Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 01:16:39 -0500 (EST) From: Patrick To: Shawn Hargreaves cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: SEVERE BUGS in ALLEGRO! In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII 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. > */ > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick email: url: Jenkins pjenki1 AT gl DOT umbc DOT edu http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~pjenki1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------