After some strange encounters, I've decided to make my own evaluation of Q3.1 Beta! Hope you like it Alex - it's all constructive critisism all for the further improvement of Quest and QDK! (And I want you all to discuss my little 'report' in the forum too!)

QUEST 3.1 & QDK 3.1 Beta (Build 3.1.129)

BUGS, ERRORS & SIMPLE MISTAKES

1. - When you try to print a message with just text formatting code in it, QDK automatically changes the action to 'Change The Font To' immediately when you press OK. Strangely sometimes, if you fiddle around with the print action for a while, it seems the bug seems to go away. Note also that if you type any alignment-type text formatting code the number '2' appears in the window, on the right hand side where it says [JUSTIFY:LEFT] - whether or not the bug is in action. I doubt this is a bug in itself - but I thought I'd mention it anyway, I'm curious as to what it means.

2. - Not essentially a bug, but I've noticed that if you have two types of Justify text formatting on one line it chooses one of them to use and doesn't take the other into consideration for the formatting of other lines - on SEPARATE actions to follow. For example, if you want to type APPLE and you want it to centre justified you type |jcAPPLE. But, there are other actions after that that may involve some sort of text action. So you want the other actions to be left justified. So you put a |jl on the end of |jcAPPLE, becoming |jcAPPLE|jl. Instead of making future actions that will run after this print message left justified it makes ALL the actions left justified! I know it's logical that you shouldn't put more than one justify text formatting code on a line - but how would you make future actions to be left justified, WITHOUT creating another line and adding the |jl there? I'm sorry, this may be kinda of confusing!

3. - QDK seems to change actions every now and then. It is VERY hard to explain how this happens as this is a complex kind of bug. Sometimes QDK changes an action to another action in it's category. But I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't change the action UNTIL YOU EDIT THE ACTION. This is kinda a broader bug, specifically active in bug number 1 and explained in more detail in bug number 7. Occaisonly, if you print a message (especially a message containing text formatting code) and you click OK, leave it and test it under Quest - it changes the action to 'Display A Text Block' or 'Change The Font To'.

4. - When making 'OUT' routes in QDK, it does not add the prefix to the room in the sentence that is displayed in Quest. Shouldn't QDK add the default prefix to the room, when you haven't typed your own custom one in yourself?

5. - In Quest, the 'Quick Help Guide' text is yellow against a white background making it hard to read.

6. - This has happened to my once only. All I had to do was exit Quest (QDK was still open) and a 'Run-Time' error appeared, number '380' (Invalid Property Value). I know the cause of the error, but why would you report a bug once you've quit the program?

7. - Do this and I gurantee you will get an error! First, in QDK, create a new game. Make a procedure and call it 'battle' (I doubt this as any bearing on the bug, but I just want you to do exactly what I did). In the procedure, make a command. Choose 'Clear The Game Window' and click OK. Now double-click the command you've just created. If you've followed my instructions to the letter, you should get an error message saying 'Subscript Out of Range: Run-Time Error 9. My whole thereoy on this is that whenever I create a command QDK changes it when I try to edit it. It is very weird and I've encountered it a lot!

SUGGESTIONS

1. - Add an 'edit' button when you're making and modifying 'go to...' places. When I say 'edit' I mean editing the room and prefix. Otherwise you have to delete the 'go to...' action and recreate one. In most circumstances this isn't a very big problem; you can easily recreate the 'go to..' action in two seconds. But for people who edit the actual script for their action, they will have to cut & copy the script when recreating their 'go to...' action. This is a small bit of pain, that can easily be fixed by adding an 'edit room/prefix' button in the room > exit window!

2. - More places to cut/copy/paste! You seem to have only implemented these extremely handy tools in the main QDK window and in the main action editing windows. There are some places you've forgotten to place the cut/copy/paste tools - editing in the menu window, procedure window, function window, etc, etc. If you can't add the cut/copy/paste buttons at least make a shortcut for the keyboard so cutting, copying, etc possible (CTRL + C, CTRL + V, etc).

3. - Make a shortcut to both QDK & QUEST to the desktop when someone first installs the application.

4. - Add a link to the Quest forum in the help file, advising users to go there if they still can't figure out their problem. That way, people who are still stuck can be lead to your forum for additional help!

5. - I think some people would be happier if Quest was more 'customizable'.

6. - Maybe add an 'action & condition' edit window in the 'Text Block' window? Some QDK users like myself, haven't a clue about ASL code so we would need this to add actions other than text (clear the game window, conditionals, changing variables, moving objects, the inventory, etc).

7. - I've suggested this before and this is very imporant - make sure fonts are already loaded before QDK is opened! That way, myself and others wouldn't have to wait 3-6 seconds for the 'Game Properties' to open! I don't know if you've remembered to put this is in your next update - so just incase I'm reminding you now.

8. - Can QDK Pro users look at other people's .CAS files? If they can, I suggest you make a password feature or something in the likes of that so everyone, including QDK pro users cannot look at other people's code!

