Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:38 am

I have uploaded the new 3.14 Beta version. Hopefully this will be a lot better than the unlucky 3.13 version. You should at least be able to use the mapper again to add rooms.

This new version has the new command line code. The old dockable command line has been replaced with a fixed command line. It's possible this big change will cause some new bugs, so be on the lookout. Hopefully this will help reduce the corrupted layouts due to command line docking problems.

Please test as much as you can over the weekend and I'll check on Monday to see if another quick fix is needed. Hopefully this version will work well enough to get us to a public version in a couple more weeks.

Thanks for your patience. I know v3.13 was utter crap, and I'm sorry.

Enchanter Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 511 Location: USA

Room addition confirmed working again. Thanks Zugg!

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:11 pm

I'm an engineer at work and we often use what's known as regression testing whenever we make changes to a system. It's a suite of automated tests that are accumulated over time that are designed to exercise the functionality of the system. Whenever a change is made to the system the suite of tests are sent through the system and the output is checked against a known answer to ensure nothing broke with the changes. Perhaps sometime similar might be of use to you as you make changes from one version to the next.

This version seems a lot snappier (quicker). I had noticed the last version seemed to be a bit slower, but I had thought that was because I had made a bunch of MXP changes. Just moving around and screen speed seems faster for some reason.

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:10 pm

Yes, I actually have a large set of test scripts that I run before any release. The problem is that testing something as complicated as CMUD is a huge job itself. At work you probably have lots of people who's job it is to work just on the regression testing. With most complex systems, setting up the testing can often be more work than building the original system. For a one-person business like Zuggsoft, there just isn't enough time for me to spend on more extensive testing systems. That's why I have open beta testing instead.

Also, it's a lot easier to build testing systems for basic algorithms than it is to test a full user interface. Designing testing for a user interface is very complex. AutomatedQA (who makes the Window docking components used in CMUD) sells a good (but very expensive) testing suite for Delphi. But as I said, writing all of the tests would take me years of time that I just don't have.

So my tests are more like zScripts that test the parser and scripting system. I have a new testing script that tests MXP and ANSI color issues that I'm slowly adding more test cases to over time. And I am always playing Aardwolf myself and testing with running around my map. In the last version, I just didn't test creating a new room and I wasn't paying attention to the ANSI color as much as I should have.

The 3.14 version *should* be faster than 3.13 (but about the same as 3.12). The 3.13 version would get slower and slower as the ANSI color bug would use up more and more memory. That is fixed in 3.14, so the performance is back to normal now.