Problem with a Win95 application

[Martin Gregorie]

I have a problem with two functions of an old Win 95 application. It
analyses gliding flight logs and produces up to three displays which can
be individually selected after the flight log is loaded but before
anything is shown apart from the initial blank window + menu bar:

- a 2-D map display of the flight - this has always worked correctly
under Wine. though ot displays the fixmes:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

- a 2-D plot of altitude vs time. This has never worked. While
generating this display a series of 3 pop-ups appear showing the error
"Invalid property value". The only console output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

This is followed by the program exiting.

- an analysis of the flight - this is a mixture of bar graphs and text.
This has never worked. While generating this display a single pop-up
appears showing the error "Invalid property value". The only console
output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

And the program stops after drawing two scroll bars and adding a white
rectangle occupying the upper part of its window. The scroll bars work
and the program exits if the 'Exit' menu item is selected.

I'm using WINE 1.1.23 configured as Win 95 and no overrides. All
settings are defaulted apart from selecting Windows 95.

I know that this is an old Wine version, but the common failure factor
seems to be that the two failing displays are built using coloured
rectangles while the map isn't. Is this due to something missing that
winetricks could fix?


Martin

[jeffz]

I have a problem with two functions of an old Win 95 application. It
analyses gliding flight logs and produces up to three displays which can
be individually selected after the flight log is loaded but before
anything is shown apart from the initial blank window + menu bar:

- a 2-D map display of the flight - this has always worked correctly
under Wine. though ot displays the fixmes:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

- a 2-D plot of altitude vs time. This has never worked. While
generating this display a series of 3 pop-ups appear showing the error
"Invalid property value". The only console output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

This is followed by the program exiting.

- an analysis of the flight - this is a mixture of bar graphs and text.
This has never worked. While generating this display a single pop-up
appears showing the error "Invalid property value". The only console
output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

And the program stops after drawing two scroll bars and adding a white
rectangle occupying the upper part of its window. The scroll bars work
and the program exits if the 'Exit' menu item is selected.

I'm using Wine 1.1.23 configured as Win 95 and no overrides. All
settings are defaulted apart from selecting Windows 95.

I know that this is an old Wine version, but the common failure factor
seems to be that the two failing displays are built using coloured
rectangles while the map isn't. Is this due to something missing that
winetricks could fix?


Martin

Please retest with 1.1.42.
What's the name of this application?
Have you checked to see if a bug has been reported for it?
Does it work on XP/Vista? Some windows 95 programs don't.

[Martin Gregorie]

On Mon, 2010-04-05 at 17:02 -0500, jeffz wrote:

Martin Gregorie wrote:

I have a problem with two functions of an old Win 95 application. It
analyses gliding flight logs and produces up to three displays which can
be individually selected after the flight log is loaded but before
anything is shown apart from the initial blank window + menu bar:

- a 2-D map display of the flight - this has always worked correctly
under Wine. though ot displays the fixmes:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

- a 2-D plot of altitude vs time. This has never worked. While
generating this display a series of 3 pop-ups appear showing the error
"Invalid property value". The only console output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

This is followed by the program exiting.

- an analysis of the flight - this is a mixture of bar graphs and text.
This has never worked. While generating this display a single pop-up
appears showing the error "Invalid property value". The only console
output is this:

fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!
fixme:comm:EscapeCommFunction16 no cid=0 found!

And the program stops after drawing two scroll bars and adding a white
rectangle occupying the upper part of its window. The scroll bars work
and the program exits if the 'Exit' menu item is selected.

I'm using Wine 1.1.23 configured as Win 95 and no overrides. All
settings are defaulted apart from selecting Windows 95.

I know that this is an old Wine version, but the common failure factor
seems to be that the two failing displays are built using coloured
rectangles while the map isn't. Is this due to something missing that
winetricks could fix?


Martin

Please retest with 1.1.42.
What's the name of this application?

EWview

Have you checked to see if a bug has been reported for it?

Nothing reported. I thought I'd added an entry in AppDB but evidently
hadn't done so because there isn't one.

Does it work on XP/Vista? Some windows 95 programs don't.

It does exactly the same with XP emulation.

I thought the fixme's might refer to some less common drawing function,
but evidently not since nobody else has responded. However, since the
flight stats page is total crap and I can get height information despite
the unavailability of the Barograph display by another, slightly less
convenient method (look at its raw log data display), I'll leave it lie
until I've done the pending Fedora 10 -> 12 upgrade.

Thanks for asking about it.


Martin

[jeffz]

Does it work on XP/Vista? Some windows 95 programs don't

It does exactly the same with XP emulation.

Martin

I meant, does it work on native windows?

I recently tested a 2d ddraw based game that doesn't work on Vista or Wine.

[Martin Gregorie]

On Mon, 2010-04-05 at 21:27 -0500, jeffz wrote:

Martin Gregorie wrote:

Does it work on XP/Vista? Some windows 95 programs don't

It does exactly the same with XP emulation.

Martin

I meant, does it work on native windows?

Sorry - my misunderstanding. I haven't a clue - sorry.

I have no window more recent than '95 because I've been a pure Linux
shop since 2001 and don't know anybody else with a copy of Ewview.

