Roy Ratcliffe - Watchtower Library

Work in Progress

2010-05-11T18:52:00Z

Sorry for the lack of progress lately. I’ve been quite busy. And so haven’t found too much time for developing the next version of Watchtower Library for Mac.

I’ve been working mainly on the Asian input-method problem. Problem understates the issue: there is no Asian input. Poor users wanting to enter Chinese, Japanese or Korean search terms have to enter the text in a text editor then copy-and-paste the text into the box. That just is not good.

Unfortunately, the solution is not readily forthcoming. Wine depends on X11. X11 and Mac do not play nicely when it comes to the Apple Input Method interface. This is my work in progress.

There are other things to work on: printing and other language translations. Sander Wessel has kindly offered to do a Dutch translation. That adds another useful language. Please let me know if you want to customise the app for your own language.

Is there anything else that you can think of? I’ve been looking at the websites. A forum would be handy. I’m currently moving my sites over to Heroku and the cloud. So I hope they will become a little more ‘available’ and reliable.

X11User.pkg missing on Snow Leopard

2010-01-12T17:35:00Z

Thanks to Tony Balaski of Toronto, a curious issue relating to X11 has come to light. X11User.pkg (i.e. X11 user package) may be missing on some Snow Leopard machines! This may apply, in particular, to machines upgraded to Snow Leopard.

The problem

You might find that although you think you have X11 installed, some Snow Leopard machines may not have X11 correctly or entirely installed.

This creates a small dilemma. Xquartz does not have a version compatible with Snow Leopard yet. If you try to install version 2.3.3.2, the closest version to the Apple version, the installer complains about OS version and will exit. And on top of that, Apple do not provide a link to Snow Leopard’s X11User.pkg on their website—or at least I haven’t been able to find one.

The solution

Locate and insert your Snow Leopard installation DVD. Select Optional Installs then check X11. This installs X11User.pkg containing the necessary X11 components for OS X 10.6.

Emergency

If you’re having problems, can’t find the installation DVD, please feel free to contact me via iChat at royratcliffe (AIM account) or royratcliffe@jabber.org (Jabber acount).

Mac-using Witnesses

2010-01-05T16:21:00Z

Since September 2009, the website has seen Watchtower Library for Mac downloaded 7,747 times. I’ve been thinking about what this means.

There are a number of explanations. One might be that there is only one person using the software, and he or she has clicked download 7,747 times just for fun. That is possible, but not likely! Strangely, by the way, the download counter for version 1.2 keeps ticking upward, even though a more recent version of the app (1.3) became available in mid-December.

I originally estimated only 700 Mac-using brothers and sisters based on a finger-in-the-air ratio of 1-in-1000 brothers using computers together with an assumption about Apple’s 1-in-10 share of the OS market. See Vision Statement. These assumptions were wrong on two counts.

First, there must be more than 1-in-1000 brothers and sisters using computers. Our own congregation in Lancaster ordered 26 Watchtower Libraries, 2009 edition. Out of 76 publishers, that gives a ratio of 34.2% or just over a third, 1-in-3. Can we assume that this ratio holds worldwide? Probably not. But without other data, let’s make an assumption that much less than half of that say 10% have a computer.

Second likely-wrong assumption: that the 10% Apple share holds for Witnesses. Reality is likely to be a smaller share, I guess, because most might opt for Windows-based machines because they want to use the library in its native environment. Hence brothers will have all the other reasons for choosing Windows shared with non-Witnesses, plus one more special reason. So the Mac-to-PC ratio might be more like 5% in favour of Microsoft rather than 10%. Let’s assume this is true for argument’s sake.

If 1-in-10 Witnesses use computers then there are about 7.3 million times 10% giving 730,000 “theocratic” computers of one kind or another. If 5% of those run OS X, then there should be about 36,500 Mac-using Witnesses world-wide. Could that be true, I wonder? Somehow I doubt it based on the circa 8,000 downloads. At least one of the ratios must be much smaller than estimated. But if so, which: the theocratic computer ratio, or the Apple ratio, or both? Else, perhaps the remainder use CrossOver, VMware or Parallels!

