Who likes manga?

Rick wrote:

Updates in the usual ways.

So I fired up my old 0.22 version of Manga, yes I know but holidays etc got in the way, and no update offered even though I have the Beta track set.

Manually downloaded 0.26 from the website, great work Rick, and tried a little reading.

Fired up Manga 0.26 with Beta track selected today and no update to 0.27 offered.

So is it my set up or is the Beta track server off?

So is it my set up or is the Beta track server off?

“Works for me”. :-)

When you start Manga, with update checking, does the mouse pointer briefly change colour?

You can check the server by popping over to http://heyrick.ddns.net/ (ye gods, it’s over 33C!). You can also check the update info file itself – http://heyrick.ddns.net/manga/update.txt

This should create a file in your cache, in subdirectory Update, called _update. It is typed as a data file but is text, so drop it into Edit/Zap/StrongEd to read it.

But, most of all, “just try again” is often a worthwhile idea when it comes to the internet…

Get the same here and, yes, the cursor does change colour. I just put it down to new customs arrangements.

This should create a file in your cache, in subdirectory Update, called _update

No _update file created.

The mouse pointer turns yellow for a while as well.

I deleted the contents of the cache and tried again and all the contents are reproduced apart from the _update file in the Update directory.

I am running 27th Jul 18 version of RISC OS on a pandaboard.

I just put it down to new customs arrangements.

So much for Boris’s seemless and electronic borders as this test shows what happens when the systems fail :-)

Just tried it on my Iyonix running 5.24 and with version 0.26 and 0.24 is does the same in that the mouse pointer turns yellow but no _update file is created.

I also note that I have SecureSockets 1.05 running on both machines.

SecureSockets

WebJames doesn’t do SSL, this is an old style fetch.

Hmm…

The mouse pointer turns yellow for a while as well.

Sounds like it is timing out. I wonder if the heat is affecting the broadband and/or the WiFi bridging?

For now you can cheat: http://heyrick.ddns.net/manga/manga_0-27.zip

Let me know if it’s slow to respond, that might explain why. Manga has a fairly short timeout to minimise annoyance at startup. Better to miss an update and show the Manga, right? ;-)

Hi Rick,

Seems a little slow to respond using the uRL and also download speed is 7.48 kB/s on average so guess that may the issue.

How about an update to be able to vary the time out figure so users have the option?

is 7.48 kB/s on average

Whoo, we’re rocking it dialup style. Actually, I think ArgoNet managed more than that with a 33k6 modem. ;-)

How about an update to be able to vary the time out figure

Given the roads are melting, people are dropping dead, and it looks like the maize is about to burst into flames, I’m hoping this heat is an “anomaly”… Either that or I’m moving to Montréal¹²…

¹ Can’t move to Sweden or Finland, thanks Brexit.

² I’ve spent a decade and a half coping with French, might as well make use of it (even if Canadian French is barely comprehensible as “French”)

0.28  2018/08/06

      A quick'n'simple but really useful hack today. :-)
      
      When you begin reading a manga, Manga will try to precache the next
      page so it is available for instant display.
      A side effect of this, given that fetching takes time, is that if you
      change page quickly, it may seem as if nothing is happening. This is
      because the precache is still taking place in the background. In this
      instance, will beep. Try again in a short while (how long depends
      upon your connection).
      [looking at your network activity indicators may be helpful]
      
      Generally speaking, a precache fetch on a 3(ish) megabit connection
      will be faster than it takes to read an average page of manga. How
      do I know? Guess who got sidetracked^W^Wtested it with Azumi. ;-)
      
      On the really hot days, it seems there was a problem with the auto
      updater due to a flakey connection to my home server - not sure if
      it was the broadband or the WiFi bridge. It was suggested that the
      delay in attempting the connection be increased. I have decided NOT
      to do this, as I reserve "up to 5 seconds" for the DNS lookup, and
      "up to 5 seconds" for the connection attempt. To my mind, if the
      server isn't going to sensibly respond in that time, it isn't worth
      continuing (imagine how slowly it would send any update file, given
      that said updates include the SSL module so are quite large).
      Today, a server in Sweden (tools.pingdom.com) took 12.33s to fetch
      a 1.2MB text file from my site; so this slowness is only a
      temporary problem. The side effect? You might not be notified of
      an update the moment it is released. But when you start Manga in
      the future (and communications work), you'll be notified...

0.28 works fine for me (Pi0, RO5.24).

My 256Kbps connection, however, is not fast enough to keep up with my
reading speed.

0.29  2018/08/11

      A (synthesised) download failure of the manga info file (the one
      used when you choose a manga in the selection window) was treated
      as a fatal error. This is dumb. So now you'll get a message and
      be sent back to retry or pick another manga...
      Additionally, if the info file is too small to be useful (quoted
      as less than 1024 bytes in length), it will trigger a refetch
      instead of opening an obviously bad file and then getting stressy.
      
      As well as beeping, a fetch attempt while a fetch is in progess
      will pop upon a little window (lower left of the screen) to say
      that a fetch is in progress. It'll go away when the fetch is
      complete.
      
      Some additional interlocks to prevent fetching-while-fetching
      issues.
      
      Added configuration option to disable precaching. It is NOT
      recommended that you use it (fetching in the background, even if
      slow, is surely better than fetching on demand), but it's there
      if you want it.
      
      More sympathetic polling when doing background fetching (not that
      you'd notice on a modern machine ;-) ).
      Also responds to a quit request immediately, doesn't complete the
      fetch and THEN quit.
      
