SuperMemo 8.2 beta-testing program |
In beta-testing of SuperMemo 8, we had 135 international registrants who
submitted 183 beta-testing reports and contributed to removing 78
major bugs from the program! Although we used to invest in
larger-scale non-Internet beta testing, this was our best
beta-testing program ever! Among optimistic facts about
beta-testing was an overwhelming proportion of international
beta-testers (93%) from countries as remote as Malaysia and
Singapore. Also the overwhelming proportion of beta-testers were
highly satisfied with the program. Surprisingly, most criticism
came from former users of SuperMemo 7 who find it difficult to
adapt to new technologies implemented in SuperMemo 8
The winners of the best
beta-tester competition:
- Volker Goretzki, Germany
- Jari Roukolainen, Finland
- Piotr Kowalczyk, France
- Christoph Lichtenberger,
Germany
All winners received Advanced English CD-ROMs
Here is the detailed list of bugs
and new features implemented in the course of beta-testing
SuperMemo (February 25, 1997 - June 12, 1997).
New features
The following new features have
been added to SuperMemo 8 in the course of the beta-testing
program (Feb-June 1997):
- File
Find in file browser
- File browser
can be used in determining the secondary storage path
- Templates
with spelling components can also be used in importing
from SuperMemo 7
- Delete
file on component pop-up menu first removes the
file from the primary storage (acting as file editing
undo)
- Review
will initially review only pending items, and only then,
upon request will circulate indefinitely over memorized
items of the reviewed node
- File
: Reset : Knowledge system will move topics
automatically dismissed in the learning process back to
the pending queue
- File
: Reset : Knowledge system linearizes the
pending queue (the previous function without
linearization is preserved as File : Rest : All
items)
- Contents and
element windows as well as the classic template size down
automatically for lower VGA resolutions (down to 640x400)
- Importing
second SuperMemo 7 database in CD-ROM or CD-ROM Alias
mode warns the user about path conflict
- Repetition
meters in the status bar
- Optional
floating status bar in hidden SuperMemo
- Multiple file import to
registry
- New file browser with a
number of useful options (file delete, file execute, file
attribute viewing, etc.)
- Spell-Pads can optionally be
case-sensitive
- Repetition progress bar
visible at the bottom of the element window
- Tip of the Day
on startup
- A drag-and-drop operation Transplant
children for transplanting all descendants of one
hierarchy node to another node
- Customizable font in the
Contents window
- Timer Reset button
Bug fixes
Beta A Feb 25
- See History of
SuperMemo 8 Development for new features introduced to SuperMemo 8
as compared with earlier pre-release versions.
Beta B Mar 6
- Cannot find optimization
record would be reported upon creating a new system
in read-only mode
- Sound preview would not work
on importing sound files to sound registry if one of
registry files was playing
- Changing title in the browser
would mess up display if title column was moved
- Default font color would not
immediately be visible upon creating Classic Template
- Append Node
with empty Root and Hook would result in errors
- Changing Default
Template in Options would not
save it in Append Node file
- In dragging a new component,
its size would be wrong if the second click was above and
to the left of the first click
- Forgetting index equal to
default value would always be filtered by item filters
- Element ListBox would be
still visible even if texts have changed in registry
combo box
- After loading an empty
subset, closing the browser would report errors
- On detecting Genius knowledge
system format, the user would have no way to abort the
upgrade to SuperMemo 8
Beta C Mar 17
- Recording problems have been
fixed by patching a bug in Delphi Visual Component
Library source code
- SuperMemo would illegally
attempt to register KNO extension in Windows NT user mode
- Skip Frames if Behind for
Video for Windows would not be set correctly
- Localization table option
would not accept language name if TRA file was not
created beforehand
- Navigation Toolbar would
remain available during student test
- ParentElement=0 bug
would be reported occasionally at loading Classic
Template
- Searching registries would
cause errors in read-only mode
- Genius 2.0 systems would not
open directly from CD-ROM
- Spell-Pad variants terminated
with question mark would occasionally be misinterpreted
- Contents window would not
allow customized fonts (e.g. Polish fonts)
- #0, #1 and #26 characters in
registry member names would cause errors in searching
registries
- Searching the last registry
subset would produce empty result
- Replace All in
registry subset would do a global replace
Beta D Apr 2
- Conflicting access to SM8.INI
