bugs location?

[Perry]

Is there a location for discussing bugs in freelang Windows program?

(These forums seem to be all about translating phrases, so I wonder if there is somewhere else for discussing freelang.)

[Latinus]

Hi,

For any discussion about bugs, support or any issue with the dictionary, Beaumont prefers that people join him by email. There's a "mail form" on the Freelang website :
http://www.freelang.net/form.html


Lat

[Perry]

I've just developed a vbs script to fix the freelang shortcuts.

Freelang installs its shortcuts to the private area of only the administrator who installed it, so the start menu items are not available to regular users, on Windows NT/2000/XP machines, AFAICT. I've just developed a vbs script to move the shortcuts to the All Users area, so they're available to regular users as well.

I've not yet fixed the security problem that freelang needs to be able to write to the dictionaries, which are stored in the program directory (kind of a no-no on Windows 2000/XP machines, but one which can be worked around). I plan to make a script to fix the permissions (DACL) on the languages directory too, later.

I've tested my fix script on both XP Professional and XP Home, and am about to offer it to the developers as well; if any users want it, I'm happy to share it.

[pc2]

saluts,

interesting...
we would like this VBScript...
but we didn't actually understand what this VBScript fixes. what shortcuts are those?

best regards,

[Perry]

If you are using Windows XP (or NT or 2000), you should logon as Administrator to install freelang dictionaries (if you try to install when you are not an Administrator -- when you are a "limited user" to use Microsoft's new terminology -- the installation will crash).

But, if you log out after the installation, then logon as a different user, then the new program start menu items will not be visible to you, because they are installed and made available only for the Administrator.

If you have a computer with more than one user, you probably want programs to be available for all users (this is the norm), and then you want to fix the shortcuts (Start Menu/All programs items) so they are available for all users.

This script fixes the Start Menu/Programs items (ie, the shortcuts).

Send me email to lifelines.3.0.18 -- that is my username, and the email domain name is hotmail.

Note: If your NT/2000/XP system only has one user, who is the Administrator, then this will not matter to you.

[kokoyaya]

Did you contact webmaster-@-freelang.net about that?

[pc2]

If you are using Windows XP (or NT or 2000), you should logon as Administrator to install freelang dictionaries (if you try to install when you are not an Administrator -- when you are a "limited user" to use Microsoft's new terminology -- the installation will crash).

But, if you log out after the installation, then logon as a different user, then the new program start menu items will not be visible to you, because they are installed and made available only for the Administrator.

If you have a computer with more than one user, you probably want programs to be available for all users (this is the norm), and then you want to fix the shortcuts (Start Menu/All programs items) so they are available for all users.

This script fixes the Start Menu/Programs items (ie, the shortcuts).

Send me email to lifelines.3.0.18 -- that is my username, and the email domain name is hotmail.

Note: If your NT/2000/XP system only has one user, who is the Administrator, then this will not matter to you.

OK. our computer has only one user.

[Perry]

Sure, I sent all info the webmaster, and reported some other bugs as well (the program does not read the correct location for the Program Files directory, so it only guesses correct for default configured US English versions of Windows probably -- and the program doesn't remember later that you fixed its path so it keeps guessing wrong every time).

I never got much feedback, and kind of lost interest in trying to fix it, because I've not got the source to really fix it.

I was going to try to publish some scripts to fix the existing problems, but I didn't figure out how to get the the SID for Authenticated Users without using the English-specific name "Authenticated Users"--and I got almost no feedback from the developers of freelang, so I figured maybe it is a program maybe 15? years old (because it writes to the win.ini file, and I've not heard of anyone doing that in well over a decade) and maybe it is frozen.

,

[Perry]

Also, its obvious that this forum is filled all the time with translation requests, not with any discussion of the program. I guess that the program maybe lacks any forum or bug tracking (not sure), so that is another discouragement to trying to fix or work on it.

[kokoyaya]

I never got much feedback, and kind of lost interest in trying to fix it, because I've not got the source to really fix it.

If you feel able and motived to help us and develop a new version of Freelang dictionary program, we have a project running, please tell us

[kokoyaya]

Also, its obvious that this forum is filled all the time with translation requests, not with any discussion of the program. I guess that the program maybe lacks any forum or bug tracking (not sure), so that is another discouragement to trying to fix or work on it.

It does lack that kind of forum but we won't launch this forum before a new version is ready (or at least beta).

[Latinus]

Also, its obvious that this forum is filled all the time with translation requests,

Because that's why we made it (inter alia)

[Perry]

Are you guys working on a new version then?
Great!

Yes, I'd be interested in helping -- is there a project
on sourceforge or savannah or something like that,
that I may join?

I just found another bug in the current version, btw -- if you are in (say) Latin-English, and you press Done, then go to the Language menu and select English-Latin, then go back into Search again, the labels have switched so apparently the program thinks you are in English-Latin now, but the word lists have not switched.

It is even more apparent if you try to switch to another language -- the word lists don't change (not even to the new language) but the labels change.

Also, BTW:

After I finished that fancy script to fix the buggy Start Menu shortcuts for NT/2000/XP, I never figured out a good script to fix the permissions so it works for regular users on NT/2000/XP.

I finally gave up and just used a trivial hardcoded fix, like so:

Put the following single line into a text file and name it
"GrantAuthenticatedUsersChange.bat"
and run it on each machine.
This obviously assumes you installed all languages into
"C:\Program Files\Dictionary\language"
you have to change the text below for other cases:

cacls.exe "C:\Program Files\Dictionary\language" /T /E /G "Authenticated Users":C


(This grants change permission to authenticated users for the language folder and all contained objects.)

I've only tested that on Windows XP Home Edition so far, but it should work on XP Pro as well. I think it will work on 2000 also, but not on NT (which did not have the built-in well-known group "Authenticated Users" -- you'd need to use "Everyone" for NT).

[Perry]

BTW, is there any fix for the popup bug of this forum?

That is, all my other web windows are in my main firefox instance, but this one opens up in a new firefox window

I used the Forum link on the upper right of the freelang.com web page.
Is there a link that doesn't have this problem (I imagine it is
a problem with a target attribute on an a tag), that I could use
instead?

[Beaumont]

I just found another bug in the current version, btw -- if you are in (say) Latin-English, and you press Done, then go to the Language menu and select English-Latin, then go back into Search again, the labels have switched so apparently the program thinks you are in English-Latin now, but the word lists have not switched.

The number of bugs you find is amazing. But please check again and you will see that the lists do switch.

Now the purpose of this forum is to help people who need translations, not to discuss about the program, so I'm closing this thread. Please use the contact form on our site or contact us via the chat. For problems with the forum itself, please post in the "Support" forum.

Thank you!