Issues for Public Beta

[Steve Sisak]

Now that (hopefully) the serial number code is updated so that new 
1.2 purchases will get a new serial number and it's possible to turn 
off 1.1 serial number support in the future, I'd like to get the 
driver out to a public beta.

(I've been trying to keep the current beta relatively hidden until 
it's ready for public consumption to avoid support time swamping out 
development time)

I'd like to take a moment to ask everyone to let me know of any 
issues that need to be fixed before:

   1) A general public beta
   2) 1.2 final release

Keep in mind that there will certainly be a 1.2.1, etc. which will be 
free updates -- I'd like to nail down what's needed to get a solid 
update out that works on Leopard and is stable.

FireWire on Leopard is looking to be a problem -- my recollection is 
that on Tiger, PowerPC and Intel used separate code bases and Leopard 
unifies these using the Intel code base as a starting point.

This means that the problem I'm seeing on Leopard/PPC is likely to be 
the same issue I was seeing on Intel which is that some of the old 
APIs (legacy DCL) appear to be broken.

My choices here are:

1) Debug the existing code (which is really old and complicated to 
preserve compatibility with Mac OS X 1.2) and/or get Apple to fix the 
bug in legacy DCL support.

2) Rewrite the FireWire core to use the current (NuDCL) APIs.

Given that the amount of work is probably equivalent and that there 
are significant performance improvements to be had by using the NuDCL 
API, my inclination it to go ahead with 2).

The downside is that this will delay release, probably require 10.3.9 
and drop compatibility with PCI-Lynx controllers (NuDCL requires an 
OHCI controller) -- which would be the built-in interface on 
Blue&White G3's and PCI-video G4's.

(I'm guessing that this is a reasonable compromise)

Unless I can find an obvious problem with Firewire on PPC+Leopard, I 
think it makes sense to hold off the FireWire work for 1.2.1 and get 
1.2 out for USB on all platforms -- especially since Apple provides a 
free IIDC driver that supports all the same devices minus some of the 
Bayer Industrial cameras.

For Industrial applications, there will be a big benefit to the code 
rewrite (less copying of large data, much better handling of 
single-frame triggering) and those applications can typically specify 
particular hardware/OS and stick to PPC/Tiger for a few months.

So, here's my list of what I know needs to be fixed for public beta 
and 1.2 release -- please let me know of any critical issues you may 
have and also any minor, but easy to fix issues such as incorrect 
URLs or documentation errors>

For Public Beta:

   1) Double install bug (have to reinstall if you get "no cameras")

   2) Crash when increasing video frame size.

For 1.2 Release:

   1) Upgrade purchase support

   2) Serial number upgrade mechanism for recent purchase

For 1.2.1 Release:

   1) Firewire on Leopard/Intel

Please let me know if you have any critical issues -- I'm going to go 
back through all of the bug reports to see if I can find any others.

-Steve
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_________________________________________________________________________
Steve Sisak, CTO                                 steve.sisak at ioxperts.com
IOXperts, Inc.                                     voice: +1 617 876-2572
87 Bristol St #3A                                    fax: +1 617 876-2337
Cambridge, MA 02139                               mobile: +1 617 388-6476