We are about to launch the next version of TcD (http://www.tcd.in).
This version adds a whole new set of new features and full help files!
We need you to read through all of the help files and make sure
everything is consistent and makes sense. All suggestions and comments
are welcome! The intended audience for this software is intermediate
to advanced internet users.

You can download the help files here: http://beta.tcd.in/forums/TcD_help_files.chm

The application itself is here: http://beta.tcd.in/forums/TcDsetup.zip

NOTE this is a beta release so there may still be some bugs. If you
notice that something does not work as indicated in the help files or
if is some other error that occurs of course we want to know about it.

There are lots of short entries in the help files and we expect you to
look at all of them. If you have any questions just ask before locking
this up to work on it.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 07 Dec 2005 12:22 PST

I don't know if many researchers will be willing to download and
install an unknown piece of software in order to answer your question
-- there are just too many possible problems that could arise.

Is it possible to post the help files to a website for our review?

pafalafa-ga

I marked comments as I went through my testing. For your convenience I
have numbered them so you may refer to s specfic issue for
clarification requests as we proceed.

1. MSVCP60.dll is relied upon, both for opening a browser with your
success URL during the installation process and by the program itself,
but is not included in the installation package. Not a big deal most
of the time, but... hey, it was an issue for me.

2. Scheduler help appears incomplete, especially because it does not
follow the naming convention (Introduction to the main window,
Introduction to the Command window, Scheduler overview???)

3. "main" in "Introduction to the main window" should be captialized
to follow convention of remainder of help file.

4. Scheduler help _is_ incomplete, because it does not describe the
unexpected behavior of the Scheduler window closing to the System
Tray. Admittedly your intended target audience should notice and "get
it," but this seems like a significant lapse of documentation.

5. "Edit a file" should probably read "Edit current file" or "Edit
download list" perhaps.

6. I realize that TcD is doing a lot of things wget doesn't, but it is
painfully slow... on 1.762 megabytes of 9 files, across a LAN, I get a
time of 39 seconds. With wget my time is 11 seconds. I hope that this
problem does not scale, or that it is relatively less of an effect on
lowerspeed connections.
   TcD seems to have the most trouble with a 1.305 mb PDF file out of these.

7. The time for only the last set of downloads (after the last 'get') is shown.

8. No error message is displayed in response to HTTP errors (i.e. 404
file not found, 403 forbidden)
   But then again, you never claim to show these errors.

9. Show files, download files.
	 -> You do not have any files waiting to download

Edit file, close to fix.

10. Introduction to Custom commands has the word help surrounded by
double double quotes in it: ""help"".

11. Erm... how do I end a batch???

TcD -> Flux (0)> cd
cd:
	Changes current directory.

TcD -> Flux (0)> cd .
TcD -> Flux (0)> batch fusker 
[batch][0] test
[batch][1] test[0-9]
[batch][2] 
[batch][3] end
[batch][4] end
[batch][5]

At this point, I __think__ I pressed Control-D -- or possibly
Control-H, out of force of habit working with Linux and with a Dvorak
keyboard -- and the Command window stopped responding.
Closing and reopening the window did nothing.

11. Why is the Command window's title "TcD.in commands"?

12. Restarted TcD to have Command window again. first thing I do:
TcD -> Flux (0)> cd .
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> 

W*** indeed.
This is not good.
Setting the directory with the "Set downloads folder" icon or
downloading a TcD list does not help.

TcD -> Flux (0)> cd .
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> cd 2
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> cd C:\
Unknown Command: zâw


TcD -> Flux (0)> 


13. Moving on... I now have a custom command named test.u, and
although I wanted to check to see if TcD picked them up on the fly
(doubtful, but not documented) or needed to be restarted, since I've
just restarted it should be fine in either case.

TcD -> Flux (0)> test
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> 

This is the current contents of test.u:
needparam 2 Syntax: test [URL1] [URL2]

# test deletes all items in your list then runs seq on the 2 URLs you provide
print "Current list:"
list
print "Taking out 4s"
del 4
print "Current list:"
list

Note that cd is not in there. What does this mean?