Mysterious problems with CD-ROMs

2010-01-05T11:25:00Z

Quite a few brothers and sisters have been experiencing somewhat mysterious problems. These include, but not limited to,

The Setup.exe installer program taking a very long time to complete before finally spitting out code-like messages!
Messages from the library itself saying, either
- “Watchtower Library has experienced a problem and cannot continue,” or
- “The program WTLibrary.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience!”
Crashing when you try to view the Good Land brochure!

What to do

If you experience installation problems or even post-installation issues, please try someone else’s CD-ROM, i.e. someone who has successfully installed the library.

Sometimes the combination of one particular CD-ROM and one particular DVD or CD drive gives rise to unusual errors. So you might also try creating a Disk Image on another machine (for personal use only of course). Then use the image with the machine that you’re having troubles with.

Installer Splash

2009-12-22T15:27:00Z

A kind brother tactfully brought something to my attention this afternoon. Watchtower Library for Mac installer uses the official library splash screen. Never thought about this before, but it makes it look official, which of course it isn’t! Didn’t think about that, funnily enough. Silly me. London branch wisely advise discretion.

So here’s the plan: change it! Big question is, What to?

Suggestions

What should the installer display?

A picture of a library?
My smiling face? (No!)
Nothing?
Any other ideas?

Mockup

Here’s a quick mockup using the old Watchtower library for Mac icon; originally built using a 3D render of books skinned with textures from photos of actual books from our library. But is this overstepping legal requirements too? I wonder.

Feedback very welcome

Please post any comments or feedback below.

Better still, if you are a talented artist please feel free to post me a design for inclusion in the next version (probably 1.3.1). Of course, all the usual caveats apply: no Watchtower or open-Bible symbols; it should keep clear of infringing the society’s legal requirements and those of others too. Please refer to Kingdom Ministry April 2009, p. 4 Question box.

Installing 2009 edition

2009-12-15T19:54:00Z

Here are some notes about installing the new 2009 edition of Watchtower Library with the new version of Watchtower Library for Mac 1.3.

Be patient

It takes a little time to install. If it looks like it’s doing nothing, please wait. It will eventually complete the installation successfully. The progress bar sits still for a while. It only looks like it’s hung. The whole process takes about five minutes on a MacBook.

The right order

Note, you cannot run Setup.exe off the CD-ROM and run a library at the same time! This makes sense. The installer will make changes to the software. Hence you need to close down libraries before installing new ones.

Explicitly, the install order should proceed as follows.

Run Watchtower Library for Mac without the new CD-ROM in the tray;
close any open library editions;
insert the new CD-ROM.

If you have the CD-ROM in the tray before running Watchtower Library for Mac, the app will notice the CD-ROM and automatically run Setup.exe. It tries to be helpful! But in this case, if your Watchtower Library for Mac auto-launches libraries, it tries to run set-up and existing libraries at the same time at launch time. Is this making sense? In that case, close the warning message, close the running libraries then manually launch Setup.exe by dragging it to the Watchtower Library for Mac dock icon.

Uninstalling the old version

The easiest way is to insert the 2008 CD-ROM. Again, you need to shut down any running libraries first. The installer will find the version already installed and ask if you want to uninstall.

Will I loose my Research Favourites?

No.

Cross-compiling blues

2009-11-06T17:56:00Z

Yet another version 1.2.5. But this time it works on Leopard 10.5.8, at long last.

Latest Leopard

Note that you likely need to upgrade your Leopard box to at least 10.5.7. This happens automatically via Apple’s Software Update tool. Hence I’ll assume that all the Leopard users have 10.5.7 or 10.5.8 installed.

The problem was persisting

I got close with 1.2.4 but not close enough. Some of the DLL files for Wine still throw up the mysterious “unknown required load command 0×80000022” error when you launch the app. You can find this message in the Console log.

However, with help from Derrick Workman of Colorado, we’ve managed to narrow it down further. Now there is a version which does in fact run properly on Leopard 10.5. Please try it out. Please let me know if you have any problems.

Default X11 with Leopard works fine

One thing I noticed during testing: You can run with Leopard’s standard X11. You do not need to install XQuartz at all. If you install the standard X11 and let Software Update upgrade the X11 software to its latest version (actually XQuartz 2.1.6 with xorg-server version 1.4.2-apple33) all is well. Useful to know.

