Odd behavior in Win8-I'm stuck fixing it, Help??

Sun Jul 19 18:43:00 EDT 2015

Mark:
Keeping in mind that the info I got was from my teacher/collaborator, Sabina Thomas, and her info was during an online video chat with one of her students in Japan, what I understand is that the pixellation showed up after opening the MAP part of the application, doing a profile plot, then plotting Quakes from the “Select Data To Be Plotted” dropdown menu. That’s the information I have.

I hope you don’t waste too much time on this because there is so little available information to help in debugging the situation. At this point, my solution is to try to get as many folks as possible to try it on Win8, and if the problem occurs again, beg, pay, whatever to get them to provide more detailed information about their computer and its settings. I think if you have any hunches or WIn8 idiosyncrasy info that could affect this, I could explore that further, but …..

I’m reluctant to bug Sabina’s student further about this. BUT, I am wondering if there is an app she might download that could send me information about her computer, that would help. Just thinking aloud. She might be willing to do that.

Thanks for looking at this. I really appreciate it. 
Best,
Bill

> On Jul 19, 2015, at 3:23 PM, Mark Schonewille <m.schonewille at economy-x-talk.com> wrote:
> 
> _Where_ and _when_ should the pixelation show up exactly?
> 
> --
> Best regards,
> 
> Mark Schonewille
> 
> Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
> Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
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> On 7/19/2015 23:42, William Prothero wrote:
>> Mark:
>> The pixellation should show up on the steps you took.
>> 
>> However, I don’t see it and another LiveCoder who downloaded it and played it on Windows 8 doesn’t see it. Lowering the screen resolution shows the effect, but that would show the entire window pixellated, and that isn’t what is shown on the image. Only the part that is snapshot’d shows the pixellation. It really stumps me. I’m wondering if there could be some kind of jpg difference between countries. I could understand possible font differences, but the problem is the snapshot area(s).
>> 
>> I’m wondering if there could be some timing problem, rarely seen, where the snapshot is taken before the underlying image is fully updated. The map image is a big one, with its size and location changed, but the data plot is just a group of lines and fields which is displayed, then snapshot’d.
>> 
>> Debugging this seems hopeless without being able to reproduce the effect, though.
>> 
>> At this stage,  unless there is something about Windows and ‘png’ files in Japan, perhaps with a different language, I don’t know how to debug it. It’s very hard to get students to give feedback, after the assignment is over and they are onto other things. Probably also unfair to ask them to participate in debugging. So, I only ask once.
>> 
>> One of my debugging strategies is to ask grad students at the UCSB geology dept. to try the program and I pay them $20 for feedback. I may try that strategy and if they see it, and I could get hold of their computer, something might pop out.
>> 
>> BTW: I put the apps and problem images on my web site at:
>> lhttp://earthednet.org/downloads/index.html <http://earthednet.org/downloads/index.html>
>> 
>> Very odd.
>> Bill
>> 
>>> On Jul 19, 2015, at 11:10 AM, Mark Schonewille <m.schonewille at economy-x-talk.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Bill,
>>> 
>>> I performed step 1 till 7. What are the steps to check if anything relevant is extremely pixelated?
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Best regards,
>>> 
>>> Mark Schonewille
>>> 
>>> Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
>>> Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
>>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer
>>> KvK: 50277553
>>> 
>>> Installer Maker for LiveCode:
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>>> 
>>> Buy my new book "Programming LiveCode for the Real Beginner" http://qery.us/3fi
>>> 
>>> LiveCode on Facebook:
>>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/runrev/
>>> 
>>> On 7/19/2015 19:09, William Prothero wrote:
>>>> Mark:
>>>> Thanks for looking at the app.
>>>> 
>>>> Instructions:
>>>> 1. launch app
>>>> 2. Click on “Begin” button with option key down.
>>>> 3. At Welcome screen, click on “Go To Map” button
>>>> 4. At Map screen, select “Quakes” form the dropdown labeled “Select data to be plotted”
>>>> 5. Click on “Save Map Image” (optional)
>>>> 6. Click on the “+” magnifier button, move the mouse over the map, and then click. The magnifier symbol should move with the mouse.
>>>> 7. Make an elevation plot by first clicking on the “Make A Profile” checkbox, then drag the mouse across a segment of the map image.
>>>> 
>>>> The snapshot is taken whenever the map screen changes. Symbol data are drawn into the snapshot image data. The map is a very large jpeg, which is reduced, then the snapshot is taken. When the map is magnified (by increments of a factor of 2), or moved, a new snapshot is taken.
>>>> 
>>>> It appears that the pixellation occurs at the snapshot step. There is a region below the map (initially grey) that holds the data plots. This plot is created by creating the various graphic elements (fields, boxes, lines), then a snapshot taken, and then the plot elements deleted. The plot image is then the snapshot. This was also shown as pixellated (by the student with the problem), so I think it is most likely a snapshot problem.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks so much for looking at this, Mark!! I have not been able to duplicate this problem on my Parallels hosted Windows 8.1 system.
>>>> 
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> Bill
>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 19, 2015, at 8:39 AM, Mark Schonewille <m.schonewille at economy-x-talk.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bill,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I had a look at your app. There is no "export snapshot" button or menu item. Please, provide instructions as brief as possible.
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Mark Schonewille
>>>>> 
>>>>> Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
>>>>> Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
>>>>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer
>>>>> KvK: 50277553
>>>>> 
>>>>> Installer Maker for LiveCode:
>>>>> http://qery.us/468
>>>>> 
>>>>> Buy my new book "Programming LiveCode for the Real Beginner" http://qery.us/3fi
>>>>> 
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>>>>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/runrev/
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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