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Bugs and Issues
 
Bird Man, a painting by artist Lynn Rothan

If you find a bug or have a suggestion, contact me and I'll add it to this table.


Number Date Class Software Description Status
49
04/05/08
Bug
Do178Builder
Search operations sometimes highlight text that's near the found text, rather than highlighting the found text itself.  This only occurs if the text contains Unicode encoded as UTF-8.  There's no way for this to occur by using Do178Builder-only operations, but it can occur if you have cut-and-pasted the text from some other source, such as from OpenOffice.  It's a little bit insidious, because Unicode can appear in all sorts of unexpected places in such a cut-and-paste, as for example in “right-and-left quotes” vs. "straight quotes".
Problems like this are predictable from the wxWidgets documentation, but I appear to be doing all of the things that are suggested to avoid the problem.  I'll continue to look into it.
48
03/23/08
Issue
Do178Builder
Sometimes, after a Search operation or a Markup operation (like adding emphasis), the text is not highlighted.  This is known to be some kind of unfortunate interaction between wxWidgets and GTK+, or perhaps with the X-Window system, and is not a bug in Do178Builder per se.  (You can see the same effect in sample programs provided with wxWidgets itself.)  Not everyone experiences the problem, but I have experienced it on multiple platforms with multiple versions of wxWidgets / GTK+ / X, and failed to experience it on some other platforms.  I'm not sure at the present time if there is any prospect of fixing it. I've tried to work through it in the upstream libraries, but without much success so far.
47
05/02/04
Issue
Do178Builder
There are apparently some circumstances under which file-locks aren't removed, even though Do178Builder has exited.
05/02/04:  I've tried to close up holes where this may happen, but principally have added prompts allowing the user to override the locking --- accompanied by stern warnings not to do it.

... But you know what?  I no longer would really advise using file-locking.  File-locking is useful only if you are sharing a Do178Builder database with multiple developers, and when you're doing that it make change-control of the documentation very difficult.  Your mileage may vary, of course.
46
05/02/04
Bug
Do178Builder
File-locking isn't taken into account for the File/SaveAs function.
Fixed 05/02/04.
45
03/29/04
Issue
Do178Builder
On some targets (SuSE 9.0), the editor dialog isn't resizable.  On others (RedHat 8.0), the editor dialog can be resized once, but then won't allow it to be resized again later.  On still others (RedHat 7.3), the editor dialog resizes fine.  Clearly, there's some problem here with different versions of wxWindows.
To do.
44
11/10/03
Issue
Do178Builder
The Win32 build procedure is broken (again), apparently by the fix to PR #38.
This is due to some problem with the wxClientDisplayRect function in Win32 wxWindows 2.2.7, and apparently has been present since about 08/07/03.  It has now been worked around, as of 11/12/03 and later, but only by the expedient of bypassing some checks on window resizing.  Therefore, it hasn't really been perfectly fixed in any permanent sense.

In the process, I've also discovered that Do178Builder doesn't build at all in Win32 using wxWindows 2.4.2.
43
08/07/03
Issue
Do178Builder
Apparently, I never implemented File/New.  How silly of me.  (Thanks to Yigal Rahamim.)
Fixed 03/28/04.
42
08/07/03
Issue
Do178Builder
It has been reported that the SGML created by Do178Builder cannot be processed under Windows using Adobe FrameMaker+SGML.  I'd hypothesize that this is due to Do178Builder producing UNIX-style end-of-lines (line-feed only) rather than DOS-style end-of-lines (carriage-return plus line-feed).  (Thanks to Yigal Rahamim for this report.) Needs looking into.
41
02/25/03
Issue
Do178Builder
A feature to move to the next TBD item would be valuable.
This is a duplicate of PR #35.
40
02/25/03
Issue
Do178Builder
A feature to expand or contract all list items would be valuable.
This is a duplicate of PR #29 & 30.
39
02/25/03
Bug
Do178Builder
Sometimes, it doesn't seem possible to add a new item (the button is grayed out), even though adding an item is allowed, so you may need to add it at a higher position than you wanted.  (It seems to happen--rarely--with the last item of an allowed type.)
To do.
38
02/25/03
Bug
Do178Builder
In RedHat 7.3, the program crashes--seemingly--when the database becomes too complex and you try to expand an item.
... More info (08/06/03): I think this may actually be a video-card driver problem specific to my own computer.  It seems to occur only when the Do178Builder window is expanded larger than 1280x1024 pixels (for example, on a 1600x1200 desktop).
"Fixed" 08/06/03.  The "fix" is really just a workaround.  It prevents the Do178Builder window from expanding beyond 1280x1024.  (However, this "feature" can be overridden from the command line.)
37 04/08/02 Bug Do178Builder Does not build with wxWindows v2.3.2.  (Thanks to Philip Dalrymple for bringing this to my attention.) Compilation errors were fixed 04/08/02.  However, there are still linker errors -- at least on Linux for PowerPC -- which need to be resolved.

Partial workaround:  Use wxWindows 2.2.7 or 2.3.1 instead.  (I have been using 2.3.1.)

(I don't honestly know if this is fixed now, but since I am able to build under wxWidgets 2.4, 2.6, and 2.8, I assume that it is.)

