Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/02/26/01:27:23
Go Shawn!!!!
Yahooo!
PJ
On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, Shawn Hargreaves wrote:
> Paul Derbyshire writes:
> >I have today discovered two very SEVERE BUGS in ALLEGRO that manifest
> >themselves when the SOUND features are used.
>
> Wow. I have to say, your post leaves an ugly taste in my mouth. Not
> because you are criticising my code (bug reports from users are
> absolutely essential, and I'm normally delighted to be informed of any
> problems that people are having), but because of your unpleasant and
> confrontational attitude. I came very close to consigning your message
> straight to the trash can (I don't like flame wars, so I have a policy
> of not responding to any posts that make me feel personal animosity
> towards the writer), but in the interests of getting these troubles
> fixed, I'm willing to investigate your problems a bit further...
>
> >SEVERE BUG #1: After running an Allegro program that executes a
> >play_sample at some point, then returning to DOS, if you then run another
> >DOS program that uses sound, e.g. the test-sbc program that comes with a
> >creative labs soundblaster, the result is a squawk from the soundcard and
> >a system hang.
>
> This is very probably a bug. I need a bit more info from you, though, in
> particular:
>
> What soundcard do you have? Model, irq number, dma channel, etc...
>
> What is your BLASTER environment variable set to?
>
> Which sound driver is Allegro using? (displayed by play.exe)
>
> Does the problem happen if you only use the MIDI sound, or only the
> digital sound, or can either cause it?
>
> Does the problem occur when you re-run the Allegro program, or only when
> you run other (eg. creative labs) code?
>
> Does the same thing happen with any Allegro programs (demo.exe,
> play.exe, etc), or do the effects differ depending on which program you
> ran?
>
> Are you running under win95, or clean DOS?
>
> >SEVERE BUG #2: load_sample always returns NULL, even if the string it is
> >sent as parameter is the fille name of a mono WAV exactly as per
>
> What version of Allegro is this? Up until version 2.2, there were some
> problems with the WAV parser (it only understood a small subset of the
> RIFF format, and didn't like the samples produced by win95 utilities).
> If you have an earlier Allegro version, get 2.2 from my web page and see
> if that clears the trouble up. If you already have 2.2, please send me
> one of the WAV's that you can't read, and I'll investigate further...
>
> >I cannot imagine that either of these two bugs could have gone completely
> >undiscovered. There is no way you didn't know about these when you
> >released the version of allegro I'm using. Yet the documentation makes no
>
> I can't remember who it was that said "never attribute to malice what
> can be adequately explained by stupidity", but it's a very true
> statement :-) Did it never occur to you that I might actually have
> tested this code, and that the reason I didn't notice these problems was
> that they don't occur on my machine?
>
> FYI, I have tested the sound routines thoroughly on four different
> systems, which is all I have access to. I think they are quite stable,
> but that doesn't mean they will work perfectly on every possible
> hardware configuration. If your system is demonstrating a problem, it
> needs to be fixed, but this is not the result of stupidity or malice on
> my part.
>
> Re. the WAV reading code, there was a major problem with the version
> from Allegro 2.11, which I never noticed because at that point I only
> had access to Windows 3.1, and my code worked with all the samples
> produced by that OS. Several people pointed out the problem in a helpful
> and polite manner, and I think (hope) that I've now managed to fix it.
>
> >I would like to see a new version that definitely has NEITHER of these
> >bugs somewhere I can get them within 24 hours.
>
> And since when have you had any right to demand things from me? Unless
> I'm missing something, you have yet to give me anything in exchange for
> Allegro, which places your right to set me tasks and completion
> deadlines somewhere a long way below zero.
>
> >I am 100% sure that in the time that has passed since you wrote
> >the bug-ridden beta-like version I have now, you have had enough time to
> >track these bugs down, and make a new version that a) has a load_sample
>
> Do you have any idea how much time I've spent working on Allegro? Do you
> realise that I have a full time job, which keeps me busy from 9am to
> 6pm, five days a week? The work I do on Allegro comes out of my valuable
> evenings and weekends, and it is your good fortune that I've chosen to
> make it freely available for you to use.
>
> If you run into any problems with Allegro, you have three options:
>
> - Fix them. The source is available: use it!
>
> - Tell me about them. Because I want to make the best lib I can, I will
> try to repair them, and because I'm a helpful sort of person, I am
> normally happy to answer whatever questions you might have. But that's
> purely a favour from me to you: unless you pay me for my work, you
> have absolutely no right to demand anything from me.
>
> - Go away and stop using my code :-)
>
>
> /*
> * Shawn Hargreaves - shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk - http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/
> * Beauty is a French phonetic corruption of a short cloth neck ornament.
> */
>
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Patrick email: url:
Jenkins pjenki1 AT gl DOT umbc DOT edu http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~pjenki1
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