Messages

Thanks.
When I said in the original post "Is this what you're looking for?", I was referring to your search for the cause of the "terminate in an unusual way" bug. In an earlier beta, the edit dialogue was not saving changes correctly. Maybe it was also not recording, somewhere, that it was closed. So, when some people closed it, and then closed and restarted Stackz, they got this error popup that you're trying to fix in that other thread. That was my idea.
(Maybe, the reason you don't see this one on *your* machine, is the same reason you don't see the other one. I hope this is clear.)

Beta 2, Vista or XP.
If Stackz is closed with the edit dialogue open (not any of the other dialogues), a popup appears, saying than an error has occurred. Is this what you're looking for?

Standard Edition, or Dictionary Edition Demo (unregistered)
Choose the option to process in random order.
After closing and reopening, it doesn't retain this preference.
Should it?

Beta 1 Standard Edition. Vista.
I emailed you a simple procedure that duplicates the problem every time, and a workaround that works every time: after a file is created, and cards added, that file must be closed and reopened. That fixes it.

With regard to my lesson file, I don't recall ever closing it. I only closed and reopened Stackz.

O.K. I did that.

Now something else has happened.
I went back home, where my laptop was, still running the problem condition described above.

I cut the the two cards out of box 2 again.
I highlighted box 3, and instead of right-click... paste, I tried control-v.
Now the cards are "lost". At least, they won't paste anywhere now, and my card counter says 98 instead of 100.
I'll probably get the cards back by closing Stackz without saving.

I think I'll re-download and reinstall.
Certainly, I shall continue to use it. My workaround, which I mentioned before, is to save, close and restart Stackz. (Though I won't save this time because I want the cards back.).
Good luck and Thank You!

Beta 1. Standard edition. Vista. "Repeat Advisor", Leitner mode.

One lesson, cards in boxes 3, 4, and 5.
I moved the sliders on the color bar to highlight the cards due today. All cards were crosshatched except those due, a few on box 3 and some on box 5. The cards not crosshatched were red.
I was testing these red cards normally. The card for ni3 came up. It came out of box 5.
I marked it correct.

A red card then appeared on top of the pile in box 4. *error*. (I can't say for sure exactly what shade of red it was. I thought that the crosshatching simply "slipped down" one card.)

I decided to continue testing, and at some point the red card disappeared or became cross-hatched again.
After finishing the testing, I opened the edit dialogue on box 5 to see if ni3 was there. It was, and reflected the correct score. The total number of cards is correct.

My computer is an HP notebook, about two years old. It is not normally connected to the Internet, and wasn't when the error occurred. I recently upgraded to Vista, onto a reformatted hard drive. The only applications I've installed myself are:
Stackz, Wenlin, foobar, Audacity, Exact Audio Copy, and Adobe Reader. No other user application was running. (I don't know about system processes.) I'm pretty confident that my system is fresh. I'm running Microsoft's Live One Care. I have one admin account and two user accounts. I always use one user account. The other user has played solitaire and notepad.
I hope this error is related to the other one I reported.
Thank you.

edit 04JUNE07: Here's a better guess due to better understanding. (I've still only seen this fault once):
As I tested uncrosshatched cards in box 5, and getting them right, they became crosshatched: the *crosshatched* portion of the stack in box 5 had to *grow*. That means, if I'm not mistaken, that the crosshatched portion of the stack in box *4* had to *shrink* (because the number of crosshatched cards in box 4 was then a smaller fraction of all crosshatched cards) . That's the connection: the crosshatched part of box 4 shrank, and the cards inside did not, so one was left exposed on the top. That is what I think happened. And I think your fixes to one of the other bugs will fix this one too.

It came back, during a normal testing session this time.
One lesson. Cards in boxes 3, 4, 5.

