AlignEx

I’ve just written a quick app to allow turning on & off of alignment exceptions from a window rather than by running a separate file each time. It also updates if something else turns exceptions on/off. It can be downloaded from my website http://www.owlart.co.uk/Software

Do folks think this would work better as a Configure plugin?

I think a Configure plugin would be a sensible thing.

Do folks think this would work better as a Configure plugin?

I’m not so sure. It’s the visual indication of whether exceptions are on or off that’s the useful bit. We don’t really want people turning alignment exceptions off as a matter of course, so it shouldn’t be something people will be “configuring” in the future. I see its usefulness being for developers who can’t remember whether they’d turned alignment exceptions off or not at the point when a crash occurs. So my vote is for something that lives permanently on the iconbar.

How are you updating its state? Are you just reading CP15 on null wimp polls?

This is very handy for giving a visual indication of the status.

So my vote is for something that lives permanently on the iconbar.

I think this’d be good, if you think it’s worth spending the time to rework it that way. Perhaps an icon along the lines of the greyed-out Help or OvationPro “crossed out” applet status would be worth thinking about.

How about a configure plug in that gives the choice of on, off or under the control of an extra menu item on switcher? It could modify the icon to indicate the state.

We don’t really want people turning alignment exceptions off as a matter of course, so it shouldn’t be something people will be “configuring” in the future.

This was my thought, hence the uncertainty about making it a configure plug-in. I’m open to persuasion though if people think it would be better that way, something along the lines of the RISC OS 6 ‘Compatibility’ settings, maybe.

So my vote is for something that lives permanently on the iconbar.

Ok, I’ve updated it to live on the iconbar, and it’s icon reflects the current status. Adjust click on the icon to toggle settings, or use the radio buttons in the window.

How are you updating its state? Are you just reading CP15 on null wimp polls?

Yes, it checks CP15 on null polls every 5 secs and updates itself accordingly.

How about a configure plug in that gives the choice of on, off or under the control of an extra menu item on switcher? It could modify the icon to indicate the state.

Adding an extra menu item to Switcher seems a slightly odd place to put it, plus it’s way beyond my limited programming skills to implement!

Anyway, v0.02 now available from http://www.owlart.co.uk/Software

something along the lines of the RISC OS 6 ‘Compatibility’ settings, maybe.

Yes, that’s an option, I suppose. It really depends on whether we get an automatic way of dealing with legacy code that uses unaligned loads/stores and fixing them up on-the-fly, a la Aemulor. If we do, there’ll be no need to fiddle with this setting any more, I guess. In the absence of that, it could be worthwhile making it a configure option. Might cause more trouble than it’s worth, though!

Ok, I’ve updated it to live on the iconbar, and it’s icon reflects the current status. Adjust click on the icon to toggle settings, or use the radio buttons in the window.

This will make it a useful diagnostic, I think, especially for forgetful people like me. Thanks!

Yes, it checks CP15 on null polls every 5 secs and updates itself accordingly.

Sounds sensible!

I can’t test it right now as I’m away from home, but cheers for this little utility.