Zugg Software :: View topic - [3.29] (BUG) Adding a Key to a Record Variable breaks Nested Lists

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

This is a really odd bug, but I've finally found it. I'm going to try and reproduce it with a simpler test script soon so that you guys can try and get it to reproduce soon.

These settings:

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Running:
#show %dbkeys( afw_list)

gives me:
spell|maled

Something is really wrong here. However, if it's corruption, it doesn't explain why it happens on even new instances of the settings (aka deleting them, using a working settings and modifying from there).

This baffles me completely.

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

I'm having difficulty getting a "fresh" db variable with a different name to break in the same manner. But I'm unsure of what would be specifically a problem with the db variable posted (afw_list) which would cause it to break when a new key is added.

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:38 pm

You don't even need to add a new key like "alias". Just editing anything in the @afw_list variable will cause the problem. The Variable Editor was not really intended to handle nested elements like this and I'm not exactly sure what is messing it up, but I will try to look into this so the editor will not screw up the variable.

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Any idea why it's happening to this variable and not others?

I've always been a fan of being able to use nested elements for consolidation of variables. I spent probably 5 or 6 hours on Friday (or Saturday, forget which) redoing the entire script so that it could use those two variables in the package. I didn't have to change @afw_set really, but afw_list is entirely new, and essentially every key in that variable was its own standalone variable before. I favor such an approach over having 20 variables, personally, but perhaps nested records are not really meant to be used as such?

Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:18 pm

It's just related to the exact structure of the nested data within the variable. I haven't found the exact problem yet, so I don't really know for sure.

Your use of the database records is just fine. It's just that the Variable Editor was never meant to handle nested variables. This wasn't a problem with CMUD itself didn't handle nested variables. With the improvement to using nested variables, the Variable Editor really needs a complete rewrite to be more of a tree-based hierarchical view, but that's not getting done in time for this public version.

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Well, I thank you for looking into this, and it will certainly be interesting to see what you can add when you move on to the next version (beyond the public release). Of course the key is knowing that the way I've used them is fine. Even though it may not be how others will setup their variables, it's how some might, and how I've been progressing in my scripting and I certainly should know if that's going to be a negative way to progress. Let me know if I can help isolate this issue for you at all, it's been something which has been awfully difficult for me to replicate, which is why I haven't yet posted a simplified script to reproduce it.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

If it is the Variable Editor that is the problem, you should be able to edit your variable using code instead.

Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

Nope, updating it via #ADDKEY still breaks the variable. You can test it if you want Confused

Edit: Odd, now it works...

Edit2: Well, adding it via script works. Adding it through the editor still doesn't, but at least I can add it via script.