SleepyHead "unstable" builds for advanced testers.

[jedimark]

There are some recent features and buxfixes in sleepyhead that need testing thoroughly before a "in-the-wild" build is ready to be released, but I don't have enough testers who are able to build from source-code to try these things out, who have access to the particular equipment.

So to make it a bit easier for those that otherwise could help with testing, I have decided to create a folder for semi-regular (sometimes highly) "unstable" builds of SleepyHead for Mac & Windows. Some opensource developers call these type of builds nightlies, but I'm too lazy and foggy to be that regular.

The folders location is here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyh ... e%20Builds

Running these will likely cause annoyances you might not otherwise have experienced if you waited for an official stable build.

There is no installer for these on windows, so you will have to know your way around windows explorer and zip files. There will be a WithDLL's zip version, which I will update whenever I feel like it, which contains everything needed to run unstable SleepyHead, and there will be much smaller binary only zips that you can unzip and drop in over the top to upgrade. Each file will be dated with the build date.

Before trying a unstable build, you will have to make sure you backup your SleepyHeadData folder first. <-- Please read that again.

Good luck!

/JediMark

[jedimark]

I just modified SleepyHead unstable builds to clearly mark them as unstable, and made them work in a data different directory, so you can run both these and the older builds concurrently if you choose.

This means unstable builds have their own set of user profiles, it will be like installing a fresh copy of SleepyHead.

It might be a little safer this way.

I forgot to unstage the directory, so it was hidden.. I've fixed this now for anyone wonder what on earth I was talking about.

[Pugsy]

Heads up for someone trying the unstable builds...wait for the download prompt to save.
I almost clicked on the Big GREEN download thing for a product called Download manager by mistake.
It took a few seconds for the normal download prompt to show up.

[Todzo]

There are some recent features (like improved CMS50 serial oximetry import, and Fisher & Paykel ICON support) and buxfixes in sleepyhead that need testing thoroughly before a "in-the-wild" build is ready to be released, but I don't have enough testers who are able to build from source-code to try these things out, who have access to the particular equipment.

So to make it a bit easier for those that otherwise could help with testing, I have decided to create a folder for semi-regular (sometimes highly) "unstable builds" of SleepyHead for Mac & Windows. Some opensource developers call these type of builds nightlies, but I'm too lazy and foggy to be that regular.

Please Note: These builds aren't suitable for ordinary users.. they are for those wanting to help get a new build ready for everyone else. Bug reports filed on SourceForge's tracker for these unstable builds will be ignored/deleted. Reports related to these builds go directly to the developer mailing list only, and you will be expected to check for, download and try the most recent build before reporting on anything broken.

You may find these builds broken at anytime. Not that I'd deliberately upload a broken build, but something could slip by easily.
Running these will likely cause annoyances you might not otherwise have experienced if you waited for an official stable build.

There is no installer for these on windows, so you will have to know your way around windows explorer and zip files. There will be a WithDLL's zip version, which I will update whenever I feel like it, which contains everything needed to run unstable SleepyHead, and there will be much smaller binary only zips that you can unzip and drop in over the top to upgrade. Each file will be dated with the build date.

Mac nightly builds will be complete, because it's fully automatic to package them, they are slightly smaller, and I'm too lazy to figure out a smaller way of doing it.

Before trying a nightly build, you will have to make sure you backup your SleepyHeadData folder first. <-- Please read that again.

Because these are intended for advanced users, I'll leave it as an exercise for the user to find where these "unstable builds" are hosted on SleepyHeads sourceforge page.

There won't be any announcement when they are updated, you will have to keep watching the mailing list, and checking you are up to date yourselves.

Remember, the developer mailing list, is the place to talk about bugs and what's happening with these unstable builds, best not to on here because it might otherwise get confusing.

Heads up: The mailing software at sourceforge doesn't like big attachments, so if you post anything with screenshots or logs, make sure keep them very small, or they won't be delivered.

Good luck!

/JediMark

The last time I was trying to get into raw "builds" I got as far as trying the newest Qt version from Nokia which did not like the source.

I normally fly using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (newest update release - updated). Which Qt from where would you suggest I use?

Thanks!

Todzo

FWIW I have spent some time in Fedora, Suse, and love Puppy.

[Todzo]

I have W8, W7, and XP. Which platform would be the most useful to test on?

[Sir NoddinOff]

Mark, I admire your determination to get SH up to date and sort out all the bugsquashes. I hope there a few courageous and not too sleepyheaded people in our crew who will help you out. So sorry that won't be me - I'm a dunce when it comes to the really tough software stuff.

[jedimark]

I have W8, W7, and XP. Which platform would be the most useful to test on?

If you copy SleepyHead on a USB stick, and point the data folder at the USB stick too, you've got a portable windows copy you can try wherever you like.. :}

[jedimark]

The last time I was trying to get into raw "builds" I got as far as trying the newest Qt version from Nokia which did not like the source.
I normally fly using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (newest update release - updated). Which Qt from where would you suggest I use?
FWIW I have spent some time in Fedora, Suse, and love Puppy.

I'm a bit mean to Linux users aren't I...

SleepyHead usually builds fine with the Qt development packages that come with the distro.

In a terminal:
apt-get install git qt-creator qt4-dev
should in theory pull all the compilation gizzards to build sleepyhead from source on Ubuntu/Mint/Debian.

there may even be a Qt5-dev, in fact, try that first.. I prefer working with Qt5, so less likely a problem will pop up when I accidentally do something incompatible.