      Due to code copy-pasting a billion years ago, the "age" of the
      manga info file was being determined by looking at the file of
      the big list of manga. This has been fixed.

      Note that SSL connections BLOCK while connecting. It seems that
      connecting normally only works for BLOCKING connections. Trying
      to use non-blocking will cycle forever as EINPROGRESS without
      actually progressing (test code left running half an hour while
      I went to get the bin from the top of the lane...).

      If a "new" entry appears very recently in the "What's new?" list,
      it is possible that it won't be able to be looked up in the manga
      index if it's more recent than the last index update.
      In this case, you will now be given a message to explain this
      (instead of nothing happening).
      
      Additionally, starting Manga while holding (either) Alt key will
      cause the index to be updated regardless of how old it is (by
      default it updates at program start if the file is more than
      24 hours old).

Updates from http://heyrick.ddns.net/manga/ or your copy of Manga will inform you if you have beta track update checking enabled. All as usual. ;-)

Okay, I think that’ll do it for a while (bugs notwithstanding). As the weather isn’t stupid-hot and it isn’t raining, I can get on with enjoying my summer holiday. :-)

Who at PlusNet has been downloading lots of old versions of Manga? Those prior to v0.19 will not work because SSL is now required. It’s useless to download those ancient copies…

Hmm, looking at the timing, it’s as if somebody fired off a download for every version of Manga on the first page of this topic [wow, that’s dedicated!], then realised there was a link to /manga, followed it, then noticed v0.28.
Actually… v0.29 is available now. Which you’d have found if you read this topic backwards (latest at the end, right?). ;-)

Could be a web crawler bot, if they use PlusNet… What sort of time interval was there between each of the downloads?

Could be a web crawler bot,

…identifying itself as NetSurf? :-)

What sort of time interval was there between each of the downloads?

20 to 40 seconds, that’s doable…

0.29 seems to work fine for me! (PI0, RO5.24)

I like the popup saying that a fetch is in progress… One thing I don’t
have working is sound.

0.29 seems to work fine for me!

Thanks for the feedback.

(PI0, RO5.24)

Ooh, a minimalist machine. ;-)

One thing I don’t have working is sound.

Me neither. My speakers are usually plugged into the phone (for streaming radio).

Thanks for the feedback.

You’re welcome. Thank YOU for the “killer app”! :-)

Ooh, a minimalist machine. ;-)

I like my little Pi0!

Well, merde alors! My three week summer holiday is nearly over. Coming up is the run-up to Christmas so it’ll be random rings of hell interspersed with chaos on a Lovecraftian scale.

So, to book-end the holiday, here is the final (for now) version of Manga. Version 0.30. This doesn’t really add much over the previous version. Just a few tweaks and fixes – but obviously useful ones. ;-)

0.30  2018/08/18

      Reporting the version (parameter -v) now works. Previously would
      give a blank reply, as was using Messages before they were set up.
      
      Internal tweaks and enhancements to how the SSL stuff is handled.
      
      Fixed precache updating the history, so your "read up until" was
      being one page ahead of where you really were.
      
      Now supports Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right keypresses to go backwards or
      forwards ten pages (this mimics the Ctrl-click behaviour).

      The What's new / Suggestions / Search results / History editor
      window now supports the use of scroll wheel.
      It's a shame that one cannot do the same thing with large menus...

Updates, as usual, by letting Manga find it or by going to http://heyrick.ddns.net/manga/

If all is good with this version, I’ll put it on !Store in a few days…

Ok I’m being thick but why isn’t the beta track thingy working for me? It’s been a while but I thought commenting out the “no update” line and enabling $beta track = 1 in the run file was enough.
Strangely enough nothing’s happening though after reloading !Manga.

in the run file was enough.

All that obscure “incantations in the run file” stuff has been removed (as of v0.25; and these things should not even be present in the !Run file any more).

It’s now a simple friendly tick box in the settings window. :-)

Cheeky sod, just spent far longer than I’d like to admit searching for an elusive “friendly tick box” or even settings window before realising I downloaded v0.24s from Plingstore. No need to rub it in! ;-)

I hope you got a copy. The server is off this afternoon. Going to a specific vide grenier with reason to be superstitious – https://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20120905

Yeah I got it, looks like you put alot of work in it. Nice!

Manga 0.30 works fine for me!

Special patch release of Manga. The AcornSSL module now supports non-blocking behaviour, but instead of seeing EWOULDBLOCK, I’m seeing some weird SWI not known. This means that anything that would be flagged as would-block (which is like 99% of transfers) would fail.

Simple patch, as you just want your manga fix, is to revert to the previous behaviour by not flagging the connection as non-blocking. I’ll do that again when it works. ;-)

Update will be offered by Manga, or you can get it from http://heyrick.ddns.net/manga/manga_0-31.zip

0.31  2018/08/24

      Special patch version: Today's release of AcornSSL now supports
      non-blocking, but when I'd be expecting EWOULDBLOCK (which ought
      to be error &20E35), I'm getting something about SWI &80146 not
      known...
      So Manga works when all the data can be received in one go, and
      fails otherwise.
      
      This version simply disables the non-blocking behaviour so it
      will behave like before (and work).
      
      While I'm here, I can come clean. The "Internal tweaks" to the
      SSL stuff in version 0.30 was a huge chunk of code to handle
      the AcornSSL module _as well as_ SecureSockets. It'll still use
      AcornSSL by preference. ;-)