Another pass through some basic Activity test results

[Gary C Martin]

On 26 Sep 2008, at 19:31, Arjun Sarwal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> 2008/9/26 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
>> Here's a set of basic Activity test results for build 8.2-763, hope  
>> the ASCI
>> art doesn't get too mangled by the list server (need to view with a  
>> fixed
>>       Measure-20 . . - . x x x . x Doesn't sleep when Activity is  
>> in the
>>                                    background (eats 75% cpu). Can't  
>> seem to
>>                                    record anything. Keep error when
>
> -- When Measure is in background and some other Activity comes in
> foreground, then Measure releases sound device - you can record sound
> using any other program/application. In this state Measure also
> doesn't hog CPU.

Just testing with Measure-21 and 8.2-765, yes I see this now. However  
switching to any of the Neighborhood/Group/Home views does not seem  
count as putting Measure into the background, it still consumes the  
cpu and claims the sound input device. I'm guessing this is a Sugar  
behaviour? Is this a bug or a feature (feels like a Sugar bug that  
would make the UI sluggish for no go reason)?

> -- For recording the waveforms, within 'Sound' in toolbar, if 'Now' is
> selected  and the record button next to it is pressed, it will capture
> the current displayed waveform. If you select an interval and then
> press the record button, it will start saving waveforms at the
> specified interval and the record button will change to a 'stop'
> button. It will record a maximum of 10 waveforms.
>
> You will be able to see the waveforms as picture files in the Journal

Ahhh, thanks Arjun, so that's where they go to. I was expecting some  
visual representation within Measure, perhaps like Record does, where  
there is a tray at the bottom of the screen, or Browse and its  
bookmark thumbnails.

Is there a way to capture waveform images without the entire UI also  
appearing in the  screen shot?

> --For recording sensor values, within the 'Sensors' context , when one
> presses the record button it will start writing the sensor values (of
> the sensor connected at Analog Input) at the specified interval.
> You can have multiple recording sessions,i.e. stop it and then resume
> it and stop it again and resume it.
>
> You can see the logged sensor values in the Journal.  They are saved
> in csv format.
> (I am waiting for the spreadsheet activity to come soon! :) )

Thanks, I understand this now as well. I had not noticed that new  
entries were silently being entered in to the Journal. BTW: you can  
resume the CSV file and Write will display the list of values. I also  
tried copying the CSV to the clipboard, but it generated a blank  
clipboard icon and would not paste anywhere (probably a Sugar issue,  
the clipboard isn't very robust yet).

Some quick suggestions:

- The "Start Recording" text could say "Start Recording to Journal",  
that would have pointed me to check in the Journal after clicking  
record.

- The time section menu could say "Every 30 seconds", "Every 2  
minutes" etc. Before you explained, I believed that the times were the  
duration of the sample to be recorded, not the interval between each  
sample. The little toolbar interval icon makes more sense now that I  
know what the menu does ;-)

> Lastly, thanks for the feedback, its really useful. It helped me
> figure out a minor problem in sensor values recording (#8683) and I
> released ver21 that corrects that!


Glad it was of use! I'm a bit of an electronics type, so I'm really  
glad Measure is up and working again.

--Gary

P.S. Any chance of solving the "keep error" bug every time Measure is  
closed? I'm not quite sure what causes them.