2.2 compatibility troubles

[YGKtech]

I just finished my most complex skin to date, posted it to DA, and learned it is not compatible with the current release version of 2.2

I use the latest 2.3 beta on my computer, but I had actively avoided features exclusive to it, so I'm having trouble finding the root of the problem.

Here is the skin in question.

I set up a virtual machine with 2.2 installed to test and debug, but I just can't seem to work out where the problem is. The only part of the skin being rendered is the half-hexagon "Anchor", which uses some of the same MeterStyles as the hexagons, but overrides many of the inherited settings.

Rainmeter is not logging any errors and all the measures are calculating properly. My intuition is telling me it has something to do with the alpha setting for the hexagon images. I noticed that unloading the skin caused RAM usage to drop substantially, telling me the images are in fact being loaded, but not displayed properly. Unfortunately I have no idea what could be causing such a problem.

After looking at the changelog for 2.3 I tried replacing all equations outside of calc measures with measures and dynamic variables (effectively reproducing the original code on my 2.3 system) but it didn't make a difference.

At this point I need someone else to look at the code. I have spent dozens of hours writing this, and I just can't see it from a new perspective now.

Does anyone know an approximate release date for 2.3? If it's soon enough I may just ignore the incompatibility and tell people to get the BETA or wait.

[jsmorley]

While we could and someone may well dig in and try to see what might be the issue, to be honest we only try really hard to maintain "backwards compatibility". No attempt is or can be made to support "forwards compatibility". Only Marty McFly could do that... Your skin is quite large and complex and it is almost certain that it is making use of some new or changed feature in 2.3 that is not supported quite the same way in 2.2. When you consider it, that is just a given. The skin was written using 2.3 on your machine, works fine there, and only has an issue when used on 2.2.

I should note that it won't be me debugging a 1,950 line skin...

The good news is that we plan for a Release Candidate of Rainmeter 2.3 this weekend and the release on the the following weekend. Now some problem cropping up could delay that, but in any case the release of 2.3 will be pretty soon. If it were me, I'd tell folks to get the beta and go with that, being sure to update to the final when it hits.

[YGKtech]

Thanks for the quick reply jsmorley, and double thanks for the Back to the Future reference.

I know the skin is offensively large, and I can't realistically expect anyone to look over it in detail, but I may as well ask. Most of the code is repetitive and everything inherits from one or two Meter Styles, so it isn't quite as bad as it looks.

Since 2.3 will be out pretty soon, I think I'l save myself the headache and leave it as is. Though if anyone has a quick suggestion I'll give it a try.

[jsmorley]

The other good news is that we obviously made something "better" in 2.3, we just don't know what...

[YGKtech]

Yep, unfortunately I was avoiding some of the best features of 2.3 to try and keep in backwards compatible, I'm looking at you StringAlign = CenterCenter.