[MWForum]getproject won't work

[Wendy Petti]

Hi Cameron,

I don't have an OS X machine, and I don't know if there is a glitch in the
EX software that is causing the getproject command to be unreliable.  I know
that's not what you want to hear when you are trying to prepare a slideshow
or several slideshows with 80 projects!  I wish I could suggest a backup
plan such as running the projects from a master list on a web page, but I
see that the OS X version of the Web Player isn't ready yet.  (Sigh!)

I will mention that I have had periodic troubles with EX on my PC.  When
I've reported these glitches to Shawn, it seems that no one else has
reported them, and it has made me wonder if there is something peculiar
about my particular set-up.  But maybe there really *are* a few glitches,
and I think we all need to be *sure* to report everything glitchy to LCSI so
that they can get the bugs out, if any.  If only one person contacts them,
they consider it a fluke.  If several people report the same problem, it is
quite likely a real problem.  (For instance, they are aware of a real
problem with trying to open projects directly from file icons in XP SP2...
it just brings up the main menu instead of the project, and then you have to
navigate to open the project.  They will correct that bug in the next
release.)

Sometimes (but not always), it has helped for me to close all other
applications and restart the machine, and things work smoothly for awhile.
Maybe that is why GETPROJECT has worked sporadically for you?  I wonder if
too much memory gets tied up in EX until it starts to have a nervous
breakdown (and then you start to have... oh never mind...)

On PCs, some of the glitchiness seems to be related to Windows XP, Service
Pack 2.  Here are the off-and-on glitches I've run into:

1) Occasionally when I type a command or a procedure name in the command
center, the turtle acts like it has never heard of it, but if I place that
same command or procedure name into a button, it responds just the way it
ought to.  I used to think this glitch only occurred with imported turtles,
but I've recently run into it with a newly-hatched turtle, too.

2) Occasionally when I've create a short melody, if I place this melody into
a turtle's backpack and export the turtle, some of the notes disappear from
the melody.

3) I've had some difficulty with the MERGE command, too.  Here is some
information I sent to Shawn about the problem; perhaps some of it could be
relevant to your GETPROJECT difficulty:

"In MW EX, when I try to merge even the simplest of pages into a new project
(projects of the same size, located in the same directory) I get this error
message:

<ansi?> has no value

and then the project hangs and I must close MW EX.
I am typing this command, as I've always done and as is shown in the
advanced vocabulary:

merge "project1 "pages

These other merge commands work just fine:

merge "project1 "procedures
merge "project1 "shapes

but I get nowhere with trying to merge pages."

(follow-up message on MERGE difficulty)

"When a project is created and saved from 'Free Mode' and then immediately
one tries to merge other pages into it, that's when the error message
appears and MW EX hangs.

When an existing project is reopened, this error message does not occur when
merging pages.  It also does not seem to happen when one creates a new
project using the File menu.  It only happens when using 'Free Mode' to
create the project and then to merge pages.  (If I create a project in Free
Mode and save and close it, then reopen it and merge pages, it works fine.
Even if I create a new project with File -> New and merge pages, and then
return to the Welcome Screen and choose Free Mode, I can merge pages.  But
if I go to Free Mode first, when opening MW EX, that's when I have the
problem.  And I think I've *sometimes* had the problem when going to Free
Mode after having been in a project, but I cannot always reproduce the
problem that way.)"

So Cameron (back to the GETPROJECT difficulty), I'm wondering if your
problem has anything to do with Free Mode or not.  I realize it's not
terribly likely, since we are talking about a different operating system,
but you might want to avoid Free Mode altogether and see if that helps at
all.

Good luck, and keep us posted!!

Wendy

Wendy Petti
OWL's MicroWorlds in Action
http://mia.openworldlearning.org
Math Cats
www.mathcats.com


> I'm using Microworlds EX in OS X
>
> I have 80 student projects that I'm trying to run like a
> slideshow by including a
>
> getproject "ProjectName

.....