TcD -> Flux (0)> list
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> set
Unknown Command: 


TcD -> Flux (0)> sort
Unknown Command: w


TcD -> Flux (0)> print test
Unknown Command: t testw


TcD -> Flux (0)> 

I thought perhaps to remove the test.u file, and let TcD start up with
no custom commands.
No dice. But I did notice something interesting:

TcD -> Flux (0)> ls
No records to view.
TcD -> Flux (0)> cd
cd:
	Changes current directory.

TcD -> Flux (0)> cd .
Unknown Command: wd
TcD -> Flux (0)> set
Unknown Command: d
TcD -> Flux (0)> seq
Unknown Command: d
TcD -> Flux (0)> cd
cd:
	Changes current directory.

Two character commands, such as they were, seemed to work.

TcD -> Flux (0)> ls
No records to view.
TcD -> Flux (0)> ls
Unknown Command: 

TcD -> Flux (0)> ls
No records to view.

The middle ls was run while TcD was downloading.

14. Well, I have one more thought: the uninstall/reinstall cycle.

TcD -> Flux (0)> cd .
Unknown Command: zâwÂ
TcD -> Flux (0)> pwd
Unknown Command: âwÂ

Well, I don't know how Google will parse it, but locally instead of
being boxes (characters Windows can't display) I have some special
characters such as a's with circumflux and ring symbols above them.
(Unicode 00E2, the letter w, Unicode 00C5).

Running on a fresh Windows 2000 Professional install, English.

In conclusion, I'm stumped. You tell me what's going wrong. I will be
happy to continue testing once this problem is solved. If you like, I
can also revert to my original Windows hard drive image (and lose all
changes), since at least the command "cd ." worked the first time...
but this would not really address a fairly major issue. Is it possible
the control key combination is to blame? Without having a working
copy, I can't test it... and I hate to discard a test case where the
error is easily repeatable. Another option would be to backup the
first image to a DVD and restore from the original image, which would
be more trouble (especially due to lack of local storage space or DVDR
drives) but might be the best way to proceed.

Please let me know your thoughts.

- bookface-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by bookface-ga on 25 Dec 2005 18:39 PST

Further information:

The Control-H key works as backspace if anything has been typed
(normal), but if you Control-H with nothing there, it does in fact
delete one space character and freezes the Command window. I'm almost
certain now that this is what I hit last time.

However, I don't know if this is related to the "Unknown Command"
errors with foreign characters.

- bookface-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cesq-ga on 28 Dec 2005 16:00 PST

Hi bookface,

After we posted the review request we realized that there is a
character set issue that showed up on Windows 2000 Pro computers.
Unfortunatly I forgot to update this question with the latest (fixed)
version :-( My apologies. I'll post the fixed version tonight or early
tomorrow (I just got back from a vacation) and read through your
comments on the help files.

Again my apologies and thanks for your patience and work so far on this question.

Cheers!

---

Clarification of Answer by bookface-ga on 29 Dec 2005 00:18 PST

Looking forward to hear from you and pick up work on this again.

- bookface-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cesq-ga on 29 Dec 2005 11:07 PST

Hi bookface,

This version (http://www.tcd.in/modules/tcd/downloads/TcDv2_0_18.exe)
should work much better and is integrated with the help files. All you
have to do is click on the "?" button to bring up the help files. You
should also be able to go directly to a topic from the Command window
by typing "help commandName" where "commandName" is the topic you want
help about.

Thanks!

---

Clarification of Answer by bookface-ga on 30 Dec 2005 02:01 PST

15. Uninstall does not proceed cleanly if TcD Scheduler is open, but
gives no warning. (i.e. it cannot completely remove files, but does
not give a message before starting uninstall to the effect of "Please
close all running instances of TcD and TcD Scheduler.")

16. Issues already discussed:

    a) MSVCP60.DLL, a vital library for TcD, is still not included in the install.
    b) Scheduler section of help still does not follow naming
convention of remainder of Help ToC.
    c) Pressing Control-H on an empty line in Command window still
freezes the window.
    d) Still no message about downloads that are not successful (i.e. 404 errors).
    e) No message or download about forbidden files (authorization failed), either.

    I suggest a log file/error window for d & e, but that can wait
till the next release.

17. Pressing F1 in the Scheduler or Command windows does not work.
(Main window is fine.)

18. After downloads completed, status bar switches between two messages:
    Downloaded # files, #.##MB, in #:##. Click magnifying glass to view.
    Files: 0 Total size: 0 bytes

    I think the second message should begin "Remaining Files:" to
avoid confusion, or simply be hidden if none are left to download.

