Problems with TpSelect 2.3

[freeflight]

I have been using TpSelect 1.4 under Windows 95 (yes, I know its old but everything else now runs Linux and I'm not about to pay MS hard-earned cash for an OS that I use for about 1% of my keyboard time).

Anyway, on Tuesday I pulled the 2007 TP list down but TpSelect 1.4 barfed at its format. I didn't note the error, but merely looked around, found that 2.3 is out, downloaded and installed it - no problems so far. However, 2.3 refuses to run, flagging up two error dialog boxes:

Error starting program:  The TPSELECT.EXE is linked to missing export SHELL32.DLL:SHGetSpecialFolderPathA.

C:\Program Files\TpSelect\tpselect.exe: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

Given that the installer worked OK and you don't specify which versions of Windows are supported I'm a little mystified. Is this an incompatibility with Win95 or a bug? Norton Utilities says my setup is clean.

Cheers,
Martin

[jeff]

Martin - I'm sorry but supporting Windows 95 is not something any recent software would be able to do. Even Windows 98 is so old now that Microsoft withdrew support for that in July 2006. Microsoft's support for Windows 95 ended in January 2002.

My software runs on Windows 98 and above - I managed to make some fixes for problems Windows 98 users were experiencing, but Windows 95 is just not possible, I'm afraid.

I checked the Readme for TpSelect, and I see I don't have a Minimum Requirements section - that's an oversight. In the Readme for Spine I have the following: "System with Pentium-compatible processor running MS Windows 98 or later."

If I was starting again, then I would probably be using Java rather than Visual C++, so  it could run on Linux. I would like to get around to converting my existing software sometime, but it's a big job and unlikely to happen in the near future.

I don't know how stringent M$ is on backward compatibilty, but maybe if you got hold of a shell32.dll from a more recent OS it might work with your system.

[freeflight]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your response: I thought the problem might be Win95. Have you any feedback about TpSelect being run under WINE?

As far as a Java reimplementation goes, I speak Java: my new projects all use Java unless there are good reasons not to do that. If you need a hand in re-implementing TpSelect in Java I'd be glad to help.

Martin

[jeff]

No info about running under WINE, I'm afraid. As for a Java conversion, TpSelect would probably be a good place to start (15 modules discounting headers), but Spine with 79 modules and I don't know how many thousand lines of code would be a different proposition :shock:

Thanks for the offer of help - I may take you up on that sometime

PS: Incidentally, there are a couple of auctions going on eBay at the moment for legit copies of Windows 98 if you're interested...