dfGUI v3.3 beta (Need Testers)

[Digital Parasite]

I am now working on dfGUI v3.3 and have a beta release that I would like people to start looking at and test for bugs.

You can download beta 1 here:
http://gilchrist.ca/jeff/dfGUI/dfGUIv33beta.zip

Please post all bug reports in this thread so I can track and fix the problems without getting too many duplicates.

What's New/Needs Testing
- Removed all possibilities of dfGUI getting into an inifite loop and using up 100% of the CPU.

- Changed default # of structures per generation to 100

- dfGUI will now igore the gen 0 energy score for "Best Energy So Far" rating as it uses a different system than the energy for the rest of the generations.

- dfGUI will now reset the benchmak and graph information if it detects that a protein of a different size is being used.

- Refresh button status after clicking on STOP so that Start button becomes active when DF client stops and can be used again without having to wait for next refresh period.

- Renamed "Graph Config" to "Config 2" and added a few more options to it.

- dfGUI will now report if the progress.txt file has not been updated in a specified amount of time (default: 20 minutes) and then warn the user that the client may have crashed.


To be Done before Release
- Add config option to upload buffered files after specified # of generations.

- Add support for -purgeuploadlist xxxx command to flush after offline "update"

- Have tab to display last 10 lines in error.log file??


Jeff.

[pointwood]

:notworthy

Up and running!

One question: There are now 2 config tabs, do the "Save config" button on the first config tab, save the configuration for both tabs?

[Digital Parasite]

Yes, all the config stuff is stored in dfGUI.ini, I just didn't have the room to fit everything on one page. The Save Config will save everything.

Let me know if dfGUI gets you into that 100% CPU usage again.

Jeff.

[Chaser]

just testing it :)

i find it great, that there is a new version :) thx!

[cygnussphere]

so far no problems. Running it on 5 x WXP machines.

Thanks again for the all the work You rule!:thumbs:

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

[Darkness Productions]

Big-DP -

Any way that you could change how uploading is handled by dfGUI? What I'd like to be able to do is navigate around dfGUI while it's told the client to upload. Any way that could happen?

[Digital Parasite]

Hmmm.... right now the dfGUI code is single-threaded so any time it has to do something, it prevents you from doing anything else in the GUI itself.

I don't have too much experience using threads in Borland C++ (mostly just pthreads in Unix) so I guess I can look into that to see how hard it would be to implement. I will put it on the wish list but since I have been getting busier and busier these days I don't know when I will be able to get it implemented.

It sounds like a good idea especially if you have lots to upload.

Jeff.

[bwkaz]

You could put the current upload handling code in another function (make sure it's either a static member of your class, or not a member of any class), and pass that function to the Win32 CreateThread() API, along with the appropriate flags (see the Platform SDK docs on Microsoft's site for those).

If Windows had signal handling like Unixes do, you could forget the threading and just install a SIGCHLD handler just before starting up the upload asynchronously. Then use that signal handler to perform any cleanup (like restarting the client in normal mode). Sadly, it doesn't...

[the-mk]

Some days ago I had one DF-client crashing every now and then because of the "Cannot rename .\filelist.txt.tmp to .\filelist.txt - access violation"-thingy. So I told all the beta-dfGUIs I use to restart inactive clients to restart after 1 minute of inactivity (to reduce the idle-time...).

So if the DF-client comes to struct #96 of 100 to crunch the progress.txt will not be updated a "long" time. Your dfGUI thinks that the client crashed and says "Progress.txt not updated in specified time. Client may have crashed..." and restarts the fine-running DF-client (if restarting inactive client is activated) where is no need to do so.

Suggestions:

Maybe you should change the range of minutes waiting until inactive client will be restartet from 1-99 (or whatever you have set) to 2-99 (or what ever) to prevent messages like "Progress.txt not updated in specified time. Client may have crashed..." in status-bar, because it takes some time while the client crunches the last 4 structs of the current generation and prepares it to upload it to the server...

And don't forget to add the "Warn Client is Inactive after"-string to your language-files :thumbs:

Maybe you could use something like this http://the-mk.dbestern.net/field.png instead of your number-entering-fields?

When is the "tab to display last xx lines in error.log file"-feature going to be implemented?

Great dfGUI anyways! :notworthy

[Ned]

Jeff,

dfGUI 3.3 beta has performmed without fault for a week now under W2K...

Keep up the good work... Looking forward to next updae...

Ned :thumbs:

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by the-mk
So if the DF-client comes to struct #96 of 100 to crunch the progress.txt will not be updated a "long" time. Your dfGUI thinks that the client crashed and says "Progress.txt not updated in specified time. Client may have crashed..." and restarts the fine-running DF-client (if restarting inactive client is activated) where is no need to do so.

