WinUAE 1.4.4 public beta #6

[Demon Cleaner]

Next release:

Beta 6 (DO NOT USE OLDER BETAS, they are too broken)

* real harddrive support improvements:
o empty drives are now listed in "Add Harddrive" GUI
o uaehf.device media change command support (CMD_ADDCHANGEINT, CMD_REMCHANGEINT and CMD_CHANGESTATE are not no-ops anymore)
o drive parameters (includes size) is re-detected every time new media is inserted
o automount on the fly but only if configured using "Add Harddrive" (drive was empty or missing when emulation was started) No RDB parsing.
o do not automount as a directory filesystem on the fly if drive is in "Add Harddrive" list (for example: FATxx formatted zip disk/HD mounted using Amiga-side fat filesystem driver)
* configured directory drives always support automount (even if "automount removable drives" is not checked). Also keep original configured volume name. (do not replace with real volume label)
* harddrive safety check slightly relaxed, do not complain if drive is inserted on the fly and only complain once.
* ´E´ in harddrive panel means drive is mounted but empty
* KS 1.3 directory filesystem WB HD icons appear again (instead of hiding somewhere and corrupting memory)
* KS 1.3 directory filesystem automount support
* added "Restart" (better names?) button that closes running emulation and returns back to GUI without changing current configuration
* do not hide mouse pointer when GUI is active in fullscreen mode
* ACTION_EXAMINE_ALL 2xbug fix. If last directory entry was filtered with eac_MatchString/eac_MatchFunc, previous eac_Next was not cleared (broke monitor driver loading if last dir entry was *.info or vgaonly). eac_MatchString/eac_MatchFunc filtering didn´t work correctly, calculated number of bytes to copy in register D0, used D1 in main copy loop... DO NOT USE OLDER BETAS.
* hq2x filter support. I hope someone is happy now.
* [still nothing done with bsdsocket problem, FS problems first]

[AlexJ]

Lol, after previous PC blowing up errors warning we now get "DO NOT USE OLDER BETAS, they are too broken". That reenforces my decision to wait for the main releases. We must be about halfway towards a main release based on previous release schedules (usually about #12 betas)

[Harrison]

Very true.

I also wait until final version releases before using any well established programs. Although I do still use a beta of something if it is the only one available for a long time.

Do you think too many WinUAE betas are being released in the last few versions? I personally think they should work on the releases more before a beta is released, unless all of the changes between betas is down to real world users reporting back the errors. In which case it is fair enough.

[Demon Cleaner]

The betas are usually not available for public, if you have a look at the WinUAE site, you can't download the betas from there. So I guess it's only for some testers who want to help seeking for bugs, and that could be the issue of having so many betas.

If you want, I can also stop posting them here, as nobody is downloading them anyway. Personally I don't try them, I stick with final releases.

[Harrison]

It is useful to have links to them for download just in case any of us want to try a new feature they introduce.

[Bloodwych]

Toni used to have a private team of Beta testers but I think that number dwindled so now he does public releases in forum threads.

It actually works quite well, as different people quickly point out flaws for him to fix, then he releases a main version on his webpage - it's too much work coding an emulator AND testing it extensively for bugs yourself.

Much more efficient if the end users test for you.

[Harrison]

This is very true. With any project, when you are so closely involved with the workings of it you can easily miss bugs and small things that other may notice straight away.

I often find this happening myself with anything I work on. Classicamiga is a good example, where I may spend ages working on the site, getting something to work correctly and don't notice something obvious that other members instantly let me know about. Things like broken links, strange layout issues, spelling mistakes, something in the wrong place etc. It is so easy to miss something very obvious when you have been concentrating on getting a specific thing working correctly or looking right.