet, so Build #1938 could have problems about which we are unaware.

                              -- Dick James

                              Comment

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