Pre-release version 1.2.4

2009-11-05T14:09:00Z

UPDATE! Please use later version 1.2.5.

Since upgrading my build machine to Snow Leopard 10.6, quite a few users have reported crashing issues when running on Leopard. Version 1.2 of Watchtower Library for Mac was compiled on a Leopard machine, but later versions on Snow Leopard (starting at version 1.2.1).

I started working on improvements for Greek keyboard support and limitations on number of library editions running at once. I managed to fix both problems, but along the way introduced a new one.

Apologies

It was a mistake with my compile tools options for Wine and its dependencies when running on 10.6. Sorry!

Geek moment: Skip this boring bit, if you don’t want the unnecessary details. The problem I found was with the linker options. LDFLAGS (loader flags) passed to GNU auto-tools needed to include the SDK specification, i.e.

-isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5
-mmacosx-version-min=10.5

Without these in LDFLAGS, only in CFLAGS, the make tools compile for 10.5 but link against 10.6, the default. Result? Launch failure.

Try out version 1.2.4

Please try out this latest version. I’m really interested in hearing from users running on Leopard especially. Does it run without issue? You can find the download in the usual Files location, or direct link here.

Embedded framework

Along the way, I’ve embedded the framework within the app. Hence you no longer need to install a framework. All the Unix bits and pieces live in a fully relocatable way within the app bundle. Delete the app, you delete the framework too. This simplifies the installation procedure and obviates any version mismatch problems.

If it works out, I’ll bump 1.2.4 to version 1.3 and do another Disk Image.

Snow Leopard to Leopard (in)compatibility

2009-11-02T10:10:00Z

I met up with Jens Isoaho in northern Sweden (Finnish congregation) via iChat this morning. Thanks for your kind assistance Jens!

He’s running on Leopard 10.5 with the same problems as many have been seeing. The app crashes with a report about “unknown required load command 0×80000022”. It’s looking like a developer tools issue. I build Watchtower Library for Mac using the latest developer tools from Apple on a Snow Leopard box. Despite compiling the software against 10.5 SDK, there is something going awry.

Until I figure out where exactly the problem lies and how to fix it, Jens and I have found out the following steps to put you back on track.

Solution for Leopard 10.5 users

So here’s a fix until I iron out the incompatibilities. Run version 1.2; this version was built on Leopard.

Delete the old framework first

Navigate in Finder to /Library/Frameworks and delete the folder called Watchtower.framework. Drag it to Trash.

(The framework package does not downgrade. This won’t be an issue in future versions since the framework embeds within the app bundle.)

Download and install version 1.2

Download here if you do not already have 1.2. Install the framework, having deleted the old first in the previous step. Drag the app to Applications. It should now launch and run normally.

Assumptions

I assume that these problems effect 10.5 users only, but is my assumption correct? Has anyone seen crashing issues on 10.6?

Looking for testers for v1.2.3

2009-11-01T19:10:00Z

I’m on the lookout for tester for version 1.2.3. Ideally, someone who knows their way around Leopard or Snow Leopard, someone who doesn’t mind reporting bugs and fiddling.

Version 1.2.3 includes

Two important updates, as follows.

Fix for limitation on number of running libraries.
Single monolithic app bundle; you no longer need a separate framework package.

The first item will fix Helge’s problem. He wants to run three different libraries at the same time. The second item should simplify the installation for all users: no more external framework dependency. The app embeds the framework.

Where to download

The usual place. It’s just a zip file at the moment. No fancy disk image. Just unzip and run. Nothing else required.

No Disk Image background on Leopard 10.5

2009-10-29T21:45:00Z

Some have been having a little problem installing Watchtower Library for Mac. The message appearing in the Console message log concerns “not finding an image” in libwine. This sounds like the Watchtower Framework has not been installed. Installation has two phases: first the framework, second the application.

So I did an experiment. I downgraded my laptop to 10.5, erasing any previous hard disk contents. So I then had a plain old Leopard 10.5 machine, no upgrades, just what the installation disk provides. Then I downloaded the disk image. It automatically download and displayed, to my surprise, its contents as follows.

