From:	pderbysh AT chat DOT carleton DOT ca (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	SEVERE BUGS in ALLEGRO!
Date:	25 Feb 1997 02:29:27 GMT
Organization:	Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Lines:	46
Message-ID:	<5etiq7$ir1@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	wabakimi.carleton.ca
NNTP-Posting-User:	pderbysh
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

I have today discovered two very SEVERE BUGS in ALLEGRO that manifest
themselves when the SOUND features are used.

SEVERE BUG #1: After running an Allegro program that executes a
play_sample at some point, then returning to DOS, if you then run another
DOS program that uses sound, e.g. the test-sbc program that comes with a
creative labs soundblaster, the result is a squawk from the soundcard and
a system hang.

SEVERE BUG #2: load_sample always returns NULL, even if the string it is
sent as parameter is the fille name of a mono WAV exactly as per
instructions. For instance, if I have C:\DJGPP\SOUND001.WAV, and the
current directory is C:\DJGPP, absolutely NONE of these work,
load_sample("SOUND001") or load_sample("SOUND001.WAV") or
load_sample("C:\DJGPP\SOUND001.WAV") and it shoulld CERTAINLY WORK in the
latter case, where it was given a FULL FILE PATH to a file that definitely
EXISTS and is indeed a WAV file that is mono and not stereo.

I cannot imagine that either of these two bugs could have gone completely
undiscovered. There is no way you didn't know about these when you
released the version of allegro I'm using. Yet the documentation makes no
reference to either of these, as "known bugs" or anywhere else, and I
can't help feeling somewhat like I've been gypped of the time and effort
it took to download the damn thing. I also think that you should never
have released it as a full-fledged version with such glaring bugs stilll
unfixed. These are the sorts of things you expect in betas, not in "final"
releases of a version. Yet I didn't download any beta version that I am
aware of. It sure wasn't labeled a beta. I would like to see a new version
that definitely has NEITHER of these bugs somewhere I can get them within
24 hours. I am 100% sure that in the time that has passed since you wrote
the bug-ridden beta-like version I have now, you have had enough time to
track these bugs down, and make a new version that a) has a load_sample
that returns valid pointers and b) does not leave the sound card in some
weird state on program exit such that the computer crashes the next time a
program wants to use sound.




   .*.  "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not
-()  <  circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a
   `*'  straight line."     ------------------------------------------------
        -- B. Mandelbrot   | Paul Derbyshire (PGD) ao950 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca
______________________ ____|                       pderbysh AT chat DOT carleton DOT ca
 A quiet kind of guy  | I'm on the Web at: http://chat.carleton.ca/~pderbysh

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