Hello all,

I have received several problem reports about the back pants yokes in build 6.14. They are, indeed, not behaving properly and we will do a patch or replacement update or both in the next few days.

Thanks to all that reported it.

quote:

I have received several problem reports about the back pants yokes in build 6.14. They are, indeed, not behaving properly and we will do a patch or replacement update or both in the next few days.

Thanks to all that reported it.

I have a fix for this for anyone that needs pants yokes now or soon. There is a patch file at:

DS6.14 patch

The patch also makes the shanghai jacket get illustrated properly. So far, there have not been any other issues reported that can be traced to the program code. We will hold off changing the update or master and see if there are any other issues found.

Thanks to all that reported the pants yoke problem....

Yahoooooo, it works great now. Just wanted to thank you for the fix & also for being so prompt. Wow! But mine sure looked silly before the fix ggg.

Thanks for all your work & Happy Holidays.

Bobbieann

Bob- thank you for the fix,I thought i did something wrong with the yokes in pants lol.Great speed to getting the patch out thanks so much.

The link for the 6.14.exe patch appears to be broken. Is there something I am missing?

quote:

The link for the 6.14.exe patch appears to be broken. Is there something I am missing?

Maybe. Not sure what link you used. The one posted in the patch announcement is working. Here it is in a form you can just paste into your browser....


http://www.livingsoftnw.com/builds/DS6_14a_patch.exe

I downloaded the file, and unzipped it, is that all I need to do??
Diana in Utah-DS Pro 6.14
(my sig has not been updated)

yes, just make sure DS is closed when you download and unzip.
Kaaren

quote:

I downloaded the file, and unzipped it, is that all I need to do??

Well, presuming you are referring to the patch for 6.14 and further presuming that you had already installed the 6.14 update and further presuming that the patch installed into the proper folder, then yes, that is all you need to do.

You can see if it worked by doing two quick tests that the patch should have correct. First, draft a pair of fitted pants and add a yoke. If it looks like a semi-reasonable pattern, then that part works. The broken yoke was very obvious.

Second, save a pattern. If you can save at all, then that part of the fix is working for you.

If both of those tests are successful, then you have the latest and best installed and working.

I am still sitting with 6.13 waiting for the kinks to be worked out. I am to understand from your post that that has happened.
My question is do I need to download 6.14 BEFORE I click on the patch link or is the patch a full download update.
Duckie


Posted 22 November 2005 06:31 PM
quote:

http://www.livingsoftnw.com/builds/DS6_14a_patch.exe

Bob,
Thank You! I was referring to the 6.14 patch, and I had already installed 6.14. I guess I haven't downloaded very many patches, because I thought I needed to do something to install it, like when I download an update.
Thanks again!
Diana in Utah-off to bake some pies!

quote:

I am still sitting with 6.13 waiting for the kinks to be worked out. I am to understand from your post that that has happened.
My question is do I need to download 6.14 BEFORE I click on the patch link or is the patch a full download update.

Hi Duckie,

I heartily approve and recommend your approach of waiting a week or so after an update is out to be sure the kinks have been worked out. There are many that are willing to take it quick and early and help us insure that there are no buried surprises. But, there are equally many that take it early and are then upset when they run into something that was missed during testing.

The Dress Shop Family of products includes 60+ titles with 740 patterns and hundreds of millions of possible combinations of features, all of which can draft differently based on the measurements used. That leaves us with two choices for releasing updates and improvements:

1. Test them thoroughly and take however long it takes to be certain that every possible surprise has been found and corrected.

2. Test it as best we can with our limited resources, then release it when we think it is ready and depend upon early adopters to advise us if we missed anything. Then, fix those things quickly.

As you are well aware, we chose the second process and it has served the Dress Shop community well over the years. When a new update is exposed to several hundred people, each looking at different things, any issues that are not right with it tend to get reported very quickly. That does mean, though, that if you do not like seeing those flaws or being inconvenienced by them for a few days, that you should wait a week or two after an update is released to be sure there is nothing really unpleasant included.

The current update (6.14) appears to be one of the best we have ever had. Very few issues reported. The worst was the pants yoke not working properly and those that did not happen to be making pants with a yoke at this time would never have been aware of any problems at all.

But, I do think we have had too few reports (good or bad) from people at this time. Busy with the holiday preparations, perhaps. Or maybe there just are not many issues in the update. In any case, if you are of a cautious nature, I would recommend waiting till late next week, after Thanksgiving has passed and a few more people have used this update and commented on it one way or another.

I do believe it is very, very clean and that the most serious issues have already been found and addressed. But, I would not be surprised if there was some obscure issue that we have not heard about yet. Unless you need one of the changes included in the 6.14 update (the list is in the announcement for it), I would wait a bit longer.

Of course, the choice between living with the known problems that were corrected in the 6.13 version and are now corrected versus living with a different but unknonwn issue that is in the 6.14 version - well, perhaps the issues of new builds is less than the issues of old ones. You'll have to decide that one... ;-)

quote:

Thank You! I was referring to the 6.14 patch, and I had already installed 6.14. I guess I haven't downloaded very many patches, because I thought I needed to do something to install it, like when I download an update.

I'm sorry that I may have misunderstood your post, then. The patch DOES have to be installed. Both patches and updates are executable programs that will put files in the proper location on your own computer when you install them. They are NOT auto-installed on download. That would constitute a security risk that is highly discouraged by everyone. You have to choose to install both patches and updates.

So, after you have downloaded a patch, you must then "Open" or "Run" it (depends which Windows you are running). The difference is that updates and download masters use a program called InstallShield for the installation. That displays license information, checks your system for proper registration of the code (tells Windows where things are). It checks that the files being copied all have later dates that the files you already have. Lots of error checking there.

Patches, on the other hand, are WinZip files. WinZip is a simpler installation tool that does not set things up with Windows, does not check for later dates on the files being copied, etc. It just copies the files. This is fine if you are just putting modified versions of the same files into the same places on your computer. It is fine for bits of art and text changes and such. It does not create an uninstall option in your Windows tools for that purpose and does less hand holding than InstallShield does.

It is suitable for small changes.

Both updates and patches do need to be run to copy their files.

I hope this covers the differences better...

As the wife of a math teacher and a user of statistics, I can tell you, the number of permutations possible with the patterns in DS approaches infinity! So it would be impossible to test for EVERY POSSIBLE flaw or bug. That being said, we all become testers of the program, as well as users. Bob, you and Greg do the best you can to keep the program stable. We can do our part by using, reporting (properly with a problem report) and then waiting for a fix. We truly appreciate the work you two do. OK, off the soap box and back to the kitchen!