Suggestions:

Maybe you should change the range of minutes waiting until inactive client will be restartet from 1-99 (or whatever you have set) to 2-99 (or what ever) to prevent messages like "Progress.txt not updated in specified time. Client may have crashed..." in status-bar, because it takes some time while the client crunches the last 4 structs of the current generation and prepares it to upload it to the server...

dfGUI is doing exactly as you are asking, re-starting the client if progress.txt hasn't been updated for 1 minute. That is the only way it can "tell" if the program may have crashed or not. Are you just suggesting that I should help protect the user from themselves by forcing the value to be at least 2?

The probem with using the up/down arrow box is that it takes quite a while to select a large number that way, so if you were at the default 20, you would have to do 70+ clicks to get it to 90, or even 15 clicks to get it down to 5. I think right now it might even accept 00 as an option which is probably not what the user wants. I guess I want to give full power to the user so they can choose to do whatever they want. If 1 minute is too low, then they can just select 2 minutes. On slow proteins, 1 minute or 2 minutes might not be enough time for the regular part of a generation so it just depends on the machine and the protein itself.



Originally posted by the-mk
And don't forget to add the "Warn Client is Inactive after"-string to your language-files :thumbs:

When is the "tab to display last xx lines in error.log file"-feature going to be implemented?

Thanks, I haven't forgotten but I wanted to wait until I got the other pieces ready before I sent it off to the translators so I don't keep bugging them.

The rest of the beta parts will be added as soon as I have some more time to work on it. Stuff like work, class, homework, real life, always seems to get in the way... :(

Jeff.

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by Ned
Keep up the good work... Looking forward to next updae...

Thanks, Ned. I'm looking forward to getting some more free time to work on this...

I guess with a protein update probably going to happen within the next week or so, we will be able to test out the new feature where dfGUI will reset the graph/stats when a new protein is used. But this only works if we actually change proteins, if Howard uses the same one but with a modified algorithm, dfGUI won't be able to detect that.

Jeff.

[the-mk]

Are you just suggesting that I should help protect the user from themselves by forcing the value to be at least 2?That was my intention. But if there are coming slower proteins, the number must be changed to something higher. I see now that it would make no sense.

Maybe you can create a "warning"-message, that it isn't recommended to use such low numbers because the dfGUI restarts the client sometimes without any reason.



The probem with using the up/down arrow box is that it takes quite a while to select a large number that way, so if you were at the default 20, you would have to do 70+ clicks to get it to 90, or even 15 clicks to get it down to 5.Usually you can click it, you can scroll (what I prefer) it or you can enter it via keyboard. But if you like the way it is now I don't want to force you to change it in future releases of your dfGUI. It was just a suggestion...



Stuff like work, class, homework, real life, always seems to get in the way... :(No problem. It's appreciated that you offer dfGUI and still advance it :thumbs: Thanks for your hard work! :cheers:

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by the-mk
Usually you can click it, you can scroll (what I prefer) it or you can enter it via keyboard. But if you like the way it is now I don't want to force you to change it in future releases of your dfGUI. It was just a suggestion...

Oh ok, you want to keep the ability to just enter the values as it isnow, but *also* have the ability to use the up/down arrow clicks. Ok, I can probably do that easily enough.

Jeff.

[jonnyw]

OK, I think i've found a bug.

I'll start by mentioning that my machine has got dodgy ram, which causes it to reset itself (without warning), or cause programs to crash whenever it tries to access certain sectors of the ram.

Whenever this ram resets the machine (or simply causes foldtrajlite to crash), dfGUI shows it as still running (probably because the foldtrajlite.lock file is still present in the distribfold directory).

Now when this happens, I try to restart the client by pressing stop on dfGUI, and then start.

Whenever I try to do this however, dfGUI seems to hang,and I have to "end task" it in the task manager.

When I restart everythings fine.

Because this is a memory problem I think the only way to reproduce this is to (you may want to try this with a test client if your main client has buffered structures - I dont want you to lose any gens ;)) select foldtrajlite.exe from the processes list in the task manager, and right click and select "end task".

I've just tried it with dfGUI 3.1 and there's no problem, but with this new beta, it seems to hang for a while ~ 30 seconds) and eventually starts running again.

Oh and another thing. There's an opiton to get dfGUI to warn of an inactive client. Is this in the form of a pop up box or in a message at the bottom of the dfGUI window? (If it's a popup box, it doen't seem to work on mine either)

:)

Other than that great work :thumbs:

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by jonnyw
Now when this happens, I try to restart the client by pressing stop on dfGUI, and then start.

Whenever I try to do this however, dfGUI seems to hang,and I have to "end task" it in the task manager.

