History entries lost if Winamp not closed normally

[Globe199]

Any history entries made since the last time Winamp was closed will be lost if Winamp does not close normally. This can happen when:

- computer crashes
- computer is restarted without first closing Winamp
- Winamp process is terminated

Not a huge deal, but if your computer is up for weeks (or even months) at a time, you could lose a big chunk of data.

This could be fixed by having Winamp write to the history file each time an entry is made instead of when Winamp closes.

[MrSinatra]

good point, just write it out to file... why commit the memory to that anyway?

[NTL]

I don't know why this has never been fixed, but as someone who really appreciates having the history of what I have listened to this is the reason I am switching from winamp.

[Aminifu]

There is a plugin called 'Playlist Autosave' that will instruct WA to save the contents of the playlist every minute. Install as Administrator.

http://www.winamp.com/plugin/playlist-autosave/147024

[DrO]

that plug-in won't work for the history since there's no way to signal to the history plug-in to force save itself. and yes, it probably should be saving out either on a timer or when a change happens but for whatever reason it was done so that it generally saves on exit. it should be a simple thing to change or at least make it support the API which has been in place since at least 5.0 which allows for plug-ins to be signalled to save their settings, etc (though most don't follow it).

-daz

[DrO]

as a follow-up for this whilst i'm clearing out my bookmark history and this has been affecting me recently when working on the SHOUTcast Source DSP, i've changed the history plug-in for the next release (no eta) to save the history to disk shortly after an update happens which should alleviate that aspect of people losing their play counts (cannot do anything about database failures obviously).

-daz

[MrSinatra]

excellent, i wish more bugs affected you!

will the ram be freed once the history is written to file?

also, did my alt+3 apply button come up in the bookmark clearing?

thanks for fixing this!

[DrO]

no idea on the ram aspect since certain parts will always be in the system memory irrespective of what is / isn't going on. maybe it will drop ram usage over long periods of time a bit though i'm not sure and trying to test that isn't something i can really do anytime soon.

my concern was more that it could be causing response issues when the save happens but as it's a small update / insert and usually happens well after a song change happens, then it shouldn't cause any ui lags issues (unless the machine is massively loaded and Winamp is already struggling).


the apply button is still in that list but i've got more pressing issues with the jtfe plug-in before looking to add in new code for that.

-daz

[Aminifu]

"... maybe it will drop ram usage ..."

"... then it shouldn't cause any ui lag issues ..."

DrO you are willing to risk harm because you can't or wouldn't take the time to regression test. After so long, what's the hurry now? This is a sad day for me, my hero has revealed his clay feet.

Oh well, that's life. Let's hope your reasoning is sound and no serious harm is done.

[DrO]

i am regression testing it as best as i can so i'm not just committing (which i haven't even done yet) and letting it be, even though the code change is pretty simple and hasn't caused any issues over the last few days which i've been running it.


as for the points you're raising...

firstly, i do not actually know how much memory the nde database handling allocates / uses when you're not flushing things out to disk, how can i compare that as you never can really rely on what is reported in task manager. or am i expected to spend time creating a complete memory monitoring solution for something that i'd have to take weeks to work out how it all works when i've actually got a job to otherwise do?

secondly, my comment about being worried about lagging is due to saving to disk always being slower and as a lot can and does go on when a track change happens, i needed to make sure that the history updates weren't going to add to everything else going on even if things are set to wait 5 seconds for example after the files started being played.


since all of these sort of minor changes are done in my own time when i really shouldn't even be doing them as most other people don't have the time or inclination to spend time on things which would officially be deemed as unimportant / not worth the resources. so maybe i should just stop doing that &/or even posting about any of the little bits i'm trying to do.

in fact i think i might just do that once i've finished testing this and some podcast saving issues (only because i got hit by a loss of the podcast xml files for the second time) and just leave it at. sod trying to get the library db able to be backed up and trying to look into improvements with Winamp shutting down (as this last one is only an issue for me when i'm testing / implementing changes and a 3-4sec delay on closing is annoying when compiling takes less than that). is no skin off my nose and will give me time to actually do non-programming things i want to do so win-win for me.

-daz

[MrSinatra]

DrO, please don't do that. i appreciate the effort and the info!

my interest in this goes roughly like this:

say you operate a webcast playing local files 24/7/365. over time, if the history file is all in RAM, and only written out on closing, it seems like that alone could overwhelm a machine and crash it. my hope was that with these changes, as soon as the entries were written to disk, the ram would be released. are you saying that is not something you can force or do easily?

btw, this is a good app better than task manager just in case u don't know about it:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533

and please keep us in the loop! thx again!

[Batter Pudding]

Some of us realise DrO's work is brilliant and he should be given a lot more credit for being an unpaid saviour of Winamp.

DrO - the work done in your spare time is very valuable to us all. This includes the rather handy add-ons pack. We also trust your professionalism to not do slap-dash edits. Ignore the trolls. The rest of us love your work.

[MrSinatra]

Aminifu isn't a troll, he just got up on the wrong side of the bed today apparently.

also, i think DrO is on staff, but he does a lot of stuff like this on his own time that they would not pay him for, and so of course its very appreciated.

[Aminifu]

Some of us realise DrO's work is brilliant and he should be given a lot more credit for being an unpaid saviour of Winamp.

I agree with that statement. DrO is still my hero. He is also human and maybe should take a short break to avoid burnout. I don't really think he takes dangerous shortcuts (I was tired and maybe a little cranky earlier).

The problem, as I see it, is why do the powers that be for Winamp deem a lot of what should be done as "things which would officially be deemed as unimportant / not worth the resources". Do they view the desktop as dead and mobile as the only important thing? What can we mere users do to change that?

Live long and prosper, DrO.

[Batter Pudding]

(I was tired and maybe a little cranky earlier).

Sorry - so was I. I shouldn't have called you a troll. It looks like a few of us were having bad days at the same time.

The problem, as I see it, is why do the powers that be for Winamp deem a lot of what should be done as "things which would officially be deemed as unimportant / not worth the resources".

I think there is probably a simple answer there - cash. Or the lack of it. I have no idea how AOL and Nullsoft are structured, but it is clearly in a way that does not leave bucket loads of developer cash. As an ex-developer myself it can get a little odd inside a big company. Decisions get made for all kinds of strange reasons. But the one thing to celebrate is that Winamp is still here even after all the financial hassles.

Do they view the desktop as dead and mobile as the only important thing? What can we mere users do to change that?

What can we do? About the only thing we can do is keep promoting Winamp. Keep the name alive. IMHO there is still no other player out there with the abilities of Winamp. And there are not many other software products out there still going after 15 years!!

(If the Wikipedia page is correct on the April 21 1997 first release date, there should be some form of mini-celebration of this fact. Just look at the PCs we had back then!!)