Bug fixing in Construct Classic

I'm interested in learning some debugging skills and figured fixing bugs in Construct Classic might be a good idea.

Problem is there are no instructions on building the Construct Runtime (that I've found)...also no information on debugging plugins. For example, I built plugins in debug mode and then executed them, when they crashed I selected Visual Studio to debug but it didn't have source level debugging so it was too hard to determine what caused the crash.

Rojohound or Ashley, can somebody write out a short how to on how to fix bugs?

If so then I might take some "simple" bug fix requests as I learn about troubleshooting C++ code. This would mean fairly simple .caps that crash construct regularly. Odd memory leaks are probably outside my skillset right now.

Questions for users...are there simple bugs you want fixed?

Question for community devs...are you still fixing bugs?

hey scidave. as far as debugging plugins, run the preview with the debug version of the plugin. and while it's running, before it crashes, you go into visual studio, and under debug on the menu select Attach to Process, and attach it to the temp.exe. you can click to the left of any line of code to add a breakpoint where the execution of the program will pause, and you can examine the contents of variables.

also, in general, for many bugs, you don't need the debugger, you can examine the incorrect behavior, and figure out where it might be happening, and find an error in the logic of the code.

oh, and as far as whether I'm still fixing bugs. no. not for now, not having profUIS prevented me from trying to fix a few bugs I was interested in fixing, also, it's going to be a while before I have time to attempt any fixes. but i'll gladly answer any questions about how something in the sdk works if I see them posted.

What version of Prof UIS is required to build the full version of Construct?

As a test, I D/L the Prof UIS trial and tried it with VS2010, but it didn't compile <img src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0" align="middle" />   I guess you must need the full version.

++EDIT++

Just one error left, but can't seem to fix it, Prob cause you need the professional verion of Prof UIS(maybe):

"c:\program files\scirra\construct\ide\bars\propertiesbar.h: error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'pMalloc'"

To build the runtime you'll need:

DirectX August 2008 SDK

To build the IDE you'll need:

DirectX August 2008 SDK

Profuis 2.84

The free version of profuis won't work since doesn't have all the features that the professional version has.

The runtime solution has a lot more choices than just release and debug, here are basic three that are used:

DX9 this is the runtime used when exporting to exe.

DX9_p this one is used when previewing.

DX9_pd   this is used when previewing with construct's debugger.

To build the runtime with python scripting you need to uncomment "#define PYTHON" in stdafx.h and rename the built exe's to DX9_s, DX9_ps and DX9_pds.

To build the runtime with python scripting you need to uncomment "#define PYTHON" in stdafx.h and rename the built exe's to DX9_s, DX9_ps and DX9_pds.

I won't be building the runtime anytime soon, but I am curious, what do you mean? does this mean when a cap has python enabled, it loads that alternate build/exe? or do you mean something else entirely?

Might check out the Canvas object.

It still doesn't scale correct, something to do with the nonexistent hotspot... I think, and "draw point" skips entire rows, and columns... related perhaps.

> To build the runtime with python scripting you need to uncomment "#define PYTHON" in stdafx.h and rename the built exe's to DX9_s, DX9_ps and DX9_pds.

I won't be building the runtime anytime soon, but I am curious, what do you mean? does this mean when a cap has python enabled, it loads that alternate build/exe? or do you mean something else entirely?

Different exe's are used when python is enabled.

Question for community devs...are you still fixing bugs?

At present, not really. I lost my pc and most of my data, and on my new pc I haven't installed anything but Construct, Gimp, Reaper and Wavosaur yet. Until Visual Studio and SVN are installed I browse through the code if I stumble over issues, and try to isolate the problem, but I'm not actively fixing it myself. Also, without profuis I concentrate on plugins and behaviors, as far as they are on svn. I think another one willing to own profuis to support rojo in improving the IDE would help tremendously.