The message is just at the bottom of the screen and the icon goes RED to try and get your attention, no popup.

So when you click on STOP, how long do you wait before clicking on START again?

You said the the GUI hangs, and you end-task. Does it hang forever or just for the 30 seconds and then starts up again? What you might be seeing is the new protection against infinite loops, where after 30 seconds it gets released and continues as normal. If you are waiting 30 seconds, I can try lowering the number of loops before it quits if that is the problem.

Jeff.

[jonnyw]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
The message is just at the bottom of the screen and the icon goes RED to try and get your attention, no popup.

cheers :)



So when you click on STOP, how long do you wait before clicking on START again?

You said the the GUI hangs, and you end-task. Does it hang forever or just for the 30 seconds and then starts up again? What you might be seeing is the new protection against infinite loops, where after 30 seconds it gets released and continues as normal. If you are waiting 30 seconds, I can try lowering the number of loops before it quits if that is the problem.

Jeff.

sorry, I was a bit ambiguous.



After pressing stop the gui hangs for ~30 seconds.

(tested on a p4 2.53 and a celeron 2 GHz)

The end task reference was the only way (other than waiting 30 seconds) that I could get dfGUI and the client up and running again. (so in other words the gui does not hang forever)

I am only able to press START after waiting 30 seconds, or closing and re-opening dfGUI.


I'm just slightly concerned (although I dont know if i need to be) that the client is getting stuck in a loop, after trying to stop (and thus remove foldtrajlite.lock from ) a crashed client.

Lowering the number of loops would probably improve this.

:)

[Anteraan]

Originally posted by jonnyw

Whenever this ram resets the machine (or simply causes foldtrajlite to crash), dfGUI shows it as still running (probably because the foldtrajlite.lock file is still present in the distribfold directory).

Now when this happens, I try to restart the client by pressing stop on dfGUI, and then start.


Ok, I haven't tried 3.3 yet, but is the "Recover" option still available in 3.3? I ask because it has been invaluable to me in 3.2. I have found it the best way to restart the client after a crash/reset.

Thanks again for an excellent program, Jeff. :thumbs:

[Digital Parasite]

Don't worry, the "Recover" button is not going anywhere. :cool:

Jonnyw, the GUI "hangs" if it is doing any kind of processing at all. But since usually its so fast you don't really notice it. I will take a look at the code and try to tweak the values. Thanks.

Jeff.

[jonnyw]

I don't know anything about how dfGUI works, but the problem could be caused by the fact that usually (i think) when foldtrajlite.lock is removed (when the client is running) progress.txt is also removed (i'm guessing by the client itself).

If however the client crashes leaving behind foldtrajlite.lock, when you click on the stop button in dfGUI, it removes the .lock file, but as the client isn't running it can't remove the progress file. Maybe at this point dfGUI gets confused because it can read from progress.txt, and yet as there is no foldtrajlite.lock file in the directory, it is also under the impression that the client is not running.

I know I'm talking about the client being an inteligent entitiy, but i'm sure you'll get what I mean.

Just a thought anyway

:)

[Digital Parasite]

Actually, if you say 30 seconds, that might be the magic number right there. As you said, normally the progress.txt file gets deleted after the client stops, so I think the GUI waits for the progress.txt file to go up to 30 seconds (because its bad to restart the client if the DF client is actually still running) then after that assumes it is crashed and lets you continue.

I will take a look at the code and see if I can reduce the time. But good observations.

Jeff.

[jonnyw]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
...But good observations.

Jeff.

at least one good thing has come out of my dodgy ram :D

[ToeKnee]

Jeff,

I have been testing dfGUI beta 3.3 for a couple of weeks on Windows 98 and Windows XP boxes. So far no problems. Looking forward to the full version as I do some SneakerNet for a team member. At the moment we use a batch file to do the "Purgeuploadlist" and copy the files to a CD. Maybe the copy to CD could be added?
Thanks for a great program
Keep on folding

ToeKnee :cheers:

[Digital Parasite]

ToeKnee, I'm not sure exactly what you are asking for, you can me to add CD burning support to dfGUI?

[ToeKnee]

Jeff,
I am interested in providing a simple way for someone who is on dialup and does not want to spend time uploading. At the moment we have a batch file to copy the whole DF directory to CD R/W and then do a purgeuploadlist. This is done every couple of days (300-400 generations) to a different directory on the CD. I then collect the CD about once or twice a week and do the upload from my location. I am not bothered about the uploading part as I can do that manually (using dfGUI) myself.
Maybe not many are using this method but it does allow those on dialup with high speed boxes to participate without having to spend much time connected. Uploading on dialup is just too time consuming and many participants are lost because of this.
I know that this is not the prime purpose of dfGUI but as you are considering the purgeuploadlist function, I wondered if the copy files to CD could also be added. We will get more people folding if we can make it simple and keep it fairly foolproof.
I am also looking into dfQ which is in alpha at this time but that involves using Java.
Just some thoughts that might interest you but I do understand that you are a busy person and I am sure you get many requests for consideration.
Thanks again for a great program that helps make life easier for us.