19. In the help for ls/list/show command, I think it would be nice to
mention that it does not reflect list of URLs loaded in the main
window, but rather a separate list specific to the Command window.
    This is documented elsewhere, but the ls help was the first place
I looked when it didn't do what I expected.
    I assumed this was broken at first before I read through the help
comprehensively.

20. Missing commas in help:

Open a file: ".flux___,___ it will be treated..."

Begin downloading: "... small files____,____ you may not even notice..."
"...downloaded____,____ your list will be cleared."

Pause downloading: "...progress___,___ this button will be grayed out."

Clear list: "... when you click this button___,___ downloading will
stop immediately..."

View files: "files since opening TcD___,___ this button will..."

Edit current file: "without any .tcd file open___,___ you will see a
blank document"

Commands, Add: "To add URLs to this list___,___ use the add command"

Commands, Get: "If used with an optional size specification___,___ it
will only get those files..."

Resources, Command Window shortcuts: "...use one of these
shortcuts____,____ you may need to click..."


21. After loading a list, View files button still opens download
directory for previous list. (It updates after download is complete.)

22. Non-HTML redirects via 301/302 do not give proper extension.
Example: bookface.frihost.com redirects to a text file, saved file is
"1 -", as opposed to "1 -.txt"

23. All redirects do not pick up proper filename (before extension).
Example: google.com redirects to google.com/index.html, but is saved
as "2 - .html" instead of "2 - index.html"

24. Introduction to the Main window:
    "Let's take a look at it the main window from top to bottom."
    needs to at least have the word "it" removed, and I recommend:

    "This introduction will introduce the components of the Main
window from top to bottom."

    Just above the Status bar section:
    "When __you___ are download__ing__ files, the URL currently being
downloaded will be shown just below the Progress bars."

25. Reload file button is not grayed out (as claimed in help) when no
downloads in list, or at least after clearing with Clear list button.

26. "lose" should replace "loose" in "Command window" button
description subsection of Main window.

27. In same section, I recommend inserting a paragraph break before
"Exiting the TcD application...", as the two notes currently appear to
be related.

28. set CustomHeaders section: "Would make it appear" doesn't need capitalization.

29. keeph, keept, delh, delt: I assume the h and t in these commands
stands for head and tail, but this is not mentioned.

30. Your regular expressions do not handle * properly:

TcD -> Flux (0)> add images.google.com
TcD -> Flux (1)> make
Searching (1/1) "http://images.google.com"... 9 found.
TcD -> Flux (9)> list
https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?continue=http://images.google.com/&hl=en
http://images.google.com/intl/en/options/
http://images.google.com/advanced_image_search?hl=en
http://images.google.com/preferences?hl=en
http://images.google.com/help/faq_images.html
http://images.google.com/ads/
http://images.google.com/services/
://www.google.com/intl/en/about.html
http://images.google.com/intl/en_ALL/images/images_hp.gif
TcD -> Flux (9)> keep *.html
TcD -> Flux (9)> keep (*.html)
TcD -> Flux (9)> keep (.html)
TcD -> Flux (2)>
...
TcD -> Flux (20)> del *jpg
TcD -> Flux (20)> del (*jpg)
TcD -> Flux (20)> del (.jpg)
TcD -> Flux (0)> 

Nothing is done with any regex containing *

31. Framesets are not parsed by make (which shouldn't particularly be
the expected case, according to the documentation; but I would expect
this behavior as part of make's builtin regex.) They are parsed by
spider, but this is undocumented.

32. Neither spider nor make handles for 

32. set DirSlashes, set NameTemplate, and set Proxy are not documented.

33. SeqWarningSize seems badly named, as it is more a limit than a warning.

34. Comments in the command window (# blah) are undocumented.

35. "config blah" should give help for config, but gives batchcurrent help instead.

36. Help for fixparents states that it will change dir1/.. into dir1/,
what it should read is that it will change it to
http://www.example.com/pic1.jpg or alternatively that the orignal url
was dir1/dir2/../pic1.jpg.

37. I understood what you meant, but I recommend changing the
description for fusker to read:

* Strings in curly brackets are treated as a comma-separted list of
string options, and will be interpreted to be one URL for each option.

Also consider using the word "converted" or "evaluated" instead of
"interpreted", although any one is fine.

