Organized Testing of PAF in Wine

Discussions about PAF, PAF SDK, and the future of PAF.
AlexEagar-p40
New Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:56 pm

Organized Testing of PAF in Wine

#1

Post by AlexEagar-p40 »

I would like to get PAF running well in Wine so that it can be run on other operating systems besides just Windows. Organizing testing efforts would probably work better with a wiki, but as long as the community is here in the forum, I'm sure it will work fine.

Site creator, please add a wiki to beta.tech.lds.org.

I suggest that a good way to start testing PAF in Wine is to create a table with features listed vertically along the left and versions and environments listed horizontally along the top. Then we can list whether a feature works, does not work, partially works or has not been tested. I will start such a list and we can see where it goes. I will be editing this comment in order to make it a little bit more like a wiki. While in this thread you are welcome to do the same. If you are interested in testing PAF in Wine, you can just post once and update your comment as you get more test results.

I'm now going to try and upload a spreadsheet that has some simple testing info in it. It was created with OpenOffice.

Well, shucks, I can't add an attachment. Could an administrator let me add my attachment? It's just a text based .ods file. I'll send a request in to the Contact Us page.
AlexEagar-p40
New Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:56 pm

OpenOffice Spreadsheet of Test Results

#2

Post by AlexEagar-p40 »

Here is a very preliminary spreadsheet with some test results. I got a reply in another thread about there being a wiki at ldsoss.org. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I'll likely start using that instead of this thread.

Well, the upload page says that I have:

" Sum of all attachments owned by AlexEagar: 0"
" You have uploaded the maximum of 5 files"

I don't see a button to upload my preliminary test results. I see below that the only valid extensions are bmp doc gif jpe jpeg jpg pdf png pps psd swf txt zip, and not the ods that my spreadsheet is. Well, I'll probably have a chance to look at ldsoss.org later tonight.
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
Posts: 3827
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

#3

Post by rmrichesjr »

As one of the maintainers of the WinHQ AppDB page for PAF 5, I'd like to suggest making use of the existing documented channels rather than starting a new, disconnected effort. The AppDB page for PAF 5 on Wine is at http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=1706. It describes the status, testing results, a HowTo, bug reports (almost all of them in 'fixed' state) and some further comments. You can register and post comments. The short version of the status of PAF on Wine follows:

With Wine version 0.9.29 or later, everything works except the help functions.

With Wine version 0.9.32, the help functions are at least partially functional. Installing the MS core fonts rather than just the PAF 5 International Font makes the help text easier to read.

Unfortunately, at the present time, I hear PAF 4 does not work. A few weeks ago, I asked an earlier person who had tried it to file a bug report, but I have not seen anything on that.

The person to thank for several recent bug fixes that have made PAF basically fully usable on Wine is Clinton Stimpson.

I sent info to familysearch.org with a suggestion that they post a link to the AppDB page about using PAF 5 on Wine in the "other support" area, but they apparently don't think any other operating systems exist.

(Disclaimers: I am not an official representative of anyone. I don't have any financial connection with Codeweavers. I'm just a volunteer maintainer of the AppDB page.)
User avatar
mkmurray
Senior Member
Posts: 3266
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:56 pm
Location: Utah
Contact:

Uploading Files

#4

Post by mkmurray »

AlexEagar wrote:Well, the upload page says that I have:

" Sum of all attachments owned by AlexEagar: 0"
" You have uploaded the maximum of 5 files"

I don't see a button to upload my preliminary test results. I see below that the only valid extensions are bmp doc gif jpe jpeg jpg pdf png pps psd swf txt zip, and not the ods that my spreadsheet is. Well, I'll probably have a chance to look at ldsoss.org later tonight.
There is no uploading of files as of yet on these forums. There was a thread discussing the potential of turning it on. We'll see, I guess...
User avatar
WelchTC
Senior Member
Posts: 2085
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:51 am
Location: Kaysville, UT, USA
Contact:

#5

Post by WelchTC »

mkmurray wrote:There is no uploading of files as of yet on these forums. There was a thread discussing the potential of turning it on. We'll see, I guess...
I just turned it on. Let's see how it goes.

Tom
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#6

Post by russellhltn »

tomw wrote:I just turned it on. Let's see how it goes.
When I click on attachments it's telling me "You have uploaded the maximum of 5 files" but also "Sum of all attachments owned by RussellHltn: 0". So whatever got activated doesn't seem to be working - at least not for me.
User avatar
WelchTC
Senior Member
Posts: 2085
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:51 am
Location: Kaysville, UT, USA
Contact:

#7

Post by WelchTC »

Whoops. Fixed now.

