Notices

Ahh now for the long and dubious task of bug fixing ;o)

Okay, first off since the first round of comments I've updated a lot of the code to resolve the problems that were occuring, namely:
- background image problem that Lemmy reported has been fixed
- deviceState problem that lots of people were running into has been fixed
- the "setting alarm" thing hanging there for a few minutes the first time the app is run has also been fixed (it was being caused by the first time the configuration gets generated having a small bug in it).

One other note, by the way, is that I don't generate the deb from a running copy of the flipclock, it comes only from sources; so the first time you run the app, it will take a longer to load because python has to compile all of the sources into python objects; any time after this the objects are already there so it loads much more quickly.

Now then new bugs that have been reported: Alarm does not go off at the correct time in other timezones (i.e. Germany/Berlin); my bet would be that this is my screw up (I think the code right now subtracts the timezone offset which might not work right on other side of prime meridian... shouldn't be too hard to fix).

ukjeeper - problem may be related to the timezone stuff just mentioned, I will try to resolve that any will release new "bug fixes" version of the app hopefully very soon so that all of these things will be taken care of (and if problem still comes up, try running from x-term and when the app locks up, check the x-term output to see what the last thing the clock tried to do was)

As far as the Dbus/alarmD stuff goes, the biggest problem I ran into was the lack of accurate documentation. I think a lot of people stay away from it/fear it/think it's a piece of junk because they can't figure out how to actually use it, and it's not very forgiving (i.e. if you screw up in passing variables to set the alarm, alarmD will crash because you've caused it to trigger an alarm 90000000 times all on the same second, etc). I've crashed alarmD numerous times during development... but now with the "Release" version, I have never had a single problem with the alarmD stuff, it's all just the coding within the clock app itself that's at fault...

For Ciro (or anyone else who dislikes alarmD stuff or wants to run app on non-tablet) taking the latest version and adding a "local alarm monitor" thing should be very easy; I store all of the actual alarm times/alert sounds/etc in the local .flipclock.conf file, the only thing alarmD stuff does is call a function in the app "triggerAlarm"; you could very easily replace the alarmD stuff with just a simple few if statements in the main loop and produce the same effect without alarmD features... (maybe I'll even add this into the code since it's pretty easy and just put a config var for it or something....)

I'm not sure what "and launching the HUGE 3mb python just for make the thing hopefully playing is a recipe for disaster" that means though... the clock would have to be running anyways, so whether you have it launch automatically, or have to leave it open all the time...?...

I used the new 0.15 version with AlarmD integated into it - and liked it.

Yes the first load is slow and it "seems" as if it has crashed or frozen.
But all subsequent runs are fine - so no issues there.

Alarm worksed fine for me - I set up one Alarm theu Flip Clock and also had another alarm already set thru the Big Statusbar clock up on top.

Both alarms (different times) kicked off at their respective times - so Flip clock works just as fine with AlarD integrated.

One issue that I noticed - I connect the N810 on power all night and have set it to not sleep when connected to power.

On the new Flip clock version I see that the time stays the same - set at 11:54 PM even in the morning and has not changed - untill I touch the screen and then it refreshes to show the current time.

This was not the case with the older version - the time would change as and when I looked at the clock during the night.

So something seems wrong here - if its on powersave mode - then I understand the time will refresh only when the device wakes up - on touching the screen, but on charging mode without any power save enabled - it should refresh the time so that the time on the screen which is visible all times reflects the current time always.

Is just the way I use the device: my tablet is pretty always doing something: typically, xchat, a big pdf document, a twitter client, pidgin, the clock...etc Having everything already open dont cause a lot of problems, but having an huge application that will startin in the future in the middle of session is not something I want have to plan when I set an alarm otherwise if what Im doing already have to deal with the clock footprint I dont have to worry of something in the future (make sense?).
It is just the way I ended up using the tablet: I still believe the dbus is the right thing for the clock (and these kind of problems will even have less impact with next generation tablet) and for most part of users.
Sorry if it sounded like a critic to your work
I think is pretty obvious I dont care too much about OS and integration, but that is just me: I would never had to begin the thing if I had to follow the Maemo Best Practices .
I'm usually a 'rule follower' in 'real life': I probably need a way to express myself free from constrictions and just doing what I think is right for myself (and be happy to share with people who want follow my craziness).
Don't feel I have any right to say what you have to do: the application ownership is defined by the number of hours someone spend on and it seem you gained enough credits to do what you think is best

Using the Ringo Star words:
Peace and Love, Peace and Love, Peace and Love

I installed this one and it's not working for me. The first time I ran it, I was able to see the alarm page. The application wasn't very responsive and at some point, it displayed a milky white screen. I killed flipclock and restarted it. Then, no matter what I did, I couldn't get the alarm page to come up. The clock kept time and I could turn the night light on and off but that's all. I uninstalled flipclock then reinstalled it. Still no love! I can't get the alarm page to display.

OK guys, we're getting closer here.

Power Management/non-refreshing issue: Fixed:
Thanks nilchak for pointing out the power-on issue, I didn't realize the tablet would leave the screen on (charger attached and display set to always on) but still consider itself in "idle" mode... that's a bit counter-intuitive! Anyways, I integrated the old power management module from Kagu that had been suggested WAYYY back in this thread, and things are now working properly (does not refresh if idle and not charging/AC connected; refreshes if screen is set to always on when AC connected, etc).

Alarms not accurate in other time zones: Fixed:
The problem was indeed my fault, as the documentation for how python handles time zones wasn't as accurate as I had hoped. Anyways, I've gone back, re-adjusted the way things work a bit now, and tested it on my alternate tablet with the timezone set to Berlin/Germany and it now works perfectly, no problems, so hopefully that one is also fixed.

Alarm Screen hanging/not responding on first time: Fixed:
This was caused by a goof in the way Python handled config parsing; I've worked around it shouldn't be a problem anymore (fingers crossed).

Background image not found: Fixed:
As mentioned in previous post, just a quick string replace, I'll try to find a more robust/complete solution later, but it solves the problem at the moment.

Not sure about ukjeeper's odd behaviour there, so haven't been able to address that yet without more information/ability to reproduce it. New deb for updates is:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa....1.6_armel.deb

The config file format hasn't changed or anything, so you should just be able to do an inline upgrade (i.e. install new deb and it will replace the old stuff, but your alarms and things will still be there)

tried flopcock again

alarm page works once then no more
still wallpaper bug when load

otherwise if you leave alarm out it works beautifully truly

should i remove old config before 1.6 install---????

Best. Typo. Ever.
I almost spit coffee all over my screen...

what can say -i got bad eyesight

yukop4, you shouldn't have to remove the config file but since you're having so many odd issues, try taking it out and see if that helps. Also,try running the app from x-term (open xterm and just type "flipclock") and let me know what the output that shows up is when the app locks up.
The background image fix that I implemented only resolves spaces that were in the filename, since that was the only problem that was actaully reported. Again if you run from x-term it will print out some debugging information about what background image it is trying to load; please let me know so that I can try and determine the cause of the problem and resolve it.
Has anyone else experienced any of these issues with the 0.1.6 build?