help with clipboard bug (workaround?)

Hi - This is my first post here. I have written one brief animation and am working on another (al la Dick Baldwin's tutorials).

I am trying to figure out how to copy and paste blocks of code (to avoid having to retype nearly identical code over and over.)

Bug1: The "right click and choose copy" gives an error when I try and copy blocks of code within a "Dotogether" or "DoInOrder" block. ie: Error encountered while responding to popup menu item.

Bug2: Copying and pasting from the clipboard also gives an error - the paste from the clipboard generates an error message "The Drop Failed"

Bug3: The bug reporting feature does not work: ie: Error posting stacktrace to bug database. Followed by launching IE explorer to http://www.alice.org/bugreport/submi...teStacktrace=0
which is a 404 not Found page.

So I really have three questions:


1 How can I copy and paste blocks of code?
2 Is there some way to type Alice code in some sort of text editor?
3 How do I submit bug reports?

Thanks, Jim Gallagher

Originally Posted by lbjvg

Hi - This is my first post here. I have written one brief animation and am working on another (al la Dick Baldwin's tutorials).

I am trying to figure out how to copy and paste blocks of code (to avoid having to retype nearly identical code over and over.)

Bug1: The "right click and choose copy" gives an error when I try and copy blocks of code within a "Dotogether" or "DoInOrder" block. ie: Error encountered while responding to popup menu item.

Bug2: Copying and pasting from the clipboard also gives an error - the paste from the clipboard generates an error message "The Drop Failed"

Bug3: The bug reporting feature does not work: ie: Error posting stacktrace to bug database. Followed by launching IE explorer to http://www.alice.org/bugreport/submi...teStacktrace=0
which is a 404 not Found page.

So I really have three questions:


1 How can I copy and paste blocks of code?
2 Is there some way to type Alice code in some sort of text editor?
3 How do I submit bug reports?

Thanks, Jim Gallagher

1 How can I copy and paste blocks of code?
My experience is that the clipboard is prone to failure an every machine that I have used Alice 2.0 on. I have never seen the first error that you describe when trying to copy, but frequently receive the second error when trying to paste. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, so I always try to use it before re-typing the code. Sometimes when it isn't working, I can work around the problem by copying and pasting one statement at a time instead of trying to copy and paste blocks of code.

2 Is there some way to type Alice code in some sort of text editor?
Not that I am aware of, but it would be wonderful if someone would surprise me and provide a way.

3 How do I submit bug reports?
Bugs, what bugs? ----- Seriously, the bug reporting system has been defunct since the first time I learned about Alice 2.0 several years ago. The folks at CMU should either fix it, or eliminate it but they should not allow it to remain on line in a defunct state. (People get a bad impression when the bug reporting system is itself buggy.)

I wish I had better news for you, but unfortunately I don't. However, there is always Java3D for those who become exasperated dealing with the many bugs in Alice 2.0.

Dick Baldwin
Free Alice tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm
Free programming tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/toc.htm

yah for that last one, if your going to tell us that something is wrong, at least give us the details in plain english, i don't speak java