ToeKnee :cheers:

[bwkaz]

CD burning capability is a non-trivial thing to add to a program... it's not just a matter of "copy the file to the right drive".

Unless your CD burning program has already set that drive up in packet-writing mode (UDF filesystem), and also set up the CD that's in there... but how do you guarantee that people have done that?

[ToeKnee]

BWKAZ,

Support for CDR's would as you say not a trivial matter. As CDR/W's are now fitted in most new computers and are available at reasonable cost, I think support for CDR's should not be considered.
We use the same 3 or 4 CD's and keep them circulating (I delete the uploaded directories). The computer loads the UDF file system at startup so that is not a problem. The system works OK at the moment but there are way too many button's to push. I am just a lazy man looking for an easy way

ToeKnee :cheers:

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by ToeKnee
As CDR/W's are now fitted in most new computers and are available at reasonable cost, I think support for CDR's should not be considered. CD-R or CD-RW, it doesn't matter. The media is different, but the filesystems and the logical layout of the information on the media is the same.

And the hurdles to jump when trying to create them are the same. :)


The computer loads the UDF file system at startup so that is not a problem. It better not -- when I said "load the UDF filesystem", I meant what happens when you "format" the CD-RW for packet writing. It happens once. With older versions of Adaptec DirectCD, you chose whether you wanted a packet-writing session or a normal one when you put the CD in the tray the first time. After that, it couldn't be changed. UDF also took up ~100MB of the CD capacity compared to a non-packet-write mode of writing.


The system works OK at the moment but there are way too many button's to push. I am just a lazy man looking for an easy way That's no big deal, it's just not necessarily an easy thing to do from dfGUI's point of view. :) It might be possible to have a config option that holds a directory, and copy the files to a new subdirectory of that one every X generations, but Jeff (and I, for the Linux port) would have to make sure we knew exactly what was required for each generation first. Otherwise you'd get a lot of extraneous data.

[ToeKnee]

BWKAZ and Jeff,

I don't believe that dfGUI should be concerned with formatting. It should assume that a formatted CD is in the drive (treat it like a 3 1/2 in. floppy). The CDR/W would look like any other file. Maybe a few checks could be in order such as No Disk, Disk not blank or Disk Full. It would be neat to only copy the required files but with uploads of 200 generations or more, the percentage of unnecessary files becomes quite small.
I myself would be very happy with just a copy to file (with incrementing or date named directories. Anyone with a CDR drive could manually copy the directory tree to a CDR or if it is a CDR/W (UDF format) then the 'copy to' file would be the CDR/W. A point to remember is that it takes time to write (and read) a CDR/W. I found uploading over the net from a CDR/W gave too many errors so I now copy to my hard drive before uploading.
This writing to file business is just a suggestion and I quite understand if it is not taken any furthur. I am not a computer wizard and I apologize for some of my terminology.
Thank you gentlemen for your time.

ToeKnee :cheers:

[Darkness Productions]

This all sounds like an awful lot of fluff inside dfGUI... Why not just the ability to output an .iso file for quick burning?

[Digital Parasite]

Having to deal with CDR/CDRWs directly I think is too much. But what I could consider is adding a button that launches a batch file, and you can do whatever you want in that batch file like issue a copy command that copies all the files to a directory, etc...

Since it would launch a batch file, people could modify it to do whatever they wanted, however they wanted. You have to set it up once, then any time you wanted to run it, you could hit the button and it would fire.

dp: I have no idea how I would even create a .iso in Windows.

Jeff.

[Darkness Productions]

DP: I don't either, but I figured it had to be *lots* easier than actually burning a CD ;)

[the-mk]

Is it intended that the "Title Bar"-field on the "Config"-tab doesn't allow names longer than 8 characters?

Another question: Should the "Benchmark Running Time" (and Previous/Average Generation Time) be automatically resetted on protein-changeover?

So, are that bugs or features? :D

[Digital Parasite]

I think the title bar is just set to 8 characters right now, not sure why I set it to that but I can look at making it longer.

Yes the benchmark/ average times should get reset with a protein changeover, I will see what is going on there.

It seems that my GUI reset the energy and time graph info on protein changeover which is good. Did everyone else see that too?

Jeff.

[Ned]

Jeff,


It seems that my GUI reset the energy and time graph info on protein changeover which is good. Did everyone else see that too?

Yes, my copies worked perfectly...