9. - Simply, a better bug detection scheme. Although the one you've got is already quite sophisticated, the reporting of errors isn't done in a way that neccessarily helps the author correct his or her bug! I do not know whether or not you are able to modify Quest's error warnings but the windows that come up now aren't very helpful! Any old person wouldn't know what a 'Run-Time' error is or an 'Overflow' error is - so I suggest you make theses windows (if you can) more helpful suggesting ways to fix the bug, a better description of the bug and, if this is possible, the option of restarting (or even saving your asl file) in Quest or QDK instead of CLOSING it when you click OK. This is extremely annoying if you haven't saved and even if you have already - you've got to re-run the program again (and that is such a big thing to do for lazy people like me)! Bugs in asl scripts are, admit it or not, numerous in QDK and Quest and there should be a useful system to deal with them. I mean, have you ever made an IF game using QDK WITHOUT encountering an error?

10. - When opening .ASL or .CAS files in Quest the 'Open' window does not go straight to the Quest folder - it's default opening folder is 'My Documents'. To prevent users from having to painstakingly (yes, it is in some computers) to open the Quest folder from scratch - just simply make the Quest folder the opening folder!

11. - Make an FAQ to include in the help files. I am sure there are many questions about Quest and QDK - for some interesting ones check out the QUESTION section of this report. Simple questions shouldn't be included, but instead, technical & unheardof ones - questions that probably wouldn't be answered by referring to the help files.

COMMENTS

1. - I applaud your help file - it's easy-to-use, well put together and the search tool is very, very good. There is so much information contained in the help file, it must have taken a long time to create! Plus let's not forget that you can always post a question in the forum if you're still stuck or confused!

2. - Thank-you for making QDK 'maximizable'! That is a god-send for me people like me or are obsessed with having full windows!

QUESTIONS

I'll go through them B1 - B7 (bug's ect.. 1 to 7). Then S1 - S11 (suggestions!). And then C1 - C2 (getting the idea?). And Q1.

I won't quote (or this message will be quite big) so just scroll up a little to see the parts of the massage I refer to.

B1. Ummm... If you type text formatting code you are just changing the font to something else. I don't fully understand the '2' appearing but I don't fool around with QDK much nowadays (too much college work to do!).

B2. Ummm... You make one line of text centre justified, and then make it left justified...Oh, I get what you mean - why not just put |cj at the beginning of those other functions?

B3. Wierd. That's all I can say here. As you don't give any other examples ('cept those in B1) then there's nothing to go on!

B5. Yellow text? You should be getting black and blue!

B6. This isn't reporting a "bug". It's reporting when the program has done something that has gone outside the ability of the runtime. What I'm saying is: Quest uses a microsoft visual basic runtime file to run. It translates code so it can be used in Windows. When it recieves something it doesn't like it comes back and shows YOU that an error has occured. It has nothing to do with Alex personally - it is made by the runtime!

B7. WOW! This is amazing... I doubt it has something to do with changing the name but whatever it is - IT DON'T LIKE IT!
============================================================
S2. Well, it is quite tough to add cut/paste features all around QDK when it is relitivly new. Given time I'm sure it'll be in more places - I for one don't really care since I don't use c/p that much!

S3. I personally HATE when installations do this and find myself always deleting links and files from the desktop. By all means give an option but don't just do it!

S4. Well, he has a link to the web page - but not the forum.

S5. Possibly. Maybe a nice picture background, sound when starting up ;) LOL

S6. HUH? You can't have actions in text blocks! Text blocks are exactly what their name's are: "text blocks".

S7. I get no drag time at all... I think it's a good idea though - since there's a 5 second waiting time at the start, you could use that time to load fonts!

S8. I was recently thinking about this. About making (which I will never do) a .cas encrypter/decrypter with password abilities. But for that I'd need to get the encrypter and see how it works - and the only people to use it would be those who don't pay Alex, which wouldn't be nice - so I decided to look into VB using the registry some more ;)

S9. There are some other ways of getting around bugs in VB. "On error" or something like that. Putting them all over Quest might not be a bad idea! Giving a message "Report this bug to xxxxxx". Perhaps even filling out a little QDK error sheet by itself so all they do it send it off to you :)
Anyway, Alex doesn't use the run-time error's (as explained above).

S10. I think that it should open the last opened files' folder. I personally keep the games in several different places - and not one of them is inside my Quest folder.

S11. Hmmm....
===========================================================
C1. True. I found the help file making utility to be very confusing myself! But perhaps that's just the Vis C++ one.

C2. I don't really like QDK maximised, but do like most other windows maxed out.
===========================================================
Q1. You mean if someone alters the .asl in attempt to cheat, but loads the save game file, well it would alter the way the game WORKS but the variables would be loaded from the save game file.

Hope I gave some valuable insight as well as some help in us "users'" ideas.

Do you have anything to say about this report Alex? I was just curious as to why there was only one reply when I worked so hard on this little 'report' I did. LMAO

I can't believe I wrote so much : )