The background image does not display. The background should explain the two-step instructions. Also, the icons do not have the correct size and position. It’s as if Disk Images (dmg files) created by Snow Leopard do not display correctly on the older version of OS X.

After some fiddling, I can confirm this is true. So I created a new disk image for version 1.2.2 on the Leopard machine and tried opening this on Snow Leopard—no problem at all. So it seems that 10.6 lacks some backward compatibility in the disk-image creation area!

Could this be the problem that some have been having? If so, try downloading the new Leopard-built disk image and following the installation instructions. Make sure the Watchtower Framework has been installed before launching the application. It cannot run without it.

Website organisation revisited

2009-10-22T12:35:00Z

Order is a good thing (1 Co 14:33).

Rachel and I have been talking recently about how users can find instructions and help for installing Watchtower Library on their Macs.

Rachel felt that if she was confronted by the weblog-style information at www.royratcliffe.me.uk, she would easily become confused and overwhelmed. Some of the pages carry more than 50 comments. Would a user want to wade through all that before finding the help they need? Simple answer is no. Hence, similar questions often reoccur; posting to the bottom is easier than reading through volumes of other questions and answers.

So we’ve been working on a special new corner of the site at wtlib4mac.royratcliffe.me.uk dedicated to simple straightforward help. It includes questions and answers in places easy to find, search facility, video walkthroughs, etc. Currently it is a work-in-progress. Still, your feedback is welcome.

Greek oops, new version 1.2.2

2009-10-21T20:56:00Z

My appologies to those who have downloaded the previous version (1.2.1). I made a silly mistake. The Watchtower.framework build for version 1.2.1 does not have the native Copy patch. This means that those who have Greek keyboard support working will also find that unfortunately Ctrl+C does not work.

New version 1.2.2 includes the native clipboard patch. My bad. I’m not quite sure how I managed to miss that. I was upgrading Wine versions for the new release and somehow managed to skip the Copy patch. Guess my subtitle is coming true: Sorry for the inconvenience! There have only been 118 downloads thus far for that versions, so hopefully not too much inconvenience created.

How to upgrade

Download, install the new framework (1.1.31) and drop the new app into Applications.

Greek keyboard fix

2009-10-09T15:25:00Z

For the Greek-speaking Mac-using brothers and sisters, those who need the Greek keyboard fixing, I’ve released version 1.2.1 (build 257a515a)!

You can download the package by clicking the image above, or from the usual place. You only need to install the Watchtower Framework and application—versions 1.1.30 and 1.2.1 respectively.

Please let me know if this version fixes the keyboard for Greek users. As far as I can test on my machine, it works. You can now enter all the Greek letters: pi, lambda, mu, etc.

Localisation

At present there is no localisation for Greek. If anyone wants to localise the application please let me know.

If you are not a Greek user

Please do not upgrade to version 1.2.1 yet! Stick with version 1.2 until the later version has been thoroughly checked out. I want to make sure that other keyboards still work, as well as the Greek!

Conflict with CrossOver 7.1.0 or older

2009-09-11T07:06:00Z

Just a quick note from Tracy Faulk regarding a possible conflict with CrossOver. He writes:

If users have CrossOver version 7.1.0 or older they will need to upgrade to a newer version. If they install X11 with an older version of CrossOver the application will open and then immediately close. The CrossOver support team notes,

“XQuartz 2.3.3.2 changed a component (quartz-wm) on which CrossOver relies such that it doesn’t work. We released CrossOver 7.1.2 back in May to address this incompatibility. Of course, we’ve also released CrossOver 8 since then, too.”

I installed the latest version of CrossOver (8.0) and your latest package on the same machine with no conflicts or problems. However, as noted, if a user has version 7.1.0 or older there will be a conflict—not with your package, but rather with X11.

How to resolve the conflict

I’d suggest installing X11 on Leopard 10.5 machines and also upgrading your CrossOver (free download for registered users with a valid serial number) plus you don’t need to re-install any CrossOver apps you may be running. I have your package of Watchtower Library for Mac and the CrossOver installation of Watchtower library running side by side with no problems (on Leopard 10.5) after I upgraded the CrossOver version.

Thanks and hope this helps!