Lock/Unlock commands on new macros?

[terrypin]

I've never focused on this before but am doing so now because I got in a mess with some complex macros. I eventually found the problems were due to my not adding Lock/Unlock commands at the top and bottom of various submacros I was using. (There are a lot of these - enough to make it worthwhile to write a macro to add them, which I've now done.)

 

Did these ever get added automatically by ME Pro when creating a new macro? Maybe I've accidentally changed some setting?

 

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[rberq]

There is an option to add them automatically when converting an ME3 macro file to MEP, or when importing macro(s) from ME3 to MEP. I don't think they get inserted automatically when creating a new macro in MEP.

 

In my testing, lock and unlock did not work properly with window-title-activated macros; the lock and unlock might as well not be there, for all the effect they have. I reported that to Insight as a bug and was told it was fixed in the next MEP release; but that was weeks ago and the next release has yet to appear. I don't know whether lock/unlock work with activation methods other than window-title; apparently they do, if they fixed your problem.

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

I reported the lock/unlock problem months back. During investigation of that I also found/reported that closing the Script Editor stops all running macros. Due to be resolved.

[terrypin]

There is an option to add them automatically when converting an ME3 macro file to MEP, or when importing macro(s) from ME3 to MEP. I don't think they get inserted automatically when creating a new macro in MEP.

 

In my testing, lock and unlock did not work properly with window-title-activated macros; the lock and unlock might as well not be there, for all the effect they have. I reported that to Insight as a bug and was told it was fixed in the next MEP release; but that was weeks ago and the next release has yet to appear. I don't know whether lock/unlock work with activation methods other than window-title; apparently they do, if they fixed your problem.

 

Thanks both.

 

Bob: I wasn't aware of that problem about activation (or, if I was, I'd forgotten about it). And I'm not entirely sure Lock/Unlock works in all other respects as it should. That's mainly because up till now I haven't made any tests or comparisons. But in this particular case restoring the Lock/Unlock commands on a couple of submacros got my main macro working again.

 

I'd like to see them added by default. I can't currently recall any situation I've deliberately left them out. I have enough trouble fretting about other programs possibly conflicting with a single running macro without encouraging several macros to run at once!

 

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

I can't currently recall any situation I've deliberately left them out

Well with your degree of automation, you probably need them! I've never used them other than when importing from ME3 and most of those I've since deleted. I don't have overlapping tasks. I use ME for all scheduled activities other than AV updates. Where I have a cycling macro that needs to be on top (doing something say every few minutes), I have the 10 second audible warning that I've mentioned a few times before, so I can tidy up and not start any other macros. Background macros not needing window access can usually be left running.

 

The lock/unlock don't do any harm although they do not stop manual initiation of a macro.

[rberq]

John, I'm glad to hear you confirmed the same problem. Since no one else had mentioned it (or I missed the mention), I was afraid my testing method was to blame rather than MEP.

 

I have quite a number of window-title-activated macros that rely on single-threading, because they use variables stored in previous macros. We have been buying ME PRO licenses in anticipation of converting from ME3 to MEP, but I think the next batch will be ME3 licenses. I'm beginning to doubt that MEP will ever be ready to use; or by the time it is, our main applications will be nearing the end of their life-cycles so why bother. We came into this major project at the end of ME3, when it was a "mature" product, and 99.9 percent of everything worked as advertised. MEP has been nothing but frustration.