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Troubleshooting

Most of this is focused on the Squeak software and glitches. for Networking, Machines, Video, etc. problems, check local expertise - fellow instructors, Prof. Pitt, lab sitters, and finally, TSG.

Preventive Measures:

  • Make sure to "keep" your painting, and don't save a project, or do other things, while painting tool is still open.
  • Names of objects should begin with lower case letters, and not contain anything other than letters and numbers (no spaces or funny characters).
  • Use this naming convention: games-LennyP-projname, where you replace "LennyP" with your first name and last initial, and replace "projname" with the name of your project. Don't use any characters other than numbers, letters, and the hyphen. (No spaces!)
  • Publishing Your Project
    • Don't all publish at the same times - this might overload the server or networking abilities
    • Make sure all scripts are paused or stopped - no script should be ticking.
  • When publishing or finding from the navigator tab, select only correct server (squeakcmi-BSS).
  • No script should refer to itself, unless to STOP itself ("foo stop script foo" or "foo pause script foo".) Otherwise you have an infinte loop.

Handling Error Messages

  • Try clicking "abandon".
  • Try deleting the message by clicking on the "x" icon.
  • Try alt-clicking on the message, and then clicking on the "x" icon in the halo. This is an example of the general rule that EVERYTHING is an object. Often, you can trick squeak into behaving by simply throwing away every object that is part of its attempt to yell at you about errors.

Freezing

  • Click alt-period. possibly recover from ensuing error messages as above.
  • If frozen during publishing, you will likely see a "grid" superimposed over the project, things will hang, and no buttons (such as navigator, etc.) will be functional. In fact, the grid is not actually the project, but is a temporarily loaded new picture that consists only of an image of the previous (actual) project. The trick is to navigate back to the "previous" original project. Of course, you can't click "previous" on the navigator tab, since it is only an image. Here is how to navigate to the previous project:
    • alt-click on the frozen screen, and select the red halo icon on the top of the screen, towards the left, which looks like a small menu. If you cannot do this, you're probably stuck, and will have to force quit (see below)
    • from the menu that appears, choose the last option: "desktop menu"
    • from the new menu that appears, choose the first option "previous project".
    • this should take you back to the (unsaved) project. NOTE: in the last step, DO NOT click "save and quit". This will permanently modify the squeak image to be in the error state, and part of the software will have to be reloaded.
    • if "previous project" doesn't work, you might try "jump to project", or some other option. In worst case, you might click "quit", to (somewhat ungracefully) quit without saving. This should be a last resort. In general, ask Prof. Pitt before you give up.

Last Resorts... Force Quitting

  • First check with Prof. Pitt, who will likely try everything above, and may nondeterministically do something else to advantage. (No need to check with him if the camper has not done much since last publish of project, and doesn't mind having to re-do.)
  • If all else fails and you get go-ahead, ctrl-alt-delete, bring up task manager, and force the nonresponding program to quit. You might try just going back to the project without forcing it.. since just the threat has on occasion managed to wake up the process.

Preventiving and Correcting Programming Bugs

  • When entering numbers or strings via keyboard input, make sure to hit "return" or "enter" key. A string or number remains highlighted in red until this has been done, and other actions with the mouse may not register, or any ticking scripts will behave according to the old value.
  • It is best to open a viewer for each object created, and then collapse it, leaving the tab available. Why? Because if you "lose" an object (it runs off screen to infinity, gets hidden behind something, you can select "grab me" from the menu icon in the header of the viewer. Or, perhaps you have made it "hide", and need to make it "show". Go to the miscellaneous pane of the viewer, and click on the exclamation point near the object's "show" command. If you have no viewer, and no object, then finding things can be more difficult.
  • Lost object - see above comment about "grab me" available in viewer's header. No viewer? It could be hiding behind another object. Move other objects, or alt-click on them and select "send to back" option from red icon menu in halo. Finally (not for campers), alt-click on world, select red icon, choose "playfield options", and then try the various options such as "round up strays", "show hidden objects", etc.
  • Inexplicable behavior: Make sure you know what all ticking scripts are. Sometimes students have things ticking they've long since thought were discarded. You can find this out by pulling out from the supplies bin the stop/step/go panel, and then "expanding" it by clicking ont the small blue button on its right. This shows all ticking scripts. Another method: Alt-click on world, choose red menu icon, desktop menu, authoring tools, and then try using the various options that deal with scipting information.

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