[chaoscope] Re: Beta .2 Issues
- From: Chaoscope <chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: chaoscope@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:20:06 +0100
Jim,
The point of beta testing is to do the dumbest things you can think of
and see how the program responds (if it wil let you do the dumb things!)
Exactly. You should really try to do things you're not supposed to. For
instance, Francois tried to load a new attractor while one was being
rendered. Now I need to disable the entire File menu.
Testing with Poly-A (since there's only 3 params to deal with): Switch
to Poly-A, which presents the canvas as blank. Check all three params to
be held constant, then hit F3 to start a search. Welcome to the infinite
loop! It appears it will do this with 2 boxes checked also. One box
checked takes longer than none checked. Of course, you shouldn't define
a constant until after you've done a search, but the point is, YOU CAN,
and this is the problem it creates.
Yes, searching with all the parameters checked is like playing Russian
roulette with an empty barrel.
This is one of the reasons why you can stop a search. Obviously, Search
menu item should be disabled when all parameters are checked. I thought
I could get away with it.
Polynomial A is a bit of an exception. Searches take longer than average
because the equation, being so simple, doesn't yield many strange
attractors.
As a side note, you should trap for checkbox status. You shouldn't be
able to check all the params as constant. (This, of course, makes for a
very quick search! ) You should only be allowed to select N-1 checkboxes
so a search will always resolve.Not necessarily a bug, since it doesn't
really impede the progress of the program, but a quirk.
I'll disable the Search menu item when all parameters are checked. This
could be used as some sort of security, when you've found a perfect
attractor and you don't want to press F3 by accident, just check all the
parameters.
On another tangent, the progress bar at the bottom... how about clearing
it at the end of a render? This way it doesn't look like the render may
still have a bit to go.
You can tell the render is finished when :
- View window title bar says "(render)" instead of "(rendering)".
- Attractor and view palettes are enabled.
- Status bar gives you the total rendering time.
Then again, it might be not enough visual clues. Francois has been
asking about a dialog box popping up when render is finished.
Nicolas Desprez
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