I'm trying to find a predictable sequence that can reproduce this bug, but I've had some occasional problems trying to import an additional costume into a given sprite.
What happens is that the import feature shows the thumbnails, and everything else seems to work except that once you select the image it won't actually be added into the project. Surprisingly you can still add costumes through the "paint" option, and the image import feature within the image editor still seems to work just fine... allowing a "work around" when this bug seems to pop up.
I've had this same bug show up on two different computers, one of them running Windows XP, and the other using Windows 2000 as the operating system. And I'm using Scratch version 1.1 with (obviously) the Windows installer.
I've had bugs like this for my own software that usually come from compiler issues rather than something that is explicitly a logic flaw.... or perhaps there is something that is in the nature of the operating system call to perform a file load that errors due to an improperly initialized variable that is initially zeroed out when the software starts, but can be changed during the operation of the software, like an improperly initialized pointer.
I'm wondering if anybody else is experiencing this sort of problem after some heavy editing of content has occurred. Or if you are using several other software applications concurrently with Scratch, such as a web browser with several pages own and other applications being used as well when this happens.
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Hi, Roberth. Thanks for reporting this problem.
If you can find a way to reproduce it, please let me know. Is it related to a particular file? If not, I wonder if somehow the click on the "okay" button of the import dialog is being interpreted by Scratch as a click on "cancel" instead? Or perhaps you are double-clicking on the "okay" button or using some keyboard shortcut that Scratch doesn't support?
These intermittent problems are hard to track down!
-- John
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Hey there,
I'm also having this problem. It isn't due to any of the reasons you specified though. Within the same folder, some costumes will import and others wont. It seems to be the same costumes each time that wont load...
For instance, in the people category, the file "baby" will load as a costume, whereas the file "boy-4-shrugging" wont.
-Joel
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I believe I figured it out...
duh..
I was running the program off the mounted volume on my mac, rather than copying the directory to the applications folder. That seems to have solved the problem.
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We are having problems with this as well. Some machines work, others don't. All are installed locally. All machines are basically identical builds. (Win XP SP2 on a domain).
The students can browse to the costumes click Okay and nothing imports. Copying or painting their own seems to work fine. Sometimes it will work with other sprites but this is inconsistent. The same is true if they double click instead of clicking okay.
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Hi, everyone.
Thanks for the additional data. Joel suggested that particular files might be the issue, or that running from the disk image on the Mac, which behaves like a read-only drive, could be the problem. Espada suggests that importing works on some machines and not others.
I suspect there is a pattern but we're not quite seeing it.
Espada, are the Scratch folders read-only on any of your machines? On the machines where you've seen problems, does it fail consistently? Does it always fail on the same files or in the same folder? Is Scratch installed in the same location on all machines?
I'm sorry you're having these problems. Thanks again for your help.
-- John
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I've never had problems importing costumes, but I have had problems loading projects that were transfered by flash drive. I finally decided that my flash drive had bad memory, and was corrupting the data (thanks, Pexagon!). The error messages reported by scratch when projects and costumes don't load properly are not very informative.
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johnm wrote:
Hi, everyone.
Thanks for the additional data. Joel suggested that particular files might be the issue, or that running from the disk image on the Mac, which behaves like a read-only drive, could be the problem. Espada suggests that importing works on some machines and not others.
I suspect there is a pattern but we're not quite seeing it.
Espada, are the Scratch folders read-only on any of your machines? On the machines where you've seen problems, does it fail consistently? Does it always fail on the same files or in the same folder? Is Scratch installed in the same location on all machines?
I'm sorry you're having these problems. Thanks again for your help.
-- John
The drives on all machines are set to be read only through GPO. It is difficult to say whether it is consistently the same PCs that cause the issue but I do seem to visit machines repeatedly.
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Repeatable problem for me. XP SP2. Works fine for admin user, but problem for limited accounts; GIF costumes will not import, PNG costumes import OK. If I copy the files to My Documents, GIF will then load.
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Hi, Piriton.
Since importing works for admin, it sounds like this could be a file access or security configuration problem. Some files are simply not readable.
Nice job picking up on the GIF-only pattern! Since our image library contains a mixture PNG, GIF, and JPG files, if the problem only affects GIF's, then it would seem random.
I would think that a GIF file that does not import from the "new sprite from file" button below the stage would also fail to import when using the "import" button in the Costumes tab. If so, you might have your IT person look into the file access settings. Maybe there is a some setting that affects GIF but not PNG files...
Thanks for the good sleuthing! Please let us all know if you find a fix or workaround for the problem.
-- John
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Hello John.
Forgot to say in first post that I discovered the problem when running through the "Getting Started" PDF which was a little off-putting. Also this is Windows XP Home - I am the IT person!
Further testing shows that the GIFs import fine using "Choose new sprite from file". I have also confirmed that JPGs import fine as costumes. So (of the three file types and two functions tested) it is only GIFS being imported as costumes that cause a problem.
I am not sure what file access or security setting would affect one file type in a folder and not others. But does the successful "Choose new sprite from file" with a GIF indicate a bug rather than a file access / security issue on my PC...?
As far as work arounds, Roberth gives one in his original post, importing via "paint.. new costume". Again this works for me too (so thats 2 of 3 functions that will import a GIF). The other is to have the files in a writable folder (by copying to My Documents)
joelgreen could import a PNG (baby) and not a GIF (boy-4-shrugging) until he reconfigured his (MAC) set-up (see his post). That would therefore appear to be a related issue - your summary earlier suggested a read-only issue..? Having installed the software using an admin user, all the folders in my c:\program files\scratch are read only, as they should be (but again, why is only one file type giving the problem?).
Hope the above helps. My vote is that this is a real, repeatable, bug..!?
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