The only reason I still have a window is because I have a very few
uncommon and infrequently used apps (TrueCAD, Scan2CAD, Vencon battery
charger) that I haven't got round to moving into Wine or replacing.


Martin

[hellork]

EscapeCommFunction16? Why is it trying to use the COM ports? Maybe it's infected with one of those dialers. Remember those? Um, if the program legitimately needs this access, I guess you can grant it to your user.

[Martin Gregorie]

On Thu, 2010-04-08 at 18:57 -0500, hellork wrote:

EscapeCommFunction16? Why is it trying to use the COM ports? Maybe
it's infected with one of those dialers. Remember those? Um, if the
program legitimately needs this access, I guess you can grant it to
your user.

Because one of its functions is to download flight logs from my EW flight recorder
and to upload task declarations, pilot details, etc.

The user already has the permissions it needs: I tweaked the UDEV setup
so that appropriate permissions are set when the serial port devices are
created at boot time. As a result a companion EW uploader program that
only handles the same comms functions works perfectly. I used it last
night to pull down yesterday's flight log and correct the flight
recorder's RTC.

However, the two programs almost certainly use different support
libraries and may have other internal changes too: I use an uploader
reissue that fixed unspecified comms problems and can be run under XP,
but ewview was never reissued. Additionally, this problem occurs when
I'm not using ewview's comms functions. The example runs I took the
error reports from throws these errors after it has loaded a flight log
from the local disk and is setting up two of the display and analysis
screens (flight stats and the barograph trace. They never occur when the
just the third analysis screen (a map display of the flight) is used.
Ewview's comms functions are in an entirely different section of its
menu structure - not that than means a lot, I agree.


Martin

[Ed Davies]

I'm the author of some of the EW software:

1. EWView/DOS

This, as its name implies is a 16-bit DOS program written originally in Zortech C++ but converted to fairly early on to Microsoft C++. I wrote this and have tried it under Wine. It doesn't work which doesn't terribly surprise me as the program's own code and the libraries it uses are fairly low level in their access to the screen (fishing around in BIOS locations, as I recall).

2. EW Windows Uploader

This is a 32-bit Windows program written in Microsoft C++ which I also wrote. When I tried it under Wine it ran OK but had problems accessing the serial port. I was trying it with a USB-to-serial adaptor and have a vague recollection of setting up the mapping of the Wine DOS device to the /dev/ttyUSB<n> device but didn't get beyond that.

3. EWView II and EWView III

These were written in VB (VB 4 initially, I think) by somebody else. I'm very unfamiliar with them but believe they remained 16-bit applications throughout their lives.

The only substantial point I can answer is

However, the two programs almost certainly use different support libraries and may have other internal changes too...

to confirm that EW Windows Uploader and the EWView II or III programs are completely separate and use different support libraries, etc.

[Martin Gregorie]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for that information. It nicely clarifies things I was wondering
about.

WRT the DOS program: I haven't tried to port that at all, but what you
say doesn't surprise me. Over 10 years ago I tried to write a DOS
application to talk to an OS-9 box or a Parallax BS-2 STAMP over a
serial connection. I was using a Borland compiler at the time. I found
with disbelief that neither Borland nor DOS had a serial port API and
that documentation was equally lacking. I tried what OSS code fragments
I could find but nothing worked fast enough to be usable, which was a
big surprise since I'd previously programmed Motorola ACIAs easily
enough. Eventually I bit the bullet and bought the Willies Software
COM-DRV package, which 'just worked' with Borland and DOS.

The Uploader: I've never been able to get the Uploader to work with a
USB adapter, but once I installed a multiport PCI adapter and told the
kernel to use 6 ports, the Uploader immediately found all six ports and
'just works', so you did a good job there. Its still in constant use
here and is likely to remain so, since I have no plans to replace my
model D any time soon.

Thanks for confirming that EWView has no relationship to the Uploader.
Unfortunately I'm stuck with it until either GPLIGC gets the ability to
plot turnpoints from the waypoint file and to do proper zooms or I get
really frustrated and write my own viewer for Linux.

Thermals,
Martin


On Thu, 2010-04-15 at 14:25 -0500, Ed Davies wrote:

I'm the author of some of the EW software:

1. EWView/DOS

This, as its name implies is a 16-bit DOS program written originally
in Zortech C++ but converted to fairly early on to Microsoft C++. I
wrote this and have tried it under Wine. It doesn't work which
doesn't terribly surprise me as the program's own code and the
libraries it uses are fairly low level in their access to the screen
(fishing around in BIOS locations, as I recall).

2. EW Windows Uploader

This is a 32-bit Windows program written in Microsoft C++ which I also
wrote. When I tried it under Wine it ran OK but had problems
accessing the serial port. I was trying it with a USB-to-serial
adaptor and have a vague recollection of setting up the mapping of the
Wine DOS device to the /dev/ttyUSB<n> device but didn't get beyond
that.

3. EWView II and EWView III

These were written in VB (VB 4 initially, I think) by somebody else.
I'm very unfamiliar with them but believe they remained 16-bit
applications throughout their lives.

The only substantial point I can answer is

However, the two programs almost certainly use different support

libraries and may have other internal changes too...


to confirm that EW Windows Uploader and the EWView II or III programs
are completely separate and use different support libraries, etc.