Q Light Controller+

I wanted to offer a suggestion that QLC+ should consider offering Stable and Beta releases. There are lots of other software programs out there which do this - and it makes for a much nicer user experience. The idea is that, when you think you've got a perfect program ready for release, you instead release it as a "beta" version, and ask real-world people to test it and report back within 5 days. They then report back on the 3 or 4 things you accidentally broke and somehow missed during your alpha test period, so that you fix them, and release a new beta version right away. No new features should be introduced in the betas - those stay in your git versions. Once you've released a beta and nobody has found any bugs in it, you can then convert it over to a stable release.

Given that QLC+ is frequently used to control a key part of public performances, it is pretty crazy to even consider using "beta" software! However, that's pretty much what keeps getting released. Every new release fixes one thing, and breaks something else, and then we have to wait another month or two for the fix.

For example, I'm stuck on 4.6.0 because 4.6.1 broke the ability to make collections, a key feature that I require in my workflow. I wish I could upgrade, because 4.6.0 broke the ability to control VC widgets in audio triggers, but fixed an issue with saving other settings for audio triggers that was broken in the release before that. The bugs just go on and on, and there's no stable release that doesn't have a major know (and often fixed in development releases) bug in some major component of the software.

Hello Travis,
I am aware about what you say, and I am sorry about it. It's annoying for me too to release a new feature and then after 2 days find there is something broken in the new version.

The problem here is time. It is always time.
The alpha-beta-stable cycle you talk about is probably referred to commercial softwares, where they mostly have a QA team dedicated to tests only.
How many (small) open source softwares do you know that are able to apply that release method ?

If you remember, I tried to make a beta with 4.4.0 then I let one month to pass. Do you think I had enough feedback to release a perfect 4.4.0 ? No.

Every release now gets thousands of downloads, but in this forum there are always the same people (and thanks to them !) reporting issues (which I can understand, reproduce and fix) and they are around 10.

QLC+ runs on different operating systems, different hardwares and each user makes a different use of it. You understand it's very hard for me to test EVERYTHING every time I want to release a new version.
I try to write the code and test it at my best, but obviously I am not a robot (yet), so imperfections slip in very easily.

Also, QLC+ is open source, so when you use, you take it "as it is". Do you think KDE or Ardour or VLC don't suffer from bugs from version to version ?
I understand QLC+ is meant to be used in public, but no one forces you to necessarily use the latest version.

I would LOVE to be able to gather a stable group of people to build up a QA team, so I can concentrate on development and they only do tests.
This hasn't happened yet because it seems nobody in the world has spare time.

To conclude. There is a workaround for the collection issue:
https://sourceforge.net/p/qlcplus/discu ... /ddd4bf9f/

If you use Linux, building QLC+ from GIT is very easy. If you see that a bug fundamental for you has been solved there, then build your own version. It takes 5 minutes.
And maybe you can help in QA this software...

Thanks for raising up this discussion.
I hope more people join this and give their availability to make tests.

Hello Massimo

I totally hear you in this Beta subject. I can imagine its frustrating. I am always thinking of new idea for this project and would like to help test and write versions and fix bugs. I am starting to learn how to use GIT. Code is rather new to me. Is there a tutorial you could recommend?

Hello Davey, I can't say I'm a GIT expert too. I just found GitHub is very good to work with.
I think there are plenty of GIT guides out there. Google is your friend.
For example this is very popular: http://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/

Basically if you want to test GIT versions on Linux, you just need to follow the simple steps of the wiki: https://github.com/mcallegari/qlcplus/w ... uild-HOWTO

There is only one GIT command to do. The rest is APT and make stuff.

Massimo, You're the man, don't do anything that slows you down!! You're cranking these releases out! This isn't commercial software.

I always test the next release before putting it in production just in case there is a bug that I can't work with. That's a small price to pay for this great software.

Yes, you're the man, for sure - and thanks to everybody else for this project.
Nevertheless, after all the development done in the past year, I also would wish a kind of "stable release".
I have to admit that I've been often in a situation like Travis Cook, waiting for the new release and then waiting for the GIT update.
Qlc+ has grown a lot and it's ready to be used in many different applications, so probably at this point it would be usefull to have a safe release, for everyone, with the new features added till now fixed, we could keep it as a rescue release for the future.
Since a while I was waiting for a kind of open source project like this and I'm very thankful for it, now it could be the time to establising it.
regards

Just an add to the topic: other professional lighting software have many bugs, and if you're using the linux version often you're a bit "behind".

