Existing users, 
LED Spectrum Analyser
iTunes visualizer
Version: 2.0.6
What's going on here?
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: Ptrix Wednesday, June 09 2004 @ 12:38 PM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: 1-6 months
Recommend Product: YES
I thought version 2.0.4 was great when i had it running on my mac running Jaguar, and i was REALLY looking forward to installing this update, but it doesn't work. That's no problem, but what i DO take issue with, is that 2.0.4 is NO LONGER AVAILABLE for download from VT or the author's website, and him saying that "oh, it's not my software, it's the OS's fault" is a major cop-out and a disappointment for me. i'm no software developer, but it shouldn't be too much trouble to go through your code, and isolate the source of the problem. if it is indeed something with 10.2, than figure out some kind of workaround for it. Oh yeah, a few more things: (1) PLEASE make the previous version available again, and (2) DON'T describe 2.0.5 as being compatible with 10.2 and higher when that isn't the case. it's blatantly dishonest and misleading. i'll still recommend this itunes visualizer to others, as i am a fair person, and i do enjoy it, but please take my comments into consideration.
What's going on here? - Graham Cox
Ok, let's deal with your complaints one at a time.First, the 2.0.4 version is available from the homepage. If the link isn't showing up, make sure your browser isn't caching an old version.
Secondly, yes it seems so easy to "isolate the problem". I wish it were that simple, I would have fixed it like a shot - it certainly doesn't do me any good to have software that doesn't do what it's intended to do. The fact is that debugging iTunes plug-ins is not possible, because if iTunes detects a debugger targeted on its code, it refuses to run. Apple have done this to make reverse engineering of the iTunes Music Store stuff difficult, but a side effect is that it makes plugin development difficult as well. Since I can't debug directly, I have to resort to old-fashioned detective work. Here, Apple also doesn't help because they do not mark which APIs are specific to which OS version, and the feature in Xcode that checks this compatibility is non-functional. OK, so I can resort to logging error output to isolate the faulty code - no dice, iTunes doesn't even get as far as loading the plugin, and I have no way to see its source code to figure out why it does that. Now given this scenario, I'd love you to tell me how to proceed?
As it happens I have some help forthcoming from Apple on this, but it's hardly their top priority. As soon as I have a fix it will be updated.
Finally, I take exception to my honesty being called into question. If you check through the comments on this topic you will have already seen several replies from me stating that 2.0.5 is currently not working on Jaguar systems. This is not some attack on Jaguar users, I would love it to work for you, and in time I guarantee it will. In the meantime, please use 2.0.4.
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Thursday, June 10 2004 @ 01:08 AM PDT