Most known issues are in the Problem Report (PR) database,
and can be accessed as described in that section (below.) Other known
issues which cannot currently be solved just by fixing/changing code in the
Alfi software are as follows:
- (Unix) The FVWM window manager and Java applications in general
disagree on how (or when) to implement multiple-byte character standards.
An annoying effect of this that you may see are a couple of strange
characters prepended to window titles while running Alfi (or any other
Java application.) These spurious characters can be gotten rid of by
starting Alfi from a shell which has unset the environment variables LANG
and LC_CTYPE. This is automatically done for you if you are using the
alfi_ws script to start Alfi. (BTW,
there is disagreement on whether this is a Java or an FVWM implementation
problem.)
- (Unix) The FVWM window manager also does not communicate window
locations exactly as Alfi expects, for some reason not taking the windows'
title bar heights into account. This can result in window title bars
being clipped at the top of your screen so that they cannot be accessed
as easily. In order to mitigate this effect, Alfi will query you regarding
the window manager you use the first time you start Alfi. This also
can be addressed by the use of an environment variable and the alfi_ws
script when starting Alfi. (See Java/FVWM "disclaimer" at bottom of
previous issue.)
- (Unix) Web Start does not allow for the use of environment
variables and command line arguments. This problem is solved
by using the alfi_ws
script to start Alfi.
- (OS X) Currently Alfi starts and looks fine under OS X, but
there seem to be mouse event issues which unfortunately make Alfi unusable
under OS X for now. We will be informing Apple of these problems. Since
Alfi works under Solaris and Linux, we assume this is an Apple issue. We
hope eventually Alfi will be usable on the OS X platform.
- (Windows) Alfi is currently untested under MS Windows. If you
try it out, please let us know how it goes. In the past, Microsoft has
actively attempted to hamstring Java as a development tool. We hope
that sordid little effort has petered out by now, and that Alfi can be eventually
used under any of the major OSs. (Okay, okay, so this is MY "issue"...
bruce :-)
Problem Reports
Most known issues are in the Problem Report (PR) database, and can be accessed
as follows:
- Anyone can view the current contents of the Alfi PR database.
If you do not have an Alfi PR database username/password, merely enter
your name in the username field and ignore the password field. You will
be given read access to the
Alfi PR database.
- Anyone can submit bug reports or feature requests for Alfi.
Again, if you do not have an Alfi PR database username/password, merely
enter your name in the username field and ignore the password field. You
will be given access to the Alfi PR database to create
a problem report.