[jedimark]

Heads up for someone trying the unstable builds...wait for the download prompt to save.
I almost clicked on the Big GREEN download thing for a product called Download manager by mistake.
It took a few seconds for the normal download prompt to show up.

Ugh, the annoying ads with fake download buttons on SourceForge.

I guess that's comes with territory when using free hosting services. :/

Thanks for the warning.

[jedimark]

By the way, if anyone pulled the Windows version yesterday, I forgot to include a DLL:

If your copy doesn't run, download this and unzip it, then copy it's contents (qwindows.dll) into the main folder with all the others.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyh ... p/download

Hopefully that's all I forgot.

The full archive has been updated to include it.

I wish Windows version of Qt had an automated deployment program like on mac!

[Pugsy]

Ugh, the annoying ads with fake download buttons on SourceForge.

I guess that's comes with territory when using free hosting services. :/

Yeah, I know they have to pay the bills and that's the way of life.
I mention it because I sent someone to the SH download page and I am pretty sure that he downloaded from one of the promo ads because he swore up and down that he had some unknown program get installed and there was no sign of SleepyHead and he wouldn't listen to me that he probably clicked on one of the ads by mistake. So he was accusing me of sending him somewhere that he picked up a bad trojan and now "has to see if he needs to reformat his hard drive or if his security program will find it and remove it"...
Wouldn't listen to me so I threw up my hands and let it go.
People see a BIG "Download" prompt and don't stop to think and look and crap happens. There's nothing bad there anyway but I couldn't convince him of that fact even if someone downloads one of the promo ad products anyway.

[SleepyCPAP]

Mark,

I so much appreciate the work you put into this. I've downloaded the Mac version yesterday and am running the most current test version today. I'm running Snow Leopard so it is good to know it works fine on that older Mac OS (10.6) as one of the previous patch-for-macs did not. I'm not noticing any new bugs or instabilities that I hadn't noticed in the released version.

Congratulations on being clear-headed enough to do this work.

I wanted to post something on the SourceForge discussion to be useful, about problems which affect the regular and also untested versions (in other words not new issues with this particular build), but I can't figure out how to do that, so I'll send PMs to you with links to my photobucket. I don't know if that means I'm foggy headed or it just isn't clear how to join the discussion.

--SleepyCPAP

[jedimark]

Mark,

I so much appreciate the work you put into this. I've downloaded the Mac version yesterday and am running the most current test version today. I'm running Snow Leopard so it is good to know it works fine on that older Mac OS (10.6) as one of the previous patch-for-macs did not. I'm not noticing any new bugs or instabilities that I hadn't noticed in the released version.

Congratulations on being clear-headed enough to do this work.

I wanted to post something on the SourceForge discussion to be useful, about problems which affect the regular and also untested versions (in other words not new issues with this particular build), but I can't figure out how to do that, so I'll send PMs to you with links to my photobucket. I don't know if that means I'm foggy headed or it just isn't clear how to join the discussion.

--SleepyCPAP

Woot.. I'm glad it worked with 10.6.. I was a bit worried it wouldn't.

[SleepyCPAP]

Mark,

The Mac 2013-10-19 build works fine in Mavericks too. I had to go into security preferences to grant an exception to run it the first time, because Mavericks gave me an alert that it was from an unrecognized developer.


--SleepyCPAP

[jedimark]

I forgot to clarify what I mean by "unstable" builds.

It mainly refers to the data formats and machine importers still being in a state of developmental flux, not just specifically how crashy the code is.

This means it will often need to automatically purge CPAP data when switching to a new build, requiring a reimport, which can be a pain for users of (7/30 day data eating) ResMed machines, unless you import after the purge from the automatic backup folder (Located under [SleepyHeadData]/Profiles/[yourprofile]/ResMed_[xxxxxxxxx]/Backup)

When I get around to it, I'll make it auto import from this location when a purge is forced by a new importer version, but for now I need it not to do this automatically..

While on the subject of the ResMed S9's data housekeeping monster, if you prefer to hoard years worth of data, STR.edf files need to be backed up at least once a year.. I've made changes so SleepyHead in future will keep monthly copies of this file just to make sure, but it's not in any of those builds yet. The reason the backups are needed is this is the only source that contains ResMed settings, and it only stores 1 year worth of settings information.

Without extra STR.edf backups, SleepyHead will only be able to show RX changes, or EPR and Pressure settings for the past 12 months.. (This is part of the reason the RX settings is a mess, it's trying to guess, and can only do so poorly) It will still show the actual pressure graphs if the full xxxxxxx_PRD.edf data is available, but it won't be able to tell you the clinical minimum and maximum pressure or EPR settings the machine was set to.

Once again, In future, this will be automatic in SleepyHead and you won't have to worry about it, but for now, if it concerns you, it might be an idea to drag up and STR.edf files from old backups/history/timemachine/whatever and date the filenames.. SleepyHead will name it's STR.edf backups like this: STR-201310.edf (2013 - October) and place them in a folder called STR_Backup under the main Backup folder. SleepyHead will be able to handle any overlapping time periods when it sees the folder with multiple STR.edf files.

You only really need one or two per year.. If you haven't got them anymore, it will still work without them.

I wish I thought of it when I first implemented the ResMed importer.