Initial Response

[Manor Askenazi]

Hi Y'all!!!

I'm really sorry that no one was minding the swarm-shop just when the new
version of Swarm went out... As you know we were planning to make the 
release announcement in Japan during Alife-V (so no one was actually here
when it became generally available). I'm the first Swarm team-member to 
come back so I'll try and answer as many questions as I can.

>From a cursory reading of the swarm-support list I can see that there
are at least two pseudo-problems that are fixable and an undetermined 
number of phantom bugs which will require some cooperation from the
respective beta-users who have discovered them.

Pseudo-Bug #1:
--------------

If you can't find sel_get_any_typed_uid() you are probably using gcc2.7.0:
that function was introduced into the Objective-C runtime only in later
versions of gcc. The swarm web page has a link to the latest version of
the compiler. Thanks, among other people, to Lars Rasmusson for pointing 
this bug out. (While developing Swarm I hit this bug myself, but assumed
that I was the ony one still running 2.7.0).

Pseudo-Bug #2:
--------------

People running Tcl7.5 and Tk4.1 ran into trouble because our code uses
the API of 7.4 and 4.0. I was happy to see that y'all very quickly 
resolved this problem, I just wanted to point out that in a very early
email, Lars Rasmusson actually described this problem on swarm-support
and what code fixes could be made allowing Swarm to run in 7.4/4.1:

  I have compiled everything using the latest version of Tcl and Tk
  (Tcl7.5 and Tk4.1)  To get them to work there are a few changes
  that have to be done to Tk.m and Tcl.m  Some of the Tk commands 
  have been moved to Tcl so I had to rename

  Tk_DoOneEvent         to   Tcl_DoOneEvent
  Tk_CreateFileHandler  to   Tcl_CreateFileHandler
  Tk_DeleteFileHandler  to   Tcl_DeleteFileHandler
  tk_NumMainWindows     to   Tk_GetNumMainWindows()
  Tk_CreateMainWindow   to   TkCreateMainWindow   
                           (and remove the last argument)
  tcl_rcFileName = "~/.wishrc";   to
    Tcl_SetVar(interp, "tcl_rcFileName", "~/.wishrc",TCL_GLOBAL_ONLY);
  (and remove the extern declaration of tcl_rcFileName)

In general we are trying to catch up with the latest releases of whatever
libraries we depend on. Hence the move to BLT-2.1. So, I guess that in our 
next release we will be using the latest versions of tcl/tk. The downside
of this is that some users end up looking for the-very-latest-version etc.
for their particular platform etc. which may be a pain (re: Robert Bell's
email about BLT-2.1). 

Pseudo-Bug #3:
--------------

Peter Deadman reports a non-responsive probe. I'm betting that this is a
programming error, so either e-mail main.m, or phone me (see general phone
comment below).

Real-Bug #1 (?):
----------------

Some users have reported that the new version of heatbugs segment-faults on 
them. The funny thing is that this happens on SunOS which is what we run here 
at the Institute (in addition to Linux on Nelson's machine). Unfortunately,
there is absolutely nothing I can do here until someone at least sends a gdb 
stack trace of this error... So, in future, please try and accompany 
bug reports with some form of stack-trace or stderr-printout.

Resolution Protocol:
--------------------

One of the main uses of swarm-support is to document errors as they arise.
It is therefore very important that when you find a solution to your problem
you send an e-mail to swarm-support even if no external help was necessary.
Messages saying: "Phew, found the bug it was xxxx in yyyy." may seem boring
but they help clear the situation (vis-a-vis other bugs, for example). Most
of y'all seem to do this already, but I kinda wonder how many false alarms 
just disappeared without a trace :)

Phone:
------

Some bugs/requests/programming issues etc. are best addressed by phone. 
I am at the Institute daily and will take/return calls if you are getting
desperate :v) Just phone (505) 984 8800, and ask for Manor. If you can't
make the initial call for institutional reasons etc. just email me a phone
number and I will (try) to get back to you. A follow-up will then be posted
to swarm-support.

Sorry about the delay,

Manor.