Asking me for help
I do support SAT, and you are welcome to ask for help, but please:
- Check out the manual and see if the answer is there.
- Look if there is a demo that does exactly what you want to do.
- Use the debugger and see if there are any obvious problems like nil pointers, unexpected values etc.
- If you have any knowledgable friend nearby, see if you can get some advice there.
- Try to find the problem just once more.
When that fails, write to me. Please include vital information as development system, SAT version and type of Mac used. Make sure your message makes sense, is easy to understand. Source-code snippets often clarifies what you are doing. And please don't be impatient if it takes a few days for me to reply.
When you are sure you have found a bug in SAT which can happen, sure of course you should report it, but the best thing you can do is often to demonstrate it to me. Then I don't need to guess what you see, guess what graphics you use etc. What I need is a demo with source, project file and resource file, as small as possible still displaying the error. To quote Shawn Hargreaves, the guy who wrote the Allegro lib:
If you can send me a 10 line program, I will fix it. 100 lines, and I can probably fix it. 1000 lines, and I don't have a chance :-)
If, after making such a mini demo, you havn't found that it was a bug of your own and you fixed it (which often happens when you rewrite your code that way), you can send it to me, but please follow these rules:
- Again, make it small.
- Remove objects from the project file.
- Remove any large resources not in use.
- Trash any junk files like .SYM, .dbg, CodeWarrior's data folder etc.
- If it is fairly small, include the compiled application.
- Pack all files in an archive (Stuffit or Compact Pro).
That should end up as a rather small file, which I can quickly download and test.
Copyright ©1999 Ingemar Ragnemalm.
Updated: 20-June-1999