Ned :thumbs:

[jonnyw]

Don't know what has happened but since I installed upnp on windows xp today, everytime I reboot into windows I get the following error (shortcut to dfgui is added to my startup folder to make it start up automatically)

http://www.khaos.plus.com/distribfold/dfguierror.gif

I get the error with both the beta client and a fresh install of the version 3.2 client.

Any ideas why i'm getting this, or is it another problem related to my dodgy memory :(


(i appologise in advance if this should have a thread of its own :o )

[Digital Parasite]

jonnyw: It happens to me too if I try to load dfGUI too early when I log in. I have no idea why it gives that message though.

[gOhAsE]

How about the ability to right-click the tray-symbol of dfGUI and offer some options there (like "Upload" - for the guys who wish to upload manually? or "Pause" "Continue" - for the guys who want to have all the RAM freeed for a short period of time?).

And dfGUI should stay in tray when right-clicking it.

At the moment it only offers the option to exit and the dfGUI window appears.

That would be a great feature. :)

[Digital Parasite]

gOhAsE, I could probably add more features to the right click. But I can't "Pause" or "Continue" it would be "Stop" and "Start". The end result would be the same though.

[gOhAsE]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
gOhAsE, I could probably add more features to the right click. But I can't "Pause" or "Continue" it would be "Stop" and "Start". The end result would be the same though.

Yes, I meant something like this. Would be imho a useful feature.

Start, Stop, Upload, End Program - does anyone have further ideas?

[[DPC]Mobster]

It seems to be working fine accept for one thing.

When I run the client as a service (WinXP Home) and let it run for several days (or at least till it has over 250 gens) and then use the GUI to check how many points I have, it displays the number of gens and their points correctly. But when I use the gui to stop the client, the number of gens drop down to 250 and the score accordingly.

Hope you understand the 'problem'. This didn't happen with the last final version.

[Digital Parasite]

Mobster, you mean on the Points tab?

There is no display of gens on the points page. Which exact pieces on that page change when you click on Stop? Are you talking about the # of sets complete drops? Or the estimated client total points?

I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say.

Is there any way you can take before and after screen shots of your GUI showing this?

Thanks,
Jeff.

[[DPC]Mobster]

http://www.xs4all.nl/~collebol/pics/shot1.JPG

http://www.xs4all.nl/~collebol/pics/shot2.JPG

This is a snapshot of dir with over 400 gens in it. And before I pushed Stop Client everything was looking just fine. If you want to I can upload this dir on some webspace and you can download it.

[Digital Parasite]

Hmmm very interesting. So when the client is running, you say that dfGUI shows proplery that there are 400+ generations buffered?

No need to upload your results anywhere, I will see what is going on in the code first.

Normally dfGUI can look at the progress.txt file to see how many generations are buffered but if the client has been stopped, progress.txt gets deleted. In that case, I think I read the filelist.txt and try to manually count the number of entries there to see how many sets are buffered. But obviously something is going wrong. Maybe you can email me just your filelist.txt file to my email address shown in dfGUI (and also on the dfGUI web site). That will allow me to see if my copy does the same thing and better track down the problem.

Thanks,
Jeff.

[iggy]

I'm getting the same error as [DPC]Mobster with the latest beta.

Buffered generations and their buffered points are counted properly, but all other points on the points tab are incorrect.

Seems like dfGUI beta doesn't like to count over 250 ;), because as soon as buffers are uploaded, everything reverts to normal.

[[DPC]Mobster]

Filelist.txt looks normal to me. I mailed you one :)

[Ned]

Jeff,

I noticed at the protein changover that the average generation time was wrong. I believe you did NOT clear the average time when you detected a protein change. It was faily evident since this current protein is much faster than the previous one....

Not a serious flaw by any means... :jester:

As always... You have a GREAT PROGRAM... :thumbs:

Thanks.. Ned

[Anteraan]

I'll second Ned's statement, and add that dfGUI seems to be intermittently "missing generations." (Note that this is on v3.2, not the beta) By this I mean that a gen completes, and as another starts, the Benchmark section of the Advanced tab is missing it. This rolls over into the time graph. While not a big deal at all, I wanted to mention it in case others find the same behavior.

Yes, I restarted/rebooted, and the like. My guess is that the gens are just coming so fast, it is causing an issue. It's a "problem" I'm most pleased to deal with. :)

And yes, I'll reiterate that it is a wonderful program.

[Digital Parasite]

Ned: I will look into it, probably just forgot to reset the benchmark.

Anteraan: You are probably right, dfGUI checks the current status every Refresh update. If yours is set to say 30 seconds, and the client finishes a generation in 20 seconds, when dfGUI updates, it will see the current generation and will have missed the previous one. So the only thing to do is possibly reduce the value in "Progress Update" and probably more importantly to reduce the refresh rate.

