All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Buying a Windows Laptop

Ovid on 2007-01-16T09:55:16

I've finally come to the conclusion that even begging for Windows help with TAPx::Parser isn't doing me much good. I'm going to have to break down and buy a Windows laptop :(

Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate the folks who've sent me test reports on Windows and made suggestions on how to fix certain issues, there's no way I can really understand and fix the issues without biting the bullet and working on Windows directly.

Unless someone wants to be a co-developer and focus on the Windows issues? :)

Two possibilities...

Adrian on 2007-01-16T11:03:49

Didn't I see you with an x86 Mac laptop at YAPC? If so - you could invest in Parallels http://www.parallels.com/ and a Windows licence - probably slightly cheaper than purchasing a Windows laptop.

If not, if you're willing to wait a couple of weeks, I should have Parallels running on my new work MacBook :-)

Re:Two possibilities...

Ovid on 2007-01-16T11:33:08

Nope, I just have a regular old iBook. If I can't get a Windows laptop, then maybe I'll have to wait that couple of weeks :)

Umm, OK

AndyArmstrong on 2007-01-16T12:13:09

I have an unloved XP box set up here for this kind of thing. It'd be painful of course but I'm happy to help with the Windows side of things. Although I try to forget it I do actually know Windows stuff.

Re:Umm, OK

Ovid on 2007-01-16T12:22:15

Well, basically I need to get all of the tests passing in Windows. The IPC::Open3 stuff has solve the problem of merging STDIN and STDOUT, but I now appear to have lost the ability to get the wait status while on Windows. At least, that's what the bug reports are suggesting. I think the latest devel release has fixed the whitespace test failures, so it's just the wait status that's killing me. Of course, I should also upload the latest version I have in subversion. It has a couple of other minor changes.

If you can figure this out, it would be wonderful! I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

win32 and vnc

rjbs on 2007-01-16T13:35:58

If you'd like, and if it can wait a few days, I can set you up with VNC access to a Win32 box.

Re:win32 and vnc

Ovid on 2007-01-16T14:13:58

That might be an option. In the meantime, Andy Armstrong and I are chatting and he's going to be a co-developer and try to fix some of the nagging Windows issues.

If no-one's been willing to help ...

drhyde on 2007-01-17T11:23:11

Would you go out and buy a RISC OS machine just because your software didn't work on that? No? What about a VAX so you could get it working on VMS? What about BeOS?

Thought not.

If no Windows-head has been willing to help with the Windows issues, then they obviously don't care enough for you to bother supporting their obscure platform and you shouldn't go spending money to fix it.

Re:If no-one's been willing to help ...

Ovid on 2007-01-17T12:10:41

Actually, Andy Armstrong is now working with me on it. We have a svn repository set up on his server and he's already fixed one Windows bug.

The intent is to get TAPx::Parser ready for the core and if I don't have it working on Windows, there's no way that Nicholas or Rafael will accept it.