Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [TLATOR] Stabilization + updates

[Scott Barron]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2003 at 12:36:37PM +0300, Samium Gromoff wrote:
> 
> It somehow occured to me that the possible reason of the
> underflow of feedback i received on tlator so far, might be caused by
> the sheer amount of sigsegv`s i`ve managed to fix in the fresh
> series of deltas ;-)
> 

Hello,

I haven't done much around here but lurk and pick up some good
information about tla, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.  I have
a couple suggestions about the underflow of feedback.

First, it may be that people aren't giving it a try because the build
system requires them to install a patched version of make.  I'm not sure
how likely it is that people will build a new version of make, much less
keep one around just to build tlator.  I think this is especially true
for people using systems with lots of package management.  It may be
that gmake is broken in a manner that your patch fixes, but it seems
that until that fix is actually a part of gmake you might want to modify
your build system to use the standard gmake.  This is an opinion coming
from somebody who did, in fact, build a new gmake.

I'm also unsure why libnspace.a, libnsui.a, and libtlator.a were
installed during `make' and not `make install' (If they need to be
installed at all.  Currently they're unneeded, but you probably have
plans for them.).

I also do not agree with the hardcoding of the path to tla in something
like three different places (one for actual use, two for printing
debugging info).  If you're not going to use a compile time check for
the path of tla I suggest you at least make it definable in one place,
either a Makefile or some configuration header.

Now to the actual usage of the program.  I haven't used it to a great
extent, but I did run into a couple of issues.  First is the ``Set Arch
ID'' menu item.  A dialog box pops up telling me that my old arch-id is
``Groucho Marx <address@hidden>'' when, in fact, it is not.

Second is that when tlator is running tla commands there doesn't seem to
be a way to stop it from doing so.  For example, it was running a series
of commands and I was trying to quit but it would not quit until it had
finished.  Actually, at that point it dumped core.  I havent' tried to
reproduce it but here's the traceback:

#0  0x080507ab in tlator_dialog_archive_refresh (view=0x81afdac, a=0, 
    w=0x811d5f0) at libtlator/dialogs_archive.c:203
#1  0x08057b9c in nsui_multiplex_onbutton (button=0x811d5f0,
    comp=0x81afd78)
    at libnsui/nsui_multiplex.c:89

Other than these issues it looks like you're doing some good work.  I am
personally not a huge user of GUIs but yours seems simple, clean, and
consistent with the design of other tools like gimp and dia (to name
two).  It looks to be developing into a useful tool for people who
prefer to use GUI.  Keep up the good work and thanks for listening.

-Scott
-- 
WE DON'T LISTEN TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE US.

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