I moved the sliders on the color bar to highlight the cards due today.
I highlighted the whole lesson by clicking on the left-hand side.
I right-clicked...test, and tested these cards, about 20 in boxes 4 and 5. I missed two. Those two went to box 1.
When I was done, I opened, and then closed, the edit dialogue on each of boxes 5, 4, and 3, to check on their numbers, because I'm including # of correct answers as a promotion criterion. I saw that the two cards in box 3 were due for promotion. (I had tested them yesterday out of order, trying to duplicate this bug.)
Cut from box 3: O.K.
Paste to box 4: *FAIL*.
These cards, as I noted before, will paste to any box except 3 and 4.

Would you like me to send you my .stz file, or anything else?
I'll leave this condition open on my computer, in case you'd like me to do some kind of test.

This fault has disappeared.
I probably did something wrong (with the system, or other applications).
I'll post if I ever see it again.

That's right.
Thanks a lot.

Or are you using the shift-key startup workaround? Then the GUI starts with the default layout...

No.
I'm using Vista. (You might remember that I had reported this with the Alpha too.)
I tried running it "as administrator", and that didn't fix it.
I'll post if I find a workaround, but I don't have much time today.

I began my Chinese studies in my usual way: I spent some time looking into Chinese-learning related websites, books, and software tools. These would include a flashcard program.
I tried almost every free and demo flashcard program I could find, and three commercial ones. I did this as I was gradually learning what kind of flashcard functionality I would need for Chinese. I had never used any flashcard program.
Many of the programs I tried were nice in some ways. One, the most expensive one, which you've probably heard about, was a nightmare in my opinion: a total mess. Every one had some problem or another, and I got sick of it. So, I was looking at many factors. Stackz has many features, but I want to tell you the three items that made up my mind.
First, is the way the Chinese character expands automatically as I size the test dialog. THIS is THE desired behavior, and contrasts with various font problems I had with those other programs, including in some cases simply not getting big enough.
Second is something I didn't understand some months ago, when I first tried Stackz demo, and did not choose it at that time (so, I'm going to explain it to you): the progressive (configurable) uncovering of multiple fields on the card, in effect, a multi-sided card. The configurability of their number, and order, and placement, etc., is obviously very desirable for the study of Chinese characters!  In case you don't know, a character's pinyin spelling is usually ambiguous when viewed alone. So you can't run simple, symmetrical cards having, for example, English on one side and pinyin spelling on the other. The pinyin spelling and its disambiguating character would have to appear together. That means that in order to test on the character itself (usually unambiguous), you'd need another card, with the pinyin spelling elsewhere, or covered with your hand, etc.  [I edited to try to say that right.] With the previous flashcard program I had chosen, I had decided to keep three cards for every character. But Stackz's solution is obviously right, and configurable too. This is decisive.
Lastly, everything about the way Stackz handles information is flexible and easy. And I'm USING it!

07 Beta 1.
1. We should be able to turn off that "Retention Manager" popup.
2. It should remember that toolbars are deselected. (Toolbars come back next session.)

Beta 1. Vista. "Refresh Advisor", Leitner mode, schedule 1 1 2 4 8 days. No problems with previous versions, including Alpha 1 and 2.

I decided to describe the actual setup. See the simpler setup below if desired.
(In every case, cutting and pasting was done with the right-click... context menu.)

One file. Five lessons. 100 cards total. Some cards in lesson 1 box 5, some in lesson 2 box 4, and some in lesson 3 box 3. All other boxes empty. Tested on lesson 2 box 4. Terminated test as usual with the "x" close button on the upper right of the test dialog. Cut the promoted cards from lesson 2 box 5, O.K. Paste these cards BACK into lesson 2 box 4: *FAIL*.
These cards will paste to any box, in any lesson, except lesson 2 box 4 and lesson 2 box 5.
Workaround: Save, with the promoted cards in lesson 2 box 5. Close and restart Stackz. Cut and paste back into box 4 succeeds.

SIMPLER SCENARIO
If you'd like a simpler scenario, this one works too: All cards in lesson 1 boxes 3, 4, 5. Create a lesson 2. Cut and paste from lesson 1 box 3 to lesson 2 box 3. Test lesson 2 box 3. Cut promoted cards, O.K. Try to paste back to lesson 2 box 3, *FAIL*.