Bug Report

[KenAdam]

I've been running Cumulus 1.8.8 build 881, for the past month or so on a Windows 7 laptop without problems.
As I'm about to go away on business, I decided to move Cumulus to an old XP desktop, and thought I'd try the beta build at the same time (maybe not such a bright idea!)
Installed it this morning and copied over the data files form the laptop.
The internet dialog is very slow to close, and sometimes does not close at all. It has been left on the screen with the tabs working, but the tabs themselves being completely blank, for example.
At the point of the crash, the "station" dialog was also open (not sure it should be able to do that!)
Let me know if you want me to try anything, or provide more info.
Regards,
Ken

[steve]

This is tricky because it's not crashing in Cumulus, it's crashing in Windows (user32.dll).

When you say the "internet dialog", do you mean the internet setting screen? I think you probably do, as you mention tabs. Were you doing a manual web update at the same time? It looks like Cumulus was trying to write a message to the ftp progress window at the time of the crash. So with that and the two settings windows open as well, it's all getting a bit complicated.

Is it just the internet settings screen that's slow to close, and not the station settings? It's probably best to only have one settings window open at once (but it probably should work).

[philcdav]

Hi guys.

i have also noticed the FTP dialog slow to work since the last upgrade.

It used to start and finish within 30s or so but can now take well over 60s.

Not exactly earth shattering but like watching slow teapot !!

I did wonder if it was a general ftp issue with my ISP (Virgin Media) but have used a different ftp upload route and thats just as it was, very quick.

Is Cumulus doing more with the files or whu ?

[steve]

FTP is slower now (I can't remember which version changed it) than it was before, because it's done in a separate thread at a lower priority to avoid holding up the GUI.

But are we talking about the same thing? I think Ken is talking about the internet SETTINGS screen being slow to close when you click OK (or whatever).

[KenAdam]

I'm talking about Configuration/Internet.
I was not doing a manual update, just setting the password for my Weather Underground account (this time, it had already happened, without the bug report, when I was setting up the files I transfer).
Just now, I tried opening the dialog and then clicking OK - it took 5-6 seconds to close.
Normally these seem to be modal dialogs, so I was surprised that it let me open 2 at once (I was trying to get any response at the time).

I thought that I may have clicked OK again during the 5-6 second delay, so I tried that - this time it took about 9 seconds to close the dialog. 3 clicks, and it took about 18 seconds. Not very conclusive, but suggests that maybe the OK should be disabled after the first click, if it is going to be busy for a while?

After a bit more experimenting - the Station, Internet and Display dialogs all take about 5-6 seconds to close (simple open then click OK), Calibration closes immediately. I don't know if this is specific to this PC, so I'll install on another (XP) machine and report back.
Regards,
Ken

[steve]

Thanks, Ken, that's useful. If you click 'cancel' is it still slow to close?

[KenAdam]

Didn't take long...
On the other Xp machine the dialogs take about 1 second to close (i.e. a noticeable but short delay), regardless of how often I click on OK.
Of course it is not updating files to the internet or reading the weather station (Fine Offset), so it is not like for like.
Just noticed your fast reply - no Cancel closes instantly.
Ken

[steve]

What internet options are you using - e.g. 'normal' ftp, 'realtime' ftp, Wunderground, etc, and at what intervals? Could you try turning them all off and see if that has any effect?

[KenAdam]

I use "auto update" (10 minutes), realtime (3 seconds), Weather underground (10 mins + rapid fire). I have 7 files of my own getting processed and ftp'd (not realtime). (This is how it has been running under W7 on the laptop). I've left the standard files turned on at the moment, but I probably only need the images.

I turned them all off and tried a few times - Internet dialog still takes ~5 seconds to close. Turned them back on, no change.

(I'm using realtime.txt to drive an app I'm writing for the DSLite to use as a portable weather terminal around the house - my wife wants to check the conditions when she gets up for work at 6:30 - so I've been keeping the data rates high for now while I'm testing).

Does something get updated when the dialogs close (even if nothing has been changed)?

Regards,
Ken

[steve]

Does something get updated when the dialogs close (even if nothing has been changed)?

Yes, it doesn't bother checking to see if anything has changed; if you click OK, it reads all the settings from the form into the appropriate variables, then writes the cumulus.ini file away. I guess to track down the cause I'd have to put logging points in various places to see where the delay is.

[DaveNZ]

Steve you probably already know my computer and cumulus don't seem to get on well
I have an issue similar to this, especially when I close cumulus, it takes up to 20 seconds sometimes before it closes
Using the menus along the top is sometimes extremely slow also...I just learnt to put up with it and wait as I don't want to stop using cumulus!

[steve]

Using the menus along the top is sometimes extremely slow also

Not all of the internet updating is done in a separate thread - only the ftp is in a separate thread - so if you have anything else going on, it will interfere with the GUI while it's uploading.