[3013] in Release_7.7_team
Fwd: SIMSUPER problems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Cattey)
Wed Oct 10 15:17:27 2001
Message-ID: <ovl9v55z0001JAGW4g@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 19:17:25 +0000 ()
From: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: release-team@MIT.EDU
Remember a couple release team meetings ago, I was talking to Abby about
some issue some user had with the AUI window manager?
At long last we have relevant specifics to test.
Is there someone who could volunteer to take the testing beyond what
Craig Counterman has done?
-wdc
---------- Forwarded message begins here ----------
To: Bill Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>
Cc: othomas@mit.edu, alexp@mit.edu, longpd@mit.edu
Subject: Re: SIMSUPER problems
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:35:37 -0400
From: Jean Foster <jfoster@MIT.EDU>
Hi,
This is followup for everyone and a request for help from Bill
and his team.
Phil will speak with Prof. Einstein to realistically set his
expecations about what we can and cannot do to help him in this
particular situation and also to ask why he didn't come to FLs after
Mike suggested it.
Phil said he will also follow up on Oliver's suggestion to compile
a list of homegrown software as a first step in coming up with
some process for helping customers deal with maintenance issues
of homegrown software.
I have contacted the students who are maintaining the software
and have gotten the steps to take to reproduce the problem. I
told them that if it looks like a bug in the Athena release, IS
will try to track it down and fix it. I will also tell them that
if in researching this we find it is really a problem in the
application code we will pass along any info that might help the
application maintainers fix it.
I don't believe this is an urgent issue since they know that
a workaround is to run a pre-sawfish UI and it appears that
they won't need to use the software in class until spring although
I need to verify that.
After a quick look Craig seems to think that it may be that the
application is using a motif control sequence that sawfish reserves
for itself but it would probably be best at this point if someone
from release team who is familiar with the sawfish code gets involved.
(Contact Craig if you need a clearer explanation).
Steps to reproduce the problem are attached below. The code is in
a restricted access locker. If you'd like for us to add anyone to
the ACLs let us know. The student in charge of maintaining the code
is Claude Indermitte, indermit@mit.edu. The other student involved is
Cedric Marzer <marzer@MIT.EDU>.
If you want us to intercede with the customer or help in any way,
let us know. Please keep us in the loop on the resolution or progress.
-jean-
> Thank you for your answer. You will find in this email more information
> about
> the issue.
>
> >
> > The problems you've been having with the SIMSUPER software
> > application following the Athena release have been brought to
> > our attention. We recieved a copy of your original email to
> > the OLC and will look into the errors, but need detailed
> > instructions on how to reproduce the problem, as well as the
> > Athena release number and harware you are using when you see
> > the errors.
>
> To reproduce the error you'll have to :
> run SIMSUPER
> (add 1.383; SIMSUPER)
> Choose 'new' in the first menu, select a name (that doesn't exist yet)
> to save your file,
> choose the 'create/edit input - Method' Menu and click in the second
> column in the 'length determination' row.
> If you are using the new athena windows manager (sawfish) the program
> will crash.
>
> You can also compile the test.c program in
> /afs/athena.mit.edu/course/1/1.383
> and run it. This will have the same effect.
>
> >
> > If we can reproduce the problem, and if it looks like it may be a bug
> > in the Athena release, we will pass it along to the Athena developers
> > to investigate.
> >
> > For now, I assume that you are having the students use a different
> > windows manager as a workaround since you found quite a few that work.
> > For instance, if you type F7 at the Athena login screen you can login
> > with the old dash (pre-sawfish) UI.
>
> This is ok at short term, but we would like to modifie SIMSUPER in order
> for it to work with the current Athena version. The person in charge of
> the SIMSUPER code (indermit
> @mit.edu) would like to know what has to be changed. It might be easier
> if you contact him directly.
>
> Thank you
>
> Cedric
