Re: Memory Leak-.dll problem

[Marcus G. Daniels]

D3> All right, do we agree I've done my homework now?

At some point relatively soon I'll find what the problem is, but Swarm
2.1 is frozen and I have other priorities right now.

The point that I would really like to have understood (one that seems
to keep getting missed by various people) is that a good bug report
is one that immediately demonstrates wrong behavior in a clear and
direct way.

What does this mean?

  1) Bugs reports that use example programs that have dynamics and
     that have no particular point at which a bad thing happens are
     not ideal.  It means that I have to figure out how to control the
     dynamics which is almost always harder for me than it is for the
     person working with the model.  This example program is like
     this, I mean, do we really need dynamic scheduling per "-log
     ([randomDeathGenerator getDoubleSample])*10+1000" instead a
     constant?

  2) Bug reports that have domain semantics (like this one), mean that
     I have to wade into a semantic space and try to figure out what
     your point is -- what is relevant and what is not.  That means
     time that isn't spent on other general things for the user
     community at large.  In this program we find domain semantics.

  3) Bug reports that have lots of irrelevant code (even if it is not
     domain-specific) again mean I sink time into filtering tasks that
     I am not the ideal person for.   In this program we find ProbeDisplays,
     Graphs, and a kind-of-deactivated Raster thingey.  It all adds up

  4) While it is helpful to know "this didn't happen before and now
     it does" -- that alone does not mean there is a bug.  (Yes, I think
     there is one in this case.)

  5) If you believe there is a bug lurking based on a change in the
     phenomenology of your model and you have several constraints and
     specific hypothesis (or a few), often the easiest way to demonstrate
     the problem is to write a small program from scratch.  It's easier
     than you might think.

  6) It is not reasonable to expect me or any maintainer-like
     person to remember details of previous discussions about a given
     application.  Bug reports should have explicit, minimal and
     sufficient context provided.

  7) SDG membership is intended to offset the need for vigilance in #1-#6.

                  ==================================
   Swarm-Support is for discussion of the technical details of the day
   to day usage of Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp.
   [un]subscribing), please send a message to <address@hidden>
   with "help" in the body of the message.