running Squat 1a1

[Craig Latta]

Hi all--

	(Please direct followups and other bug or success reports to
squat at netjam.org. Info on joining the list at http://netjam.org/squat/.
Thanks!)

	Simon writes:

> Here's what happened when I tried in firefox...

	Cool, I've never heard of that one. :)

> ...a download dialog, which I ignored because I saw the status bar
> in the browser moving and it looked like it was downloading.

	Yeah, that progress bar is totally fake... It just fills up over the
course of a hardwired 90 seconds, to give people something to watch so
they don't run off and turn on the TV. :)  Most people get past it
within 30 seconds if they agree to the security warnings promptly (and
are on a broadband connection).

> Then I figured out it's just waiting. Firefox doesn't allow me to run
> the .exe for some reason.

	Yeah, most web browsers try to get at least some sort of approval from
the user before running arbitrary weird programs. :)

> Downloading it to the desktop and running it manually (while the
> status bar is still moving) didn't work.

	That's correct behavior; that snapshot is hardwired to connect to
either the Squat release site (to say that it has come up, so that the
installer session can redirect the original web browser), or to a
control snapshot.

> In IE, I clicked open and (I think) the first time got a hello and
> current time message from squat.

	Great! By the way, there have now been 41 successful invocations in
total.

> Tried it again and it said it was contacting a web server to
> download modules.

	You probably need to kill off the previous invocation of the virtual
machine first. I can fix that later.

	Jon writes:

> > 1. Start the control image. In a command window execute the
> > following:
> > 
> >         headed.exe control.image
> 
> I get a rolling walkback in the bottom few lines of the screen
> after this, starting at #basicNew and then progressing through a
> lot of stuff that flies by too fast to read. After about half a
> minute of this, the image goes away, with no error log generated.

	Which OS and OS version was this?


	By the way, note that there is now an x86 Linux version of the system
to try, in the "bits" section of the release page. I'm chasing down some
rough edges, more soon.


	thanks again!

-C

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
craig at netjam.org
www.netjam.org
[|] Proceed for Truth!