ABox242 In progress

[Andy Turner]

ABox242 is officially in progress. Primarily to be an 'update'. The
goal is to streamline the build process, make it work with modern dev
tools, and close as many open defect issues as possible. No new
features are scheduled. No completion date currently set.

Here is the current state of the work in progress. Feedback?

Summary:

Visual Studio 2008 Express seems to work. Command line build is
updated and seems to work. Project configuration issues exist and need
resolved. Testing of alpha versions is needed.

Details:

-- We're currently limited to using Microsoft tools. Older versions of
MS tools are rarely available. Eventually would like to convert to all
open-source tools. Free tools are all I can afford.

++ Microsoft offers Express versions of their Visual Studio product. I
tried Visual Studio 2010 Express: on-line registration didn't work,
uninstalled. Visual Studio 2008 Express seems to work:
<http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2008-editions/
express>
I chose : All - Offline Install ISO image file. No mention of
registration?

++ The VS2008 IDE will convert and load the existing ABox project
(.dsw and .dsp from Visual C 5.0). This is good as it bootstraps the
project config forward by 13 years. At first glance, the IDE appears
to present the project in the same way I developed ABox with. This is
good (for me anyways :-)

-- An essential tool (H2INC) is no longer available. This is very bad.
DO NOT try to build ABox in the VS2008 IDE until the H2INC problem is
solved. The IDE will erase several dependant files and be unable to
recreate them. The VS2008 project file, once it's working, should be
added to the SVN.

-+ Building from the command line works after adjustments to several
files. To get to a properly configured command line, in VS2008 select
tools:VS2008 Command Prompt. Then follow the instructions from the
ABox readme. The required source code changes are all committed to the
current SVN, available here:
<http://code.google.com/p/analog-box/source/checkout>

-- You may have to rebuild abox_popup and bmp2asm with VS2008. At the
command prompt, navigate to the source directory for the tool, use "CL
filename", copy the resultant exe up one directory to replace the old
tool. This needs to be rolled into the automated build process. I'm
trying to decide how best to do that.

?? The ABox graphics take up a lot of space, are not touched by the
build process, and rely on broken build tools. It may be advantageous
to split the VR source tree into another project.

?? Built binaries (debug and release alpha version) could be made
available online. I don't know how best to that. Many open source
projects keep a huge archive of every build ever made ... not an
attractive idea to me. Perhaps recent .exe files could be committed as
alpha versions to the SVN (replacing yesterdays version), then hoisted
to full release versions and placed in the download folder?

[Ben Hutchinson]

What improvements will be added to the new version? Will it include a
"brightness" pin for the oscilloscope, so as to give it a z coordinate
as well as x and y?

[William Croft]

Andy, hi.

Just wanted to say thanks for your recent mods and the new Visual Studio 2008 Express build process.  Maybe we should even save a copy of the VS installer ISO, since it could disappear some day.

I was looking around a bit and found other folks complaining about the missing H2INC issue.  Didnt see any clear solutions.  Maybe it could be lifted from another version of VS, but might have dependencies on other portions.

Dang that Google fell thru on that simple suggestion of changing the tab size.  But glad you found the detabify workaround.  Sometimes I wonder about the 'genius' reputation of all those PhD's working at Google...  :-)

On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Andy Turner <andy...@gmail.com> wrote:

ABox242 is officially in progress. Primarily to be an 'update'. The
goal is to streamline the build process, make it work with modern dev
tools, and close as many open defect issues as possible. No new
features are scheduled. No completion date currently set.

Here is the current state of the work in progress. Feedback?

Summary:

Visual Studio 2008 Express seems to work. Command line build is
updated and seems to work. Project configuration issues exist and need
resolved. Testing of alpha versions is needed.

Details:

-- We're currently limited to using Microsoft tools. Older versions of
MS tools are rarely available. Eventually would like to convert to all
open-source tools. Free tools are all I can afford.

++ Microsoft offers Express versions of their Visual Studio product. I
tried Visual Studio 2010 Express: on-line registration didn't work,
uninstalled. Visual Studio 2008 Express seems to work:
 <http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2008-editions/
express>
I chose : All - Offline Install ISO image file. No mention of
registration?

I looked around on that page for the ISO, didnt see it.  Then I realized your URL had been truncated by a mailer or Google Groups, the "2008-editions/express", the "express" had been lopped off.

...

?? The ABox graphics take up a lot of space, are not touched by the
build process, and rely on broken build tools. It may be advantageous
to split the VR source tree into another project.

Yeah, I think you mean other svn directory tree vs. another Google Code project.  For example the current trunk is at

svn/abox/{trunk,tags,branches}

So we could setup something like:

svn/abox-graphics/{trunk,tags,branches}

But would require some care in leaving enough minimal pieces of the svn/abox/trunk/VR tree intact so that you could build abox without having to build abox-graphics.

