H-4

David, I'm working with the commercial version of 1.1 and have a couple of problems I didn't noticed mentioned eariler. The color scheme list on the map appearance tab is showing jibberish like memory has been corrupted and you've got pointer to binary data at who knows where. Also, sometimes when trying to exit the app it gets the database saved and then locks up hard, forcing a soft reset. Other times, it acts like it saved the database but then when you go back in, the database is empty. Arghhhh! There's still something fundamentally wrong with how the app is registering itself with the OS because it doesn't show in the Omega One task switcher (although it does show in other utilities) and I doubt very, very seriously if it's a bug in the Omega One program. David, as a registered user with a modest investment, I feel I have a legitimate voice here. So please, please, please please work on the overall stability and basic functionality of this app before investing even a single minute in loading in new features. Timing is everything.

Anybody heard from David lately? I hope he's just too busy at work/school..... I'm really jonesing for some bugfixes. Timing is everything.

David, More issues in 1.09... 1. Problem editing in the Coords control on the "New" location dialog (maybe other places as well). I am trying to enter a new location (coords N36.06 W86.71). I thought I must be going nuts because every time I saved it and then went back in to edit it showed N36.60 W86.71. After some experimenting, it looks like it doesn't want to accept a leading 0 (zero) after the decimal place. Tried N36.03, got N36.30,etc. My guess is that you're having to parse the string and get the various components, i.e. "N", "36", "03". But if you convert "03" from a string to an int, you get "3". Leave the decimal where it is and convert ".03" and all is well. 2. Was able to get double entries in the location listbox. But it looks like there's only a single entry in the location database because when I delete one of the duplicates, the other can't be edited. Also, if the list shows a duplicate, a re-sort normalizes it. btw, if the list is sorted and you add or edit, it would be nice if the new location was inserted into the list at the correct location (based on the current sort order) rather than added at eol. 3. The map screen seems to slow expontentially with an increasing scale. I can appreciate why this is the case. And at 1024 or greater (maybe even 512 or 256), it's next to worthless. At one point, maybe 2048 or so I thought the thing was locked up because it took so long to respond. How about either a hard limit on the scale of maybe 512. Or at least a user defined maximum scale option. 4. Drop down lists can show more than 2 items at a time. Lots of other PPC apps do it. If it helps, in the Win32 API you do via the vertical height in SetWindowPos. Thanks Andy Timing is everything.

David, Downloaded registered version 1.09 'cause I have faith in ya. Handango, it seems, still has 1.09. Wasn't sure if you had posted 1.091 yet. 1. Having problems saving database like others. It seems as though when it gets an exception saving the db, it loses the registration code. If the db doesn't get saved, it remember the reg code. Is this what you would expect? 2. Application still isn't showing up in the program switcher I use. In an earlier post I mentioned it was by Resco; but I think I was mistaken. I believe it is part of the Omega One Battery Pack. The app DOES show in "Running Programs" under the Memory settings so you're at least part of the way there. 3. DB file mgmt and importing is kinda confusing now, maybe this is compounded by not being able to save the db and have it automatically re-opened on next startup. 4. Sorting needs to be case-insensitve (or at least have it as option). My guess is that most people (w/o compsci background like you and me) would expect to see "The Cat" and "the cat" to sort close to each other. 5. The Delete button on the database screen REALLY needs a confirmation window (i.e. Are you sure you want to delete?). It's destructive and it's so close to "View on Map" that a mistap and poof, a cache is gone. 6. I really wish you would rethink the issues about the [OK] button vs [Done], [Main Menu], etc. Few applications are successful at blazing new GUI trails. Again, menus would be really nice.....other graphic apps (MS Streets & Trips, for example) is able to trap clicks and show a menu at the same time. 7. The scroll bar on the database list box shows as the list is populated. In the Win32 API you can turn this off. This is both a cosmetic and performance enhancer. The list populates sooooo much faster without the repaints. Don't know if this is possible in the PPC API. 8. Saved app to memory card and it still can't locate the help files. Not a big deal but another buglet to add to the list. 9. It would be nice if the "Search" option wasn't just a "begins with" but also a "contains". Think about all the caches name "The So&So". 10. Set app up to autoload a gpx file. Exited the app and restarted it. It went thru the loading process but the database screen shows (300 locations, 0 shown). If you do a sort, the listbox really does get populated. From there on it seems to be okay. 11. Was able to the map screen into a mode where it took double taps to show the cache name (i.e. fly over help). Only happened once. Will take notice if I can get it happen again. 12. The map scale is somewhat confusing. Usually on a map if you see horizontal bar with a distance in it, the cited distance usually is related to the length of the bar. So, if the scale says "8.0 miles" you would expect that little bar to represent 8 miles, not that the width of the display is 8 miles. If the bar really did represent 8 miles, it would make it really nice to hold your stylus parallel to the bar and make a distance gestimate. Then you could measure off distances between caches, even if they were diagonal. That's it for now. Keep up the good work! I appreciate your effort and how receptive you are to suggestions, issues, etc. I really think you've got a great start on this app and am thrilled to have to opportunity to help make suggestions and shape what your work becomes. Ahhhhh, life on the bleeding edge.... Timing is everything.

