Persistent Bug Found

April 23, 2008 · Filed Under MeshCAM Development 

I haven’t posted much here lately because I’ve had no progress lately.  I had a horrible bug that took about 10 days to find. In retrospect it should have been easier but I always say that after finding a big one.  Theoretically the compiler should have generated a warning that my typo was probably a very bad idea but it never made a peep.  Visual Studio is generally very good but it failed totally this time.  It turned out to be a simple fix and I now have even newer pencil and waterline code.

 

In the course of testing the waterline code I was able to find a test case that generated bad toolpaths using a flat endmill.  I had seen it before but I could only so it with a 20000 polygon file which is very difficult to debug.  I think I know where the bug is but I’m still tracking it down.

 

I also started coding a "Check for Updates" command.  This seemed like busy work but I’ve finally come to accept that it’s a must-have.  It’s a shame to keep updating the program and not have everyone benefit from the changes- especially given that I depend heavily on word-of-mouth to bring people in.

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6 Responses to “Persistent Bug Found”

  1. Jeff Demand on April 25th, 2008 4:27 am

    Robert,

    Is the ‘Check back with mom’ going to be for the current “stable ” release or the latest beta? It is a good idea but I don’t think that I have ever used anything other than the latest beta. Checking the News on the MC site is a daily ritual.

    Jeff

  2. John Williams on April 25th, 2008 6:41 am

    I also check the news daily. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. Great work, Robert.
    John

  3. Robert on April 25th, 2008 7:42 am

    I kept you in mind Jeff- it will tell you if there is a newer stable or beta release.

    -Robert

  4. Jeff Demand on April 25th, 2008 1:28 pm

    Robert,

    Thank you. Every now and then I fear that I might push the envelope too much causing you to cancel my license in a probably justified fit of rage :-)
    Jeff

  5. Robert on April 25th, 2008 1:36 pm

    Actually, I programmed it to crash with your license on every 6th run. I call it license roulette.

    -Robert

  6. Jeff Demand on April 25th, 2008 2:10 pm

    Robert,

    Ha Ha , very good. Just glad I had no liquids handy to spill on the keyboard. Possible bug report… it seemed to crash every 11.54353 runs. I’m bad and don’t always exit properly, is the counter an integer by chance?

    Jeff