Hey, everyone.

Wotok had started a topic on fonts in this forum.

Here is a repeat of the e-mail I sent:

Hey there!

Just a player/user here.

Not a sysop/registered twgs owner.

Now, I know this topic is about fonts. My problem is with ANSIs.

I've logged on to servers who have Version 3.12 (is that the latest version?), and I got "stalled" in between sectors, or when haggling/trading. This happens to me either on manual or if I auto-trade/explore.

I use J-TWAT. Now, I know right there that's gonna make me sound like a dinosaur...But, yes I use J-TWAT exclusively, and yes I leave ANSIs on...I LOVE both.

BTW, that is the solution I have found to my problem: by turning ANSI off, I can navigate normally. I hate all the foreground colors J-TWAT offers, though; haven't found one my eyes like.

I think this problem should be looked into. I feel ANSIs and animation bring something good to the game, even though most veteran players turn them off for the sake of speed.

Thanks in advance for your prompt, constructive replies .

It sounds like a problem with J-TWAT, maybe your specific configuration. There isn't any problem with a straight terminal application or with SWATH or TWX.

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

It sounds like a problem with J-TWAT, maybe your specific configuration. There isn't any problem with a straight terminal application or with SWATH or TWX.


I would say my "specific configuration" is "default".

They got these things in "Tools" called "buffer +50" and "buffer -50", but I dunno what they do/mean.; I haven't touched them.

Like I said, if I log on to a server running 3.12, I have to turn ANSI off, and I'm stuck with foreground that's white, yellow, orange, or...yech...magenta

Any techies can suggest any settings I could change to J-TWAT?

I LOVE my ANSIs

The buffer settings are only your scroll back buffer, I have found for J-twat to function correctly I have to hit -50 once or twice until the buffer is only the current page, you can find out by hitting D after and see how far the scrollback buffer will let you go. Give that a try and see how it works, J-twat has a couple good points that still work well but for the most part its a memory hogging dinosaur abortion.

J-Twat has no more or less problems than it did when badboy made his last release. I have never had any issues with the scroll back buffer either. I always have ANSI's color turned on, animation display off. I opened it up to a game on a 3.12 server right now and have no issues with it with ANSI colors on or off. It has to be something with your system. Note though that you can change the foreground and background colors under the Terminal menu.

No doubt J-Twat has issues...but the ones you are experiencing are not typical. Try switching to ZOC/TWX combo, give it a chance, learn the ways and you will be much better off.

Sorry I can't be of better help

Hi! For what it's worth I have the same problem. Have to turn off the ansi (i always turn off animation) in order to make it so my trading scripts do not get stuck, and the same thing happens with ship explore. Before setting up my own twgs I was playing on another bbs that had not upgraded it's twgs software to the newest version and I did not experience the stall out problem using j-twat with ansi on. The sysop then upgraded to the current twgs version and that is when the problem with j-twat stalling began to occur. I purchased the latest release of twgs and installed it on my machine which is no slouch in the speed department in any way and I still have the problem with j-twat and have to turn the ansis off in order to play without stalling. It makes it much easier to quickly tell the difference between good/evil aliens with the color on and also helps to see busted ports when playing evil. If it was just me experiencing this problem I could see it being chalked up to a system issue, or if it was only happening on one server...but since someone else is obviously experiencing the issue, since it began after an upgrade to the latest twgs version on one system and a fresh install of the latest twgs on another it would seem to be more than coincidental. I am not savvy at all about software programming but it seems to me the problem must exist in the software that was changed and not the software that has been the same for years without any upgrades or bug fixes (sure wish someone at sourceforge would pick j-twat back up).

Embers
quote:Originally posted by Kivas Fajo

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

It sounds like a problem with J-TWAT, maybe your specific configuration. There isn't any problem with a straight terminal application or with SWATH or TWX.


I would say my "specific configuration" is "default".

They got these things in "Tools" called "buffer +50" and "buffer -50", but I dunno what they do/mean.; I haven't touched them.

Like I said, if I log on to a server running 3.12, I have to turn ANSI off, and I'm stuck with foreground that's white, yellow, orange, or...yech...magenta

Any techies can suggest any settings I could change to J-TWAT?

I LOVE my ANSIs

quote:Originally posted by Kivas Fajo

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

It sounds like a problem with J-TWAT, maybe your specific configuration. There isn't any problem with a straight terminal application or with SWATH or TWX.


