PCGen 5.7.12 beta released

[kingpaul]

PCGen is pleased to announce the release of 5.7.12 beta. The release notes can be found here.

 

[Zulithe]

From the release note page:

Please make sure you read the doc. Also, make sure you have Java 1.4.x. Both 1.3.x and 1.5.x are known not to work properly with PCGEN (or is it the other way around? .

When will this be fixed? I've been using Java 1.5.x (aka Java 5.0 ... stupid Sun and their weird versioning conventions) and I notice many improvements, especially when it comes to load speed, in Java programs (though I haven't tried it with PCGen yet, I will soon.) 1.4.x will never again grace my system!

Sun recently released Java 5.0 Update 1. I wonder if this fixed whatever issues there were? I noticed it was available at http://java.sun.com yesterday

I used to think all Java programs were slow and unresponsive compared to C/C++ developed software, that is, until I started using Azureus as my bittorrent client. Once it starts up (which does take a few seconds) I can't tell the difference between it and any other program as far as responsiveness is concerned. I can't say the same for PCGen. I hope it will reach a similar level of usability someday.

 

[kingpaul]

When will this be fixed? I've been using Java 1.5.x (aka Java 5.0 ... stupid Sun and their weird versioning conventions) and I notice many improvements, especially when it comes to load speed, in Java programs (though I haven't tried it with PCGen yet, I will soon.) 1.4.x will never again grace my system!

I'm not a code monkey, but this is my understanding. The code monkeys are working on making the PCGen code work with 1.5.x, but won't fully port the code over to 1.5 until sometime after 5.8 is released. If you want more details, I'll see if I can get the Code Silverback to come this way.

I used to think all Java programs were slow and unresponsive compared to C/C++ developed software, that is, until I started using Azureus as my bittorrent client. Once it starts up (which does take a few seconds) I can't tell the difference between it and any other program as far as responsiveness is concerned. I can't say the same for PCGen. I hope it will reach a similar level of usability someday.

I know speed improvement is one of Devon's, aforementioned Code Silverbark, top priorities. He's been getting rid of memory leakage problems and redundant calls like crazy. From your comment, it seems you find 5.7.12 still to be slow. Have you noticed any speed improvements over prior versions?

 

[silvermane]

Ah, Azureus... it does start fast, but takes as much as 95% of my CPU power on occassions, I wonder what's causing it that?

As for PCGen, in 5.7.11 the loading speed noticeably improved, but not so much as to make me fond for the program. It still takes a minute to start and load a PC, on an AMD +1800 with 256 MB RAM (and the appropriate startup switch).

Also, as I have a 56 kbps connection it's a pain for me to download the same 16 MB with each new release. Couldn't the dev team implement upgrade downloads or something?

silvermane

 

[kingpaul]

Ah, Azureus... it does start fast, but takes as much as 95% of my CPU power on occassions, I wonder what's causing it that?

I honestly have no idea. I know that Devon's trying to slim down the calls in the code so it doesn't try to hog resources.

edit Just realized that your comment had nothing to do with PCGen...sorry, my mistake.

Also, as I have a 56 kbps connection it's a pain for me to download the same 16 MB with each new release. Couldn't the dev team implement upgrade downloads or something?

This was brought up to the release monkey a month or so ago. Going from memory, as I can't find the post atm, an upgrade wouldn't really work. Approximately 80% of the d/l is the java files that you need to run the program. Then there are the code changes that are made which require documentation and/or data changes.

 

[Zulithe]

Thank you for your comments replies to my concerns I do like PCGen, and hope I didn't come off as overly critical. As for this latest PCGen release, I'm affraid I haven't tested it yet, but will as soon as possible. I'm at work right now

 

[Ysgarran]

Ah, Azureus... it does start fast, but takes as much as 95% of my CPU power on occassions, I wonder what's causing it that?

silvermane

PCGen is probably creating a bunch of temporary objects in memory. Eventually the amount of memory being used by these temporary objects reaches a certain level and the Java Virtual Machine(VM), "ah, I've got start cleaning house". I would guess that the spikes you are seeing is when the VM is working really hard at deleting all those temporary objects that have been created.

Again, that is just a guess but it is driven by what I've seen in alot of other java applications.

later,
Ysgarran.