38. I'm pretty sure the stuff about the optional size specification in
the get command is not true. You probably should be calling "size
[getarguments]" before executing the get command, if it has any
arguments.

39. I'm pretty sure this should never happen, but regardless I don't
think the right behavior for

add http://www.example.com/dir1/dir2/dir3/../../../../../../../pic3.jpg
fixparents 

should result in /pic3.jpg. Probably the "http://domainname" part
should always be preserved.

40. Help for "header" should read "sent out" instead of "send out"

41. "help help" does not, as it claims in the help for "help", result
in help for "help", but rather gives help for the Command window in
general.

42. cd, get, title, cookies, config, and possibly other items that do
not (or should not) modify the list, directly or indirectly, still
show up in the history (while the history help claims they do not.)
You should probably add more commands to the ignore list, and also
append the help text to clarify that "commands that modify or may have
an effect on the list in the future" will be in the history list. Note
that this is mentioned more again (but more clearly) in the Notes for
the history command.

43. Password command does not work for me on my testbed
http://adam:eve@bookface.frihost.net/testes/

TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> spider
Searching "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"...0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> password bookface.frihost.net adam eve
TcD will use adam for bookface.frihost.net now.
TcD -> Flux (1)> spider
Searching "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"...0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> spider
Searching "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"...0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> make
Searching (1/1) "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"... 0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/outie.html
TcD -> Flux (1)> password show
bookface.frihost.net - adam:eve
TcD -> Flux (1)> get
TcD -> Flux (1)> get
TcD -> Flux (1)> password http://bookface.frihost.net adam eve
TcD will use adam for http://bookface.frihost.net now.
TcD -> Flux (1)> get
TcD -> Flux (1)> spider
Searching "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/outie.html"...0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> spider
Searching "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"...0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> add http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/
TcD -> Flux (1)> make
Searching (1/1) "http://bookface.frihost.net/testes/"... 0 found.
TcD -> Flux (0)> password show
bookface.frihost.net - adam:eve
http://bookface.frihost.net - adam:eve
TcD -> Flux (0)> 

44. Empty list not properly saved.

TcD -> Flux (0)> save blabber
Saved list to "blabber".
TcD -> Flux (0)> load blabber
TcD -> Flux (1)> ls

TcD -> Flux (1)> 

45. "saveflux test.flux" crashes TcD if it cannot combine any entries.
Also, as far as I can tell in my "black box" testing, it does not work
to combine {string1,string2} entries.

46. TcD loads with the previously loaded list, I did not notice this
in the documentation if it is indeed there.


That's all I found, and from my minimal experience doing QA for a few
months for two companies, I would deign to say that's definitely not
too bad for freeware. Let me know if you have any further questions
about the issues I've stated, I've continued numbering my points so
you can refer to them easily.

Good luck with your release, and thank you for choosing Google Answers!

- bookface-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by bookface-ga on 30 Dec 2005 02:05 PST

Clarification of point 15: Uninstalling does shut down, without
warning, any running instances of TcD, but not of TcD Scheduler.

- bookface-ga

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Just what we were looking for. How
can we get you to do a follow-up review for us in a month or two?

I'm sure these folks 
http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.comp.freeware?lnk=li
would be interested in providing feedback for your program.

Hi pafalafa,

I understand your concern, though this is version 2 of a program that
has been downloaded thousands of times. So far as the help files go,
the link I posted with the question is to a .chm file, which is the
standard extension for these files. You can even "decompress" it if
you want into plain HTML files. You can always run antivirus on the
program and help files, or even run them in a virtual machine.

I'll look into exporting the help files to a website but this might
lose some help files features like the table of contents.

If I'm understanding it correctly, the request for clarification is
pointing out that this is not really a question to research (the
intent of answers.google.com) but more of an alpha-test development
project?

This might also not be the best way to fine-tune the help document.
Some type of content-management system with version control might be a
better way to go? Ideally something that allows multiple proofreaders
to collaborate. Just one comes to mind... www.drupal.net (an
open-source PHP-based project). It won't work with CHM though. You'd
need authors who have access to the same program to edit and suggest
changes to the source file that becomes the CHM. For instance if
everyone on the team was using Help & Manual, coupled with Visual
SourceSafe for signing in changes?

Eh, I'm rambling now. Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps some.