36 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  remember which outline items were expanded and which options were checked (in Options/Project-options) from one invocation to the next. Thinking about it.
35 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  button to advance to the next not-yet edited field relevant to a given DO-178B document. Thinking about it.
34 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Upon loading an XML project, it should be possible to automatically update all hint-fields, CC entries, and document-relevance entries according to .template.xml.  This would reduce the inconvenience of upgrading .template.xml. To do.
33 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  conversely from PR #32, it would be nice (for a mature projects) to remove all unused records. To do.
32 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  add all missing sub-records.  (In other words, when a project is created, it contains all possible records in the outline view, but the user may have subsequently deleted some of them, thinking they weren't needed.  Or, an updated .template.xml may contain new sub-record types.  It would be great to be able to add these without manually checked every single line item.) To do.
31 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Options/Project-options dialog exists (and works) but I've not yet implemented any effect on the editor or document-creation (I think). To do.
30 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  contract-all button. To do.
29 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  expand-all button. To do.
28 03/01/02 Bug newlib-1.9.0
DO-178B
documentation
The RSC issues described in N8110.97 need to be covered. To do.
27 03/01/02 Issue Do178Builder .template.xml should account for the RSC issues described in FAA notice 8110.97.  Thanks to Jeff Knickerbocker for calling N8110.97 to my attention. To do.
26 03/01/02 Bug Do178Builder There seem to be circumstances in which adding a new record does not automatically add all of the sub-records. Fixed 03/28/04.  The odd thing about this is that all of the correct code was in place, but enough was commented out to make sure that only the first child of any given item actually appeared.  I suspect it was done deliberately, but I don't know why.
25 02/25/02 Bug Do178Builder The graphic for the title page is not implemented correctly. Bug.  Fixed 02/25/02.
24 02/25/02 Issue Do178Builder At first I thought the notion of having a single version number for all documents was good, but now I'm not sure how acceptable it will be for most people. As of 11/10/03, each of the output documents can have its own revision code and document number.
23 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder How come there are no "maximize" and "minimize" buttons on the editor window border?   To do.
22 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  an integrated Replace function. Thinking about it.
21 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  an integrated spelling checker. Thinking about it.
20 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Nice to have:  a facility within Do178Builder, or a standalone utility, for comparing two different versions of the XML and providing a new version with the changes highlighted. As of version 11/10/03, the Sections.log file is provided when SGML is built, and the output files are separated by date (by day, anyway) as well as project name.  These two changes provided almost everything needed for decent change tracking.  However, it would still be nice to integrate it into the GUI somehow.

12/17/05.  Look at this workaround.  While it may be a "workaround", I find it so intensely satisfying that I'm perfectly happy to retire this problem report.
19 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder I get error messages from db2ps when I use <ForeignPhrase> markup.  To do.  Fixed 02/25/02.
18 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Where graphics are inserted, a file dialog for selecting them would be nice. Thinking about it.
17 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Allowing markup in item titles would be useful -- for example, for code (like function names) used in section headings. Thinking about it.
16 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder Noted an instance (in the Linux PPC version) in which clicking a choice in the "Expert" dropdown list displayed garbage in the editor text control.  (Went away when redrawn, though.) To do.
15 02/24/02 Issue Do178Builder I think an "undo" (or at least, "delete markup")  capability would be very useful. Thinking about it.
14 02/18/02 Issue Do178Builder The editor dialog should automatically size itself upon creation to fill a goodly portion of the screen. To Do.
13 02/17/02 Bug Do178Builder
Win32 version
When adding markup to the text control, the markup is not added to the clipboard properly.  Instead, the last thing added to the clipboard appears a markup. Fixed 02/18/02.
12 02/17/02 Bug Do178Builder
Win32 version
The document-applicability and control-category graphics are not redrawn when selecting a new outline item.  They are not redrawn unless the window is resized. Fixed 02/18/02.
11 02/17/02 Bug Do178Builder
Win32 version
When the editing window is manually resized, the hotbutton area over the text control is not redrawn properly. To do.
10 02/17/02 Issue Do178Builder
Win32 version
The executable is huge when built with mingw32.  (2.1M as opposed to 290K Linux versions.)
Update:  Using the strip command supplied with mingw32 reduces the executable to about 1.1M. 
Look into building with free Borland C++.
9 02/17/02 Bug Do178Builder Well, now that I can get an XML file loaded from the command line, I don't know how to call up the editing dialog automatically.  *Sigh*. To do.
8 02/16/02 Issue Do178Builder Need to allow the Do178Builder window to be resized. Fixed 02/17/02.
7 02/16/02 Issue Do178Builder Require online help. To do.
6 02/16/02 Issue Do178Builder The "search" and "search again" hot-buttons are not yet functional. To do.
5 02/16/02 Issue Do178Builder Oddly, I forgot to have any way to load the dataset from the command-line, and force you to load it interactively from the menu. Fixed 02/17/02.
4 02/12/02 Issue Do178Builder Need a conversion tool for translating XML formats from one version of Do178Builder to the next. To do.  (Not a problem yet.)
3 02/12/02 Issue Do178Builder May need to invent an actual DTD (rather than just .template.xml) for the Do178Builder XML project files to avoid being socially ostracized. Investigate
2 02/12/02 Issue Do178Builder The built-in text editor is not adequately WYSIWYG.  I don't believe that including DocBook markup tags directly in the text is user-friendly enough. Awaits a rich-text editor widget in wxWindows (and a rationale for visually indicating many of the allowed markups).
... or switching to Qt.
1 02/12/02 Bug Do178Builder Character-entity references for '&', '<', and '>' are not correctly interpreted on reading the XML file. Fixed 02/17/02.



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