.reftie/.myties (2.4.3)

[googlyeyesultra]

Anyways, new to the forums, but I thought I'd report a bug with the 2.4.3 version of Darwinbots.

First of all, I find it very counterintuitive for .myties to have an s that .reftie doesn't, despite referring to the same thing.

That aside, however, it is really bothersome when both continually output 0 (try using the console on multibots or things looking at tie-feeders. ? .myties and ? .reftie always return 0.)

[Jez]

Welcome to the forum Googly!

Sorry about the myties and reftie thingy, there is a good chance they were added to the program at different times and by different people. Hopefully once you've used DB a bit more it won't be so noticable to you.

Hadn't noticed that they didn't work anymore, makes it a bit pointless to use them I guess. When work starts on a new version of DB I'll try to make sure that the problem gets looked at.

Well done for spotting the bug and thanks for reporting it!

[googlyeyesultra]

No problem. One further question: with the C++ version in progress, will the older versions still receive bug-fixes, updates, and buddy drops? Essentially, are bug reports just being stuck together to be fixed in the C version, or do I need to watch the download page for updates?

[Jez]

Numsgill is the person in charge of the C++ version.

EricL was the last person to work on the existing version of DB, he is currently writing a book at the moment so hasn't been around for awhile.

However, before he left he put in loads (seriously; loads and loads) of time trying to get all the bugs fixed, that's the reason for all those buddy drops and bug fixes you've probably seen.  
He did a really good job btw and it's taken a while for the bugs to start resurfacing.

If EricL or PY (a previous programmer) find enough spare time to return to the forum, or Numsgill finds enough spare time and sufficient inclination to drag himself away from the C++ portal and take a look at some of the bugs then we might get some more bug fixes.
Other than that most of us here don't have the ability to bug fix the program so unless a new programmer finds DB and takes an interest I can't imagine there being a flurry of bug fixes for a while.

You can always find info about new releases on the forum which is the first place new stuff is announced.

It's always been like that I guess, you wait ages for a bug to be fixed and then lots of things change really quickly!!

(Waffle waffle, sry) I guess the quick answer to your question would be that bug reports are being gathered for the C++ version and in case someone returns/appears and starts fixing this VB version which would be generally talked about in the forum first...

[Numsgil]

DB is sort of in stasis at the moment, with no serious development going on.  I might go into the VB code and fix some bugs if there are enough of them and they're annoying enough.  But it's been a long time since I looked at the code.  Eric also might come back at some point and work a little on it.  Or a new coder might pick up the reins at some point.