Improving System Stability
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this. I originally sent it via the "Contact" link but Thomas thought the Forums a better place for it..............................
I'm a new user. I've been using MS in earnest for about a week. I am
very impressed with the software especially considering it's free.
I am very keen for MS to develop and to expand it's user base - I will
be making a donation in the new year (once my finances recover from
Christmas) in the hope it will help.
I think the main obstacle to world domination for MS is that it is
reputed to be "buggy" and "unstable". I think that is very unfair but
I have experienced several crashes in my week of usage and I've had
several "funny" things happen - EG playback sound stops working for no
apparent reason. Unfortunately I've been unable to duplicate the steps
causing the problems - often repeating the same steps doesn't cause
the problem the second time. Usually a restart sorts things out. And
I don't really mind having to do that, given that it is free software
but if things like that could be eliminated I'd be giving it
unqualified recommendations. As it is I'd happily recommend MS but
only to people that I know are comfortable if unexpected things happen
and I'd warn them to expect some "funnies". Reporting these sort of
problems is probably a waste of time as developers don't have any
clues as to the cause.
I do have a suggestion. Could you introduce a Log File that logs
significant events in a user's session? Then, in the event of an
unexpected failure the log file could be sent to you to help debugging
- it won't necessarily give you all the required information but it
may tell you what part of the program was being used at the time and
might alert you to troublesome parts of the code if several user's log
files showed problems in the same general area.
Ultimately, I would like to be of some help but am not technically
competent to do anything practical (I assume my years of mainframe
systems development experience are useless). Would it help if I report
every problem I find even if I can't repeat it or does that simply
clog up you forum and cause unnecessary work?
Thanks
Steve Hall
Comments
Which operating system are you using ? And which version of MuseScore? The current stable is quite stable on my systems (Mac and windows)
In reply to Which operating system are by [DELETED] 5
Windows XP Homw SP3 and 0.9.6.3
In reply to Windows XP Homw SP3 and by fatwarry
While 0.9.6.3 is certainly not crash free, it's perhaps better to concentrate on the current trunk to make MuseScore more stable. We'd like to come as fast as possible to a stable prerelease of the current trunk. So check out the nightly builds and report crashes in the issue tracker.
In reply to Trunk by Thomas
"While 0.9.6.3 is certainly not crash free, it's perhaps better to concentrate on the current trunk to make MuseScore more stable. "
Thomas. Yes, I'm sure that's the way to go.
Sometimes it takes a while to discover the steps to reproduce (especially if you are still learning MuseScore at the same time).
Over the past couple years I have probably reported more bugs than anyone, but the latest stable version of MuseScore is very reliable for me so I haven't reported many new bugs these past few months. Lately chen lung may be our most prolific reporter. Everyone uses MuseScore a little differently so your bug reports would be valuable.
There is a Debug version of MuseScore that produces an extensive log file. It is not recommended for normal use with important projects, but it can be helpful for giving clues to a problem.
In reply to Sometimes it takes a while to by David Bolton
David,
Yes, I'm sure that part of the problem is that as a new user I'm probably doing all sorts of things that an experienced user wouldn't do. Once I've found my way around and know how to do the things I need to do regularly I expect I'll find less problems.
I'm not sure the debug version will help because almost every crash I've experienced has been random and unrepeatable - once it crashed when I was messing around with the beam properties and dragging the beam here and there with the mouse; another time it happened when I was experimenting with the style parameters trying to get my score to exactly fill the page. Neither time could I make it happen again. I've also had peculiar things happen in playback like it not working at all or staring from the wrong place.
As I said in my initial post, I'm not unhappy about these things but I think they will put off a lot of new users and I'm so enthusiastic about MS I'd like it to be more resilient so that it becomes more widely used. I just wish there was something concrete I could do to contribute
In reply to David, Yes, I'm by fatwarry
In case anybody is interested I thought I'd report that I've had no problems of late with Musescore and no crashes at all. Maybe it's because I've found my way around the program now or because I'm doing less "let's try this" or "I wonder what that does". Or maybe it's because 1.0 is a big leap forward in stability terms.
(Oh, and I did make a small contribution. I hope it helps)