David, Just downloaded the trial version of 1.0 to check it out. A little rough around the edges so I'm anxious to see the 1.1 improvements. Some oddities that I've noticed that may not have been mentioned in this chain... 1. Installed app to SD card and the app couldn't find the help files. Also, need to be able to import from memory cards (as well as keep the database file there) 2. Under certain editing operations of the database I was able to get duplicate, triplicate (and more) entries of the same cache item. 3. When focus is set to an edit box it would be nice if it automatically activated the selected input mode (i.e. keyboard, transcriber, etc) 4. As described in an earlier post about not showing up in the (Dell) Switcher app, it doesn't show in the Resco Task Manager (a similar app) nor in the "Running Programs" tab of the Memory Settings app 5. Recommendation: many of the buttons would be more PPC-like if they were implemented as menus (and it would save a ton of real estate). 6. The 1st GPX file I tried wouldn't import. I get downloads of .LOC files (smaller) and used ExpertGPS to save it as a .GPX file. A .GPX sent from geocaching.com work flawlessly. The ExpertGPS version obviously doesn't have all of the XML nodes that are available in the GPX but I thought it should still import with all of the extra stuff left blank. Didn't research the schema to see if the extra stuff is optional or required. 7. Your notion of a CacheLizard version might be interesting since I already have pretty decent maps and compass in a MeriPlat. btw, I hadn't seen much talk about NMEA support (or is everybody else using CF/Sleeve units?) 8. App could stand to be scanned for consistency. For example, on one screen there's a button "Details" to view the cache details; but on the map screen the same function is called "Info" 9. All of the Map Optios are nice but there are so many that it looks intimidating. Maybe a tabbed interface where similar options can be grouped would work better. And it gives you space to implement new options. The "Location Flash/Solid" "Compass Classic..." aren't really intuitive as buttons, they should be radio buttons and (grouped) check boxes. Need spinners on the Difficulty and Terrain controls 10. Some of the controls on the really full screens are clipped (functional but doesn't have that polished look) 11. Don't really need the "Done" button, since that's what the standard PPC "OK" button in the title bar is for. 12. Many of the buttons don't do anything if not in the right mode (e.g. on the Map, "Info" does nothing if a cache isn't selected). Things need to be grayed (disabled) if they are available at a given moment. Otherwise it's very confusing about why nothing happened when I clicked .... I'm really excited about using this app in the field. I've been writing software for over 20 years now and had toyed with the idea of writing something for caching (and to learn the PPC API); but it looks like you may have saved me (and others) countless hours. What you have done so far is impressive and I'm sure that your next version is really going to make it a "must-have" app. Timing is everything.