?? Built binaries (debug and release alpha version) could be made
available online. I don't know how best to that. Many open source
projects keep a huge archive of every build ever made ... not an
attractive idea to me. Perhaps recent .exe files could be committed as
alpha versions to the SVN (replacing yesterdays version), then hoisted
to full release versions and placed in the download folder?

I would say just place the 'latest' incremental alpha/debug release binaries on the download area.  Versus keeping around every single revision, as you point out.  Advantage of download zips is that testers could easily fetch without futzing with SVN area.

Cheers,

[Andy Turner]

William, thanks.

[I was looking around a bit and found other folks complaining about
the missing H2INC issue. Didnt see any clear solutions.]

Ya. ... Since we don't need to convert every .h file ever made (just
the two used in ABox), it might not too hard to throw together a
lex/flex and/or yacc/bison grammar to duplicate enough of the
functionality.

[Maybe we should even save a copy of the VS installer ISO, since it
could disappear some day.]

Might not need to. VS2008 version can load the old project file,
which, in turn, will probably be loadable for the next few versions.
The VSProject is only the debug version (release builds from the
command line), but is quite useful to use a debugger and context
sensitive source browser. When the H2INC issue is worked around (or
configured away) I'll put the .vcproj file in the svn.

[I looked around on that page for the ISO, didnt see it. Then I

realized your URL had been truncated by a mailer or Google Groups, the

"2008-editions/express", the "express" had been lopped off.]

Yes. The googeditor has punked me several times now :-)

[I think you mean other svn directory tree vs. another Google Code project.]
svn/abox/{trunk,tags,branches}

svn/abox-graphics/{trunk,tags,branches}
[But would require some care in leaving enough minimal pieces of the
svn/abox/trunk/VR tree intact so that you could build abox without

having to build abox-graphics.]

Perfect. There's a fairly clean divide between the graphic resources
and the rest of ABox. I'll try to get it set up during the week. When
the gbuild tool is re-vitalized, people can start expirimenting with
new graphics.

[I would say just place the 'latest' incremental alpha/debug release

binaries on the download area. Versus keeping around every single
revision, as you point out. Advantage of download zips is that

testers could easily fetch without futzing with SVN area.]

I've added alpha,debug and full builds to the project (not posted yet)
and will implement Keith's idea of a nag screen for the alpha build.
Good point on storing as a .zip, I'll see if I can automate that in
the makefile. Gzip is fairly easy to use.

Have also added a fix for the FileObject/MediaReader crashes, and will
post it mid week.

--Andy

[Andy Turner]

First alpha revision of ABox242. Binaries are posted in the code
section. There are alpha release and alpha debug versions available.

Two ways to download:
1) use Subversion to 'checkout' the project.
2) Grab online -- requires a few hops .. sorry.
2a) Visit the source directory:
[http://code.google.com/p/analog-box/source/browse/abox/trunk/alpha/]
2b) Click on the file you want. GooCode says it can't display it.
2c) Click on 'View Raw File', save to your hard drive.

Am interested if the new makefile works on anybodies machine.
And am interested if the MediaReader is fixed.

Cheers,
Andy

[Keith Blackwell]

On 7/6/2011 1:16 PM, Andy Turner wrote:
> First alpha revision of ABox242. Binaries are posted in the code
> section. There are alpha release and alpha debug versions available.

...

> And am interested if the MediaReader is fixed.

I tested this on my system where 2.41 would abort,
and got the 2.42a MediaReader to work with no problems!
That's not a complete, comprehensive test, but it
is a good sign.

--
Keith W. Blackwell

[Andy Turner]

Thanks Keith !
Hopefully that's the only bug. <-- eternal optimist.
I'll leave the issue opened just in case.

--Andy

[Ben Hutchinson]

Remember that idea I had about a Z-axis on the oscilloscope? I
mentioned it back when I was going to South Seattle Community College.
Do you plan to implement that?

[Andy Turner]

Hi Ben,
No new features for version 2.42.
Instead we try to scrape the rust off of ABox so it can be further developed.
FYI: <http://code.google.com/p/analog-box/source/browse/abox/trunk/source/OBJECTS/Displays/ABox_Scope.asm>
... i think we might want to start over from scratch ...

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[Andy Turner]

Also Ben: Please feel free (if not obligated) to add ideas/comments to
the open issue about the O-Scope. That way everyone who is working, is
working towards the same goal.
<http://code.google.com/p/analog-box/issues/detail?id=27>

On Jul 18, 12:28 am, Andy Turner <andyt7...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ben,
> No new features for version 2.42.
> Instead we try to scrape the rust off of ABox so it can be further developed.

> FYI: <http://code.google.com/p/analog-box/source/browse/abox/trunk/source/O...>

> ... i think we might want to start over from scratch ...
>

> On 7/17/11, Ben Hutchinson <benh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Remember that idea I had about a Z-axis on the oscilloscope? I
> > mentioned it back when I was going to South Seattle Community College.
> > Do you plan to implement that?
>
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> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Analog Box" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to analo...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
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