Jeff.

[Anteraan]

I have both of those values set to 1, so that shouldn't be the issue. However, I think it has something to do with switching tabs. I've noticed that when I switch tabs during a gen (from Advanced to Points, for instance, or especially when moving to/from the Time Graph), it seems to happen. Like I said, it's no big deal at all, but it's a bit of feedback. I still love 3.2 enough that I haven't tried the beta, if that tells you anything.

[Grumpy]

Been using it a while with no issues..after this fast 58, I must say that if you can implement a feature to Buffer X Gens then Upload then Start again it would be great .

:cheers:

[Digital Parasite]

Anteraan : Hmmm, I haven't see that problem and i have been switching back and forth between tabs. I have my GUI configured to refresh every 10 seconds and progress update after every 2 structures. So far it hasn't missed any generations in the several 250 gen sets I have done on a couple different machines. Maybe the 1 second refresh rate in dfGUI is actually too high? Try setting it to 5 or even 10 and see what happens.

Grumpy : Good idea, its already on the list of things to do when I get a chance.

Right now things are pretty busy at work and with school. I am currently working on a paper I hope to submit to a conference at the end of the of month on parallel data compression, also the major project for the course I am taking is due in 1.5 weeks, and I have my final exam after that. Once the summer hits, I should have a little more time and hope to get some more dfGUI features implemented.

[rofn]

Originally posted by Grumpy
Been using it a while with no issues..after this fast 58, I must say that if you can implement a feature to Buffer X Gens then Upload then Start again it would be great .


i would pay for such feature.... :D
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by rofn
i would pay for such feature.... :D
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

Really.... :) Let the bidding start! :|party|:

[DPRGI-Federico83]

Do you need a translator?

[Digital Parasite]

Once I start working on the new features for dfGUI, I will notify all the people who helped translate so far to see if they can translate the new items as well. But since I haven't really changed much yet, I haven't bothered.

I don't want to buy you guys too often, figured I would wait a bit and send you a bunch of things at once.

Jeff.

[rofn]

well, this hasn't something to do only with the beta...it happens on version 3.2, too

when i try to enter some values into the field refresh rate and mark the values and try to enter new ones this error pops up...this also happens when in the field "# Generations" under the tab "points" in the point calculator...
when i click ok then i can enter values but the error always pop up when i try to enter new ones...

http://members.nextra.at/rofo/dfguiss.png

dunno why this happens...

:confused:

rofn

[Digital Parasite]

That is a strange Borland GUI component behaviour. Every time you modify the field it does a check to see if it is a valid integer. What you need to do is click on the value you want to change, then type the replacement value.

So with Refresh rate, the default is 015 I think. If you want to change that to 5 seconds you would click on the "1" and type 0. You can't highlight the whole thing and start typing because that would remove a couple of digits and replace them with null/blank characters which are not valid input.

That is built into the GUI component so there is no way I can change it.

Jeff.

[pointwood]

Here is a screenshot of the DFGui showing a wrong # of generations buffered. I had it running no net for a few days and at first it showed the correct #, but after stopping the client (to make run online) it showed the wrong #.

UPDATE: It seems dfGUI picks up the right # of buffered structures after finishing a generation, but when I stop the client, it resets the # to 250.

[Digital Parasite]

Thanks pointwood, several people have posted about that now. It seems my code for reading the filelist.txt file when the client is stopped does not work properly, I will take a look at it when my course is finished in a few weeks.

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

3.3 shows the wrong score on this gen, looks like double. When i use 3.2 all looks okay. yes i am swaping the exe's in the same folder.

[Digital Parasite]

Do you have the special 200 structures per generation version of the client and did you set that in the Points tab?

If yes, then that is why you are seeing double. The GUI doesn't know that the DF server didn't update their scoring system. Normally the server would give more points for 200 structures/gen than 100 structures/gen but because they have 2 versions floating around right now, the server gives out points for each generation as if it were 100 structures/gen.

Is that what you are seeing?

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

in points structures per gen is now set to 050.

I have the first download of the current 58 protein and did not update as was working overseas.

[Digital Parasite]

Hmmmm. So if you set your dfGUI to be 100 structures per gen in the Points tab then it *should* be giving you the correct values.

But there is a problem where it is not reading the correct # of generations past 250 in some cases so that might be affecting the results as well. I will take a look at it when I fix the other problem too.

Thanks,
Jeff.

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

any chance of the icon in the systray being yellow if it has buffered gen's. You know if ....... say the server was running a bit slow and they backed up locally. Would never happen i know, but it would be nice.:cheers:

[Digital Parasite]

That is an interesting idea. But I would make it configurable so that it would go yellow after X gens being buffered since there is always 1 generation buffered in Phase II.

