In article <45ABF2FD.15109.634091@twegner.swbell.net>, "Tim Wegner" <twegner@swbell.net> writes:
Wow!! This is really an accomplishment! [...]
Thanks
match. You may have reached a point where we can begin to help you, but that can be your call.
Feel free to dive in at any time :-). I think the driver code has everything it needs in terms of hooks, but that there are some things like side-effects through global variables where my driver code is off. Things like calling such-and-such a routine is supposed to set global variables but I don't set them, or such-and-such a routine is supposed to be influenced by global variables, but my routine doesn't use them. In those situations, familiarity with the existing fractint DOS code, particularly the assembly code, will be helpful in spotting and correcting those errors. There is a certain "clunkiness" to the whole UI. Unless I see an easy way to fix those issues, I say let it stay clunky, as long as its correct, until the whole polling DOS mode is refactored out of the code.
1. the first formula type I tried had a syntax error. But darn, I didn't notice which one. I tried several others and they worked (at least, generated an image). I'll systematically check and rediscover which one it was.
Most of the fractal specific stuff should work since it doesn't do any IO with the user, just output to the screen through a few specific low-level hooks. That part pretty much works; its weirdness caused by specific UI elements that are wiggy still. I need to try more of the UI stuff that's more exotic like the orbits window, colormap manipulation and palette editing. I know I'm not supplying a reasonable bitmap font for the palette editor.
2. I generated a mandelbrot before trying the formula type. The mandelbrot was still on the screen as the formula type generated. This didn't seem to cause as problem, but we should probably clear the screen.
I saw this shortly after I put the beta out there and I have it fixed now.
Now we need the services of a few fanatic fractint users to help fanatic user Lee Skinner :-). We need to systematically test different functionality and compare with the DOS version.
I'd love testing from a small group of users for now and when things are more solid, we can open it up to a larger group of users. Until things are more solid I think it would just end up with lots of people reporting the same bug. Right now the bugs are easy to find :-). -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>