Thanks guys. Here's my view again.
As you can see (except for the rain of issues people report) there are also lot of new ideas/requests.
So I have two options: implement them or ignore them.
The ones I choose to add might be trivial to code or might be a huge change to the QLC+ core. For example the live editing functionality has been quite a pain, but in the end it was something that QLC+ needed.
Do you guys know that live editing broke something in Show playback (so my band's project) that I am still trying to figure out how to solve ?

Now I am working on version 4.7.0, which implements infinite universes. I believe this is another "must have" for QLC+.
Obviously this will need a couple of cycles to become stable, but this time we've got the chance here, in this thread, to make together a good 4.7.0.

So, who wants to volounteer to help in beta testing ? I especially ask this to Linux users, cause they can easily checkout QLC+ from GIT and build it.

Please consider that tests should be done in general, not only for your personal usage of QLC+

Thanks !

You know I'll volunteer to beta test. Just last night I was looking into getting a build environment setup to be able to build from Git. I used to have it setup for QLC (even built it to run on a 32 bit only Core processor a couple of times) so I can definitely get it done again. It just takes me a bit to work out the dependencies.

Hi George, obviously I count on you !
I wanted to start with some Linux users first cause it's an easy process for debugging and feedbacks.
Since nobody is volounteering in that sense, I think I will end up building some previews for Linux-Win-Mac quite soon.

Massimo,
I have been setting up my dev environment in windows (including bleeding from the mouth)... Qt Creator 3.0/Qt5.2, Qt4.8.5, MinGw4.4, etc. Still not getting the Velleman or LibLo to work right. Maybe you have the 'modified' Velleman SDK?

If you recall, I am connecting a Tascam US2400 (25 moving sliders, 24 knobs, lots of buttons) to QLC+ using USB/Midi. I have a couple modifications to the midi plug-in that work on my end right now (about 5 lines of code). Taking my time to make sure I don't make any newbie mistakes.

So as of last-night I built from the master repository, added my changes, and everything I tried worked as expected. There are some build warnings, but 'developers at work'.

I certainly am not testing every function, but over the coming weeks, will be using most of them. Now with the environment setup, it is a 10 minute process to pull down the code, build, and run on Win7. (mostly waiting on the build).

So please count me as a "volunteer" on windows.

Bob

Hello Robert, that's very good news to hear. Thank you for that.
Currently the GIT code is in a fairly usable state. I have only one more big thing to add, but nothing that can compromise a project playback.

Please let me know if you find any major issue. When unsure, compare it with 4.6.1 so I will know if it is something introduced by the latest changes or if it was there before.

Thanks

hello

You know i will be testing for you. I am on windows but will be purchasing a Cubietruck soon which uses Linux so i can build easier and thus test so. I've been trying with windows and your right its messy.

Hi Davey, I'm sure QLC+ will work pretty well on the Cubietruck, but being an embedded platform I don't think it can be taken as reference for tests while the majority of users are on PCs.

QLC+ can be compiled on ARM but it's not the same thing as building it on a PC. You need a bit of experience in cross-compiling and it's not straight forward. I think another user (Sven Meier) is working on the Cubietruck so maybe he can help you when it's time.

By the way all these boards (Raspberry, Cubieboard) look very promising for quite cheap lighting solutions !
I would purchase them all if I only had the funds...

Massimo,

Do you want issue/bug reports here, or open an issue in github? I trip onto one every day right now it seems. I would call them 'qwerks' not 'bugs'.

Today I noticed the Multi-Universe (>4) loading only loads when loading a project, not at program start. The settings are stored in QSettings, so I assume you want these loading at program start. Will describe better when you tell me where to report...

Bob

Hi Robert, I recently added a forum for development related discussions.
You can post your findings there. Please specify the version (like 4.7.0 GIT)

Anyway, if I get it right, I think your assumption is wrong. Basically the IO mapping is now saved into projects. QLC+ defaults (QSettings) are only for backward compatibility and if you use QLC+ without a project loaded...but I doubt you can go very far with that. Maybe just for Simple Desk-ing...dunno.

Hi! I'm still relatively new to stage lighting, but I know Linux and git. I would like to offer my help as a tester, and perhaps once as a developer (but for now I don't have enough experience in C++).

I run Arch Linux on an Intel 3770K with 16GB of RAM, but I don't have a DMX dongle myself... Is that a problem?

Hello Evert, any help is appreciated !
But how can you do tests without a DMX dongle and some lights connected ?
I guess you can just test the stability in general ?

Indeed, that was what I was thinking... I guess I can't test the more hardware-related features, but when something doesn't work without dongle, I guess it would certainly not work with dongle.
Anyway, if I find some bug, you'll hear from me