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

yup, i was just going to say that. As would not be to worried if it was 3 or 4 gens buffered.

[Helix_Von_Smelix]

How about a button to view the error.log file. Getting fed up checkin' it the hard way.

[Digital Parasite]

Yeah thats already on the wishlist Helix, many others have the same problem. :cheers:

[IronBits]

Working well over here :D

[Digital Parasite]

Sorry guys, have just been too busy with other things lately to get any work on dfGUI done. This past weekend I had my machine apart trying to diagnose a problem so couldn't do anything productive all weekend. :(

Jeff.

[-=N0N@ME420=-]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
Sorry guys, have just been too busy with other things lately to get any work on dfGUI done. This past weekend I had my machine apart trying to diagnose a problem so couldn't do anything productive all weekend. :(

Jeff.

what language are you coding in?

and would it be possible to have this feature:


-----------------------
You start dfgui

foldtajlite.exe starts

Someone shuts down the pc or the pc is powered off
without stopping the client.

DFGUi is being closed down

It acknoledges that it is being shut down

DFGUI gives itself 10 seconds to close the client properly

Everything is well
------------------------

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by -=N0N@ME420=-
what language are you coding in?
and would it be possible to have this feature:

-----------------------
You start dfgui

foldtajlite.exe starts

Someone shuts down the pc or the pc is powered off
without stopping the client.

DFGUi is being closed down
It acknoledges that it is being shut down
DFGUI gives itself 10 seconds to close the client properly
Everything is well
------------------------

I am coding in C++.

Right now you can configure dfGUI to start the DF client when it starts.

I don' think Windows works that way when someone shuts down the machine. When you do a shutdown, Windows sends out a kill signal to all the processes. Its possible that the DF client itself gets the kill signal before dfGUI or it could work the other way around. Either way, I am not familiar with any way to tell windows to wait 10 seconds so it can make sure the DF client closes properly.

Are you having specific problems? I shutdown/reboot my machine all the time without getting dfGUI to stop the DF client and I never seem to have any problems. The DF client should be able to handle itself on a Windows shutdown (if not, you should talk to Howard & Elena about fixing the client).

Jeff.

[IronBits]

Try this for a startup script for DF :) :cheers:

@echo off
::###############################################################
:: This script will only work with Windows 2000 and Windows XP
:: You need the following utilities and place them in your PATH
:: Sleep.exe, tlist.exe, grep.exe, kill.exe, DFrestart.bat
:: Author: IronBits - Team: Free-DC.org
:: Date: July 1, 2003
:: File: DFrestart.bat
:: Invocation: command line or use Scheduler to run once per day
::###############################################################
:: Get on the correct Drive where client is located
if not exist C:\dcprojects\distribfold\foldit.bat goto D-drive
C:
Echo Found Client on C: drive
goto LOCK

:D-drive
if not exist D:\dcprojects\distribfold\foldit.bat goto NODRIVE
D:
Echo Found Client on D: drive
goto LOCK

:LOCK
:: Remove the lock file, /Force and /Quiet switches
Echo Removing Lock file
if not exist \dcprojects\distribfold\*.lock goto CHECK
del /F /Q \dcprojects\distribfold\*.lock

:LOOP
:: Sleep 5 seconds before checking if DF client has stopped
Echo Sleeping 5 seconds before checking if DF client has stopped
sleep 5

:CHECK
:: Check processes running for the DF client
Echo Checking to see if DF Client is running...
tlist > C:\TEMP\tlist.txt
grep foldtrajlite C:\TEMP\tlist.txt

:: if the DF client is not running, then we Start it
if errorlevel 1 goto STARTIT

:: if DF client is running we go back up to LOOP
if errorlevel 0 Echo DF Client still running! && goto LOOP

:STARTIT
Echo Getting into correct working directory...
:: We need to get into the directory where the client is installed
cd \dcprojects\distribfold
:: Clean up the TEMP files DF client leaves behind when it crashes
if exist %TEMP%\*.cdx del /F /Q %TEMP%\*.cdx
if exist %TEMP%\*.dbf del /F /Q %TEMP%\*.dbf
if exist %TEMP%\*.fpt del /F /Q %TEMP%\*.fpt

:dfGUI
:: Now we see if the dfGUI task is running
grep dfgui C:\TEMP\tlist.txt
if errorlevel 1 goto KILL
if errorlevel 0 goto SLEEPer

:KILL
:: Now we kill the dfGUI task and sleep 2 seconds
Echo Killing dfGUI...
kill -F dfgui
goto SLEEPer

:SLEEPer
:: Then re-start dfGUI, which will start the DF client
Echo Sleeping 10 seconds before starting dfGUI...
Echo to allow other programs to get started first, please wait...
sleep 10
start dfGUI
goto EXIT

:NODRIVE
Echo.
Echo Something is wrong! I can't find the DF Client! >> %TEMP%\dfRestart.log
Echo Check dfRestart.bat script and the location of foldit.bat >> %TEMP%\dfRestart.log
Echo.
Echo.
::pause
goto EXIT

:EXIT
:: Clean up and Exit script file
del /F /Q C:\TEMP\tlist.txt
exit

[-=N0N@ME420=-]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
I am coding in C++.