Tom
AlexEagar-p40
New Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:56 pm

#8

Post by AlexEagar-p40 »

Despite what winehq says about the status of PAF on Wine, my experience is that it is not really functional. I would submit more bugs (such as the fact that it crashes when I try to enter data) if the font bug were to be fixed. For me, all the other bugs pale in comparison to the font bug. So it's not that I'm refusing to post more bugs, it's just not a real high priority as long as the fonts don't work. Sure there are Microsoft fonts that you can use to fix the problem, but that requires that the user agree to a Microsoft license. I do have Windows available and I can and do run PAF on it. I want to be able to run PAF on a Microsoft free environment. Now, there are fonts on the PAF CD, but the problem with these are that they are only on the CD. I am not satisfied with a solution with that is not available to the general public. I have requested that these fonts be placed along side the PAF download, but I have gotten the following response:
Dear Alex Eagar,

Thank you for your comments. I am sorry but we do not support Linux. The requirements are listed below:

System requirements for Personal Ancestral File 5:

Windows? 95B, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, or Windows 95A with Microsoft? Internet Explorer
Pentium? PC, Celeron?, or iMac? with a Windows emulator
32 MB memory
20 to 60 MB hard-disk space
256-color display adapter supporting at least 800 x 600 screen resolution
Microsoft Internet Explorer (for download and lessons only)
Optional: Internet access, printer, mouse
There are no guarantees that the program will work properly if you it on a system with specifications other than those listed above.

Note: Personal Ancestral File 5 and Windows XP are compatible as long as you use the program with the Administrator default setting. According to the download page, version 5.2 (released July 2002) is fully compatible with Windows XP. We have been unable to duplicate the known problems from earlier versions and Windows XP.

Sincerely,
Your Support Team
Dear Alex Eagar,

Thank you for your reply. I have submitted your suggestion to the engineers but I honestly do not feel that this will change. Users looking for this file such as yourself, will just have to purchase the CD. Thanks once again!

Sincerely,
Your Support Team
The reason why I am posting here is because I don't have a lot of free time to test PAF. I was hoping that I might be able to find and organize a few people that might be interested in this goal. I have software QA experience, so I thought I might be able to do this fairly well. I of course intend on posting my results to winehq as soon as I have something worth contributing there. I thought that this web site would be a good place to gather support behind PAF on Wine because PAF is a central LDS technology, whereas at winehq it is largely ignored because it's not as popular as the latest games.
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
Posts: 3827
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

#9

Post by rmrichesjr »

Alex, I'd love to help you get PAF working for you. (I'm a volunteer maintainer of the PAF 5 AppDB page at WineHQ.) Please email me, PM me here, post here, or post on the AppDB page. I'd love to help.

What version of PAF are you using? What version of Wine are you using? What's your Linux distribution? What is the distribution's release? Please make sure you are using at least Wine version 0.9.29, preferably 0.9.32.

If/when you find bugs, please file reports at WineHQ. Clinton Stimpson, another volunteer if I understand correctly, has taken it upon himself to get PAF to run flawlessly under Wine. He has done the last few/several fixes that have made it useful for basically all practical purposes. He has told me he wants to fix even the cosmetic display glitches such as invisible buttons not being painted correctly. He has commit privilege, so when he makes a fix to benefit PAF, it gets into the mainstream Wine releases. While many Codeweavers folks may be more focused on games, but fixes for PAF do get in.

I gather from your posting that you are seeing font problems. Have you installed the MS core fonts available on Sourceforge? Have you installed PAF 5's "international" unicode font? My experience is PAF 5 works fine with one or with the other or with both. To use the help functions in PAF, you'll probably want to install the MS core fonts for easiest reading.

The PAF 5 international font _IS_ available for download. Make sure to download the PAF5AllLangs.exe international edition. It includes the PAF 5 international unicode font. I tested with just that font, and it worked flawlessly for me (except for the help functions). Worst case, if you can't find it for download, PM or email me your mailing address, and I'll go buy a copy of the CD and snail-mail it to you. (Offer limited to total quantity one.)

Again, I'd love to help. Please contact me.
AlexEagar-p40
New Member
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:56 pm

#10

Post by AlexEagar-p40 »

I did not realize there were any developers out there that really wanted PAF to work correctly. My impression was that occasionally a developer would just happen to come across it and fix something or another if he felt like it. Just knowing that there is someone willing to work on it gives me the encouragement to test some more. I have logged a few bugs to Bugzilla in the past, but I will post more now that I know there is a developer with the same goal as me.

I have used the Microsoft fonts but I have not found a download of the fonts on the CD. I'll look a little bit more for them. I live in Utah County, so no need to send me the CD. I just want to find it on the internet so that I know that it's available to people that live in other states or countries.

I generally test on the latest version of Ubuntu with no updates installed with the latest version of Wine that is available in their repository. I haven't thoroughly tested since I discovered the Microsoft fonts. I will try to get some more bugs logged in the next couple of days.
Locked

Return to “Personal Ancestral File (PAF)”