I would say my "specific configuration" is "default".

They got these things in "Tools" called "buffer +50" and "buffer -50", but I dunno what they do/mean.; I haven't touched them.

Like I said, if I log on to a server running 3.12, I have to turn ANSI off, and I'm stuck with foreground that's white, yellow, orange, or...yech...magenta

Any techies can suggest any settings I could change to J-TWAT?

I LOVE my ANSIs



You are not alone, I have the same issue with J-Twat. The scripts seem to hang when Trade Wars is waiting for the "^M" carriage return keystroke. This only seems to happen on TW v3.12.0, and only intermittently, just meaning I haven't found a pattern yet.

-Prinz of Darkness

We are sorry that J-TWAT does not function correctly anymore. I really don't know what has caused it, as other helpers/scripts/clients all behave fine still. While it probably was a change with the TWGS that caused the problems, EIS can not let updates to the software be dictated by compatability issues with a helper that hasn't been supported for years. I am sorry.

quote:Originally posted by Harley Nuss (teamEIS)

We are sorry that J-TWAT does not function correctly anymore. I really don't know what has caused it, as other helpers/scripts/clients all behave fine still. While it probably was a change with the TWGS that caused the problems, EIS can not let updates to the software be dictated by compatability issues with a helper that hasn't been supported for years. I am sorry.



I'll assume that was sarcasm, end even if it wasn't, I'm well aware that this is not EIS's problem. I guess we, those of us that use it, are all sad the this is the death knell for J-Twat. I didn't want to give up my orginal dos tradewars helper either.

-Prinz of Darkness

quote:Originally posted by Embers
<snip /> been the same for years without any upgrades or bug fixes (sure wish someone at sourceforge would pick j-twat back up).

Embers


If someone narrows the problem down, I can try to patch it on J-TWAT (still listed as a developer there). While I can't guarantee I'll spend a lot of time on it (working on my own helper - http://www.twdata.org/kokua), but I don't mind applying patches and quick fixes as needed.

File a bug report on J-TWAT's sourceforge site http://sf.net/projects/j-twat and submit a patch or at least describe the exact, replicatable circumstances the bug rears its ugly head.

Don

If anyone is able to narrow down the problem, I'm more than happy to do whatever I can to make it work from my end.

I'm curious if someone can tell me at which revision the problem first appears. That would definitely help to narrow down the feature change that might be responsible for the problem.

Don, if you are able to identify the root cause of this problem, please contact me directly at jpritch@eisonline.com so I can determine what, if anything, I can do to facilitate a fix.

Thanks!

quote:Originally posted by John Pritchett (EIS)

If anyone is able to narrow down the problem, I'm more than happy to do whatever I can to make it work from my end.

I'm curious if someone can tell me at which revision the problem first appears. That would definitely help to narrow down the feature change that might be responsible for the problem.

Don, if you are able to identify the root cause of this problem, please contact me directly at jpritch@eisonline.com so I can determine what, if anything, I can do to facilitate a fix.

Thanks!


John and mrdon
I have TW gold, a server, plenty of hard drive space, and way too much time. Ill see what I can do about nailing down the conditions that cause stalling with ANSI on.

-Prinz of Darkness

Just so that some people don't waste their time. JTwat uses the Java Telnet Application, aka JTA, for it telnet routines. And from what I have seen of the code. It is an old versions JTA, v1.xx. JTwat may very will work if, it is updated to use the newest version JTA. Or JTwat may need a complete rewrite.

You can get the latest version, including source code, here:

http://javassh.org/

quote:Originally posted by The WABBIT

Just so that some people don't waste their time. JTwat uses the Java Telnet Application, aka JTA, for it telnet routines. And from what I have seen of the code. It is an old versions JTA, v1.xx. JTwat may very will work if, it is updated to use the newest version JTA. Or JTwat may need a complete rewrite.

You can get the latest version, including source code, here:

http://javassh.org/


Yep, and in fact, that is one of the reasons I decided it'd be easier to just write my own helper instead. For one thing, JTA 1.x is built on AWT but all newer versions use Swing. At first, I was hoping to simply rewrite J-TWAT to use JTA 2.5 (or whatever they are on now), but rewriting all that AWT code in J-TWAT (and a number of other issues), led me to deciding it would be much easier to simply rewrite a new helper from scratch.

That said, it still should be possible to make quick fixes to the J-TWAT code.