Are you having specific problems? I shutdown/reboot my machine all the time without getting dfGUI to stop the DF client and I never seem to have any problems.

I should be able to help you soon, Im not saying your a newb, just Ill be starting to learn C++ soon and would like to work on as many projects as possible.

the second part is proof god hates me for the moment, I need to get me into church.

2 Days ago my main pcs (sits in my bedroom connected to net all day) power went off (2 minute blackout in the middle of the day) and somehow the filelist file got corrupted and I had to start from Gen 0 when I was on Gen 230 but luckily I had all my gens uploaded

Then Today my work computer crashed mysteriously and I went from 450,000 points buffered back to 260,000 something points.

A sudden loss of around 200,000 points.

Then just as Iam uploading all the gens, at 1am here time, because I just finished work at 9pm and needed a short break, the server goes offline for maintainence when I was uploading buffer 7 of 2 Hundred somethings, and as the work computer can only attach to the hub via wire not wireless I can't upload till tommorow morning, because the office where the hub is, is also my brothers bedroom.

So I have 200,000 points missing, 250 gens that need uploading tommorow morning in the space of 10 minutes before I leave for work and the office is not where I work, I have to take the pc to another physical location that dosn't have net access.

And at this point in time its 2:30am in the morning and Im falling asleep.

[Digital Parasite]

Originally posted by -=N0N@ME420=-
2 Days ago my main pcs (sits in my bedroom connected to net all day) power went off (2 minute blackout in the middle of the day) and somehow the filelist file got corrupted and I had to start from Gen 0 when I was on Gen 230 but luckily I had all my gens uploaded Then Today my work computer crashed mysteriously and I went from 450,000 points buffered back to 260,000 something points.

When you do learn C++ you will find out that unfortuntely there is no call in C++ to ask a computer to wait 10 seconds after the power has gone out to your PC or your box has crashed so it can ask the DF client to shutdown cleanly. :(

Instead I would recommend http://www.apc.com/ for the first problem.

Even if I could have implemented the feature you asked for, it wouldn't have helped you in those cases.

Jeff.

[-=N0N@ME420=-]

Originally posted by Digital Parasite
When you do learn C++ you will find out that unfortuntely there is no call in C++ to ask a computer to wait 10 seconds after the power has gone out to your PC or your box has crashed so it can ask the DF client to shutdown cleanly. :(

Instead I would recommend http://www.apc.com/ for the first problem.

Even if I could have implemented the feature you asked for, it wouldn't have helped you in those cases.

Jeff.

Im going to try and best explain what I don't understand.


PC Car Game Problem:

Why does the car (protein) need to drive all the way down the road (100 Structures) to be able to save at the next checkpoint (to make 1 gen buffered) why is it not possible to have a save at anytime (live buffer)

I assume millions of Points and Structures would benefiet from not being lost.

I mean with every structure lost, there is a chance we could be losing the smallest structure.

Not only that but saving each structure to disk live Im sure would have minimal impact on times as speeds of hard disk drives are in the 8MBytes a second data rate and well that pretty much explains how fast it can go.

[pointwood]

That question has nothing to do with dfGUI or any other add-on utilities and it's nothing they can do anything about and therefore you should ask that in the the main forum or maybe one of the other sub forums.

[-=N0N@ME420=-]

Originally posted by pointwood
That question has nothing to do with dfGUI or any other add-on utilities and it's nothing they can do anything about and therefore you should ask that in the the main forum or maybe one of the other sub forums.

No Worries, haven't had any problems since anyway...

[AZ Lynx]

Originally posted by Darkness Productions
Big-DP -

Any way that you could change how uploading is handled by dfGUI? What I'd like to be able to do is navigate around dfGUI while it's told the client to upload. Any way that could happen?

I know this is going way back to January, but I've experimented with it. I noticed that I cannot navigate in dfGUI if while the client is running I click upload, or if I stop it, check the upload only option and hit start. However, if i stop the client, click upload only, then click the upload button, I can navigate around dfGUI just fine -- after 4 or 5 seconds. Therefore, you can navigate while uploading, you simply have to do things in a particular order.