[APBeta] Beta Test Status

[Paul Rodman]

On Jun 7, 2008, at 15:38 , Paul Kemp wrote:

> Where is everyone at in this Beta?

Some are actively testing and submitting reports. Others are having  
major problems getting to stage 1 (i.e. not even being able to open a  
new plan) :^(

> I have not seen many posts regarding the testing. Probably a  
> function of the bug report feature that emails Paul direct.

Some are using the reporting feature, some are reporting via private e- 
mail. The best way to determine what's going on is to watch the bug  
list:

<http://www.astroplanner.net/reports/>

I'm currently mostly working on bugs, but some of them are taking  
longer to crush than anticipated. e.g. I just spent several hours on a  
bug with the minimum slew sort algorithm that seems to be a disturbing  
compiler bug. However, I worked around it.

Once I get on top of the bugs (i.e. the number of outstanding bugs has  
a non-increasing value), I will invite some more folk to join our  
happy throng.
Windows version bugs are turning my hair white.

> I like APv2. It is considerably faster, however, the proof in the  
> pudding will be when I load some large APDs and interact with my  
> 3000+ Observation log. Cosmetic changes are nice, The high res Icon  
> is nice, and the low res icon is a major improvement on v1.6.

Icon? If you are talking about the application icon, then that should  
be the same as before. I have a new app icon in the works, but I need  
someone with more expertise than me to create a mask for it.

> On the Observations tab, the add observation is way down in the  
> bottom right

Right? You mean bottom left. Or is stuff in New Zealand really  
inverted? :^)

> , this I believe needs to be under the Tabs, it's a long way down  
> and the mouse is already next to the tab.

The concept of having to flip to a tab to make an observation has  
weighed heavily on my mind. I plan to add, on the Objects tab:

a. A New Observation button
b. A New Observation entry in the right-click menu for the Object list
c. A New Observation menu item in the Observation menu

These will all have the effect of flipping to the Observations tab and  
adding said observation to the selected object.

> I miss the notes in the bar, unless I have not turned them on!! The  
> screen shot attached shows what I mean

Hmmm. Actually I removed the ODM info, probably thinking that no-one  
would care. The rest is just the Notes field, which is visible (and  
editable) at bottom centre. If you want the ODM stuff back, I can  
display it under the Notes field if you like. If there's enough room  
in the window to the right of the Alt/Az indicator, I can display the  
stuff as before.

> What do you guys like and dislike? After all, this is the best time  
> to comment.

I'd be most interested to hear your comments (negative or positive),  
since it's still in alpha (and many things will be changing still),  
and I'm "too close" to the product to see the big picture.

Paul R.