would result in serious instability of the program
- Mercy on the
first day of the process would occasionally fail
- Double click on a registry
member would duplicate the list of topics in the topic
window
- Bitmaps imported from
SuperMemo 7 in CD-ROM mode would not show up on the
screen
- Play On Click
value would be wrongly reported if it was zero
- Repeated import from
SuperMemo 7 would not create appropriate hierarchy tree
- Dangling 'Other' node created
in filtered import from SuperMemo 7 would not be
registered among dismissed elements
- GPF would be displayed if
'No' was chosen in response to "Do you want to
create ...?" in reference to the last knowledge
system on the pick list of the File menu
Beta E Apr 25
- Searching for titles in the
browser would not work
- A newly created empty
knowledge system would report wrong parent element at File
: Export : As Text
- Hyperlink option would not
accept 0 as a way of deleting the hyperlink
- Space in the Spell-Pad would
always be accepted as a correct answer
- SuperMemo icon would not show
up on Windows 95 desktop
- Spell-pads could not be
dragged
- Import files
button was inaccessible in registries
- Some Element window options
would become inactive on switching focus to the main
toolbar
Beta F May 23
- Edit
file on component pop-up menu would not
duplicate the file in primary storage
- Random change
on an empty registry would cause an error
- Font changing
option would not be disabled in non-font registries
- Deleting
deeply nested branches of knowledge hierarchy would cause
stack overflow
- Align : Vertical :
Center in window would not be accurate
- Search and Replace would
be available in registries in learn-only mode
- Template : Load From
File With Objects would hang the program if one
of the objects was missing
- Double click on a hierarchy
leave would not switch the focus to the element window
- Commit would
be available on an element deleted in the browser
- Double click on a hierarchy
leave would not switch the focus to the element window
- File browser would display
the current date instead of the file time stamp
- Providing *.* in Import
File would report an error
- Operation Add as Last Child
in Contents would occasionally cause Index Out of Bounds
error
- When turning to simplified
SuperMemo (hidden and translated) the hints would be
permanently turned off
- Minimizing the element window
in hidden SuperMemo would not minimize the status bar
- Newly introduced status bas
in hidden SuperMemo would eat up windows resources
- Hidden SuperMemo would keep
statistics icon visible though unusable
- Process window would not be
updated correctly during hierarchy operations
- Outstanding bar would use
Total instead of Pending+Memorized as the measure of the
proportion of the material learned
- Circular references in
orphaned hierarchy branches would be unrecoverable!
- The element and contents
windows would not be updated correctly after
Search&Replace
- Memorizing new items would
not affect the appearance of the outstanding repetitions
bar
- Cancel in importing
multiple files to registry would report a registry error
- Import
button in registries would not be disabled in registries
that do not import object files
- Outstanding repetitions bar
would be invisible for Outstanding 0+x if the day started
with Outstanding 0+0
- Focus would occasionally
remain with the element window upon activating Contents
window with a mouse
- Tab would select the
next component even if the current component were not in
the editing mode
Beta G May 31
- Editing would be possible in
LearnOnly mode with mouse click
- Editing titles in the
Contents windows could result in wrong title registration
- Using element pop-up menu in
browsers would bring the element window to front
- Opening new knowledge system
in hidden SuperMemo would not update the status bar
caption
- In final drill with topics,
status bar would not be updated correctly after the last
repetition
- Changing append node from the
toolbar would occasionally cause non-fatal errors
- Drag-and-drop would
occasionaly report List index out of bounds due
to a bug in Delphi Visual Component Library.
- Fatal errors would often
result in an attempt to run File : Recover
on a system that had not been subject to a crash.
- Template : Load From
File with Objects would duplicate fonts in the
registry.
- Delete in
the Contents window would occassionaly lose the synch
between the database structure and the displayed tree
resulting in multiple errors in a given session.
- Previous Topic would
lock the system if there were no topics.
- Timer button would start the
timer from the current repetition time even after
resetting the timer.
Final release June 12
- Save as default would
misplace windows with negative coordinates
For more information about
beta-testing see SuperMemo 8.4 beta-testing Program and SuperMemo 98 beta-testing program