Below you can find a set of questions and answers I imagine might be
useful. If your question/concern is not addressed below, don't hesitate to
contact me. Please use
the facilities on the
Sourceforge
page to submit bug reports, patches and such.
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What is
pearsdebug.py ?
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This is a plain text file which can contain arbitrary Python code. It allows
changing Pears settings which are not accessible from the GUI, yet without requiring
you to change the actual program code. The general policy is this: a setting which may
be switched on/off more than once in the lifetime of the application ends up in the GUI,
other settings end up only being customizable using the
pearsdebug.py file.
This file is not deleted by the Windows uninstall procedure, so you can keep it around
forever.
This file is not strictly speaking needed, you'll usually only need
to use it if you want to change some relatively obscure settings.
Note that everything in this file is case- and indentation-sensitive. Always start
typing at the beginning of the line and type exactly what is specified in this help
file.
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How can I make this file?
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Open your favorite plain-text editor (e.g. Notepad, but not Word). Write whatever
you need to write and save it to a directory where Python might pick it up.
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Where should I put it?
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The most obvious place to put it is the Pears directory itself. It will work, it will
never be overwritten by a new Pears version and all should be well. This is the best
way to do it, presuming you make sure you always install a new Pears version in the
same directory as the old one.
However, if you often change the directory where you put Pears in (e.g. you install
each version in a different directory), that would mean you'd have to copy the
pearsdebug.py file around all the time. So in this case you might opt
for putting the file in the directory where Python keeps its libraries. If you don't
know where that one is, search your HD for zipfile.py .
But that's not ideal neither, since you'll have to move the file if you install a
new Python version in a different directory. So the safest (and most cumbersome) way
of all is to put the file in some directory you're sure will always stay there and
then add this directory to the PYTHONPATH environment variable.
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Pears is very slow/consumes a lot of memory.
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First make sure Paranoid saving is switched off in the Options
menu.
If that doesn't solve the problem, you can either set your cache sizes
lower or use Mark Moraes'
hamster engine. To do this, write in the
pearsdebug.py file:
HAMSTERMODE = True
Note that conversion from the default engine to the hamster engine
format is automated, but there is no automated way to convert back without
losing your cached items. To switch back, set:
HAMSTERMODE = False
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Pears freezes when it downloads feeds. Is this normal?
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For very small amounts of time (up to 10 seconds in extreme cases),
this is possible and does not indicate malfunctioning.
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Pears sometimes hangs when downloading. What can I do about it?
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Please let me know if this happens!
The easiest way to fix this is to empty all feeds (Ctrl+E ).
If however you are attached to your cache, write in the
pearsdebug.py file:
SIMULTANEOUSUPDATE = 1
Then start Pears from a console by running python pears.py .
You'll see:
Updating 0
Done 0
Updating 1
Done 1
...
Updating X
<some error message>
Write X down, remove the SIMULTANEOUSUPDATE = 1 from
the pearsdebug.py file and restart Pears. Count the feeds starting
from 0 and when you find X, empty it (Ctrl+D ).
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I have a very fast/very slow connection and I'd like to change
the number of simultaneous feeds being downloaded.
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Write in the
pearsdebug.py file:
SIMULTANEOUSUPDATE = 2
The number (2 ) can be anything you like. 4 is default
and is a very smart value, suitable for classic modems or ADSL/cable
connections. Higher values can be useful for very fast connections,
lower ones for extremely slow ones.
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Pears doesn't work. Why?
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There are different reasons why Pears might not work, as outlined
below.
Make sure you don't already have a copy Pears running. It's not possible
to run two of them at once for the same user, because that could
be a source of problems regarding the integrity of the saved data.
Pears requires Python 2.2 and wxPython 2.4.0.7 to work.
I've had reports that it works with wxPython 2.4.0.2 too,
but I can't guarantee anything for older ones.
Either way, make sure you have both Python
and wxPython installed and neither of them is too old. If your
version is reasonably recent (Python >2.2 and wxPython >2.4) and
it still doesn't work, please look at the question regarding
crashes, because I'd like Pears to work on those releases.
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Pears crashes. Why?
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No public release of Pears has ever crashed on me. I introduced
timing in version 0.8 and my copy (1 day old at the time of this
writing) has been running
for more than 172h without any problems. There
are two possibilities: either your version of Python and/or
wxPython is broken or old, or Pears indeed has a problem. Start
Pears from a console and send me the message it displays
in the console when it crashes. Please also specify your
Python and wxPython version (they are shown in the About
screen as well).
Windows users: to get the console, go to Start -> Run and
run cmd (in 2k/XP) or command (9x).
Then type c: (or whatever drive you installed
Pears on followed by : ), then
cd c:\program files\pears (or whatever directory
you installed it to). The prompt should change to show
the new location. Then type pears.py or
python pears.py .
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Is it possible to save data in another directory (not the default one)?
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Yes. Write in the
pearsdebug.py file:
savedir = "c:/somedir/somesubdir/"
(replace c:/somedir/somesubdir/ with the path where you wish
to save the data; Windows users should pay attention to the use of
forward slashes).
Note that using a hard-coded path like this might mean
Pears works the same and has the same feeds for all users on your system.
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Help, all my data has disappeared!
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This most likely means that the value of your $HOME environmental variable
has changed. This variable should always point to the home directory of
the current user (under WinXP, this is
Documents and Settings/<Username> ). You can either change
the HOME environmental variable to point to this folder again, or you can
look in the About screen to find out where your data is now and move the old
data files to there (make sure Pears is not running when you're doing this!).
Alternatively, you could also use the solution provided on this page for saving
data in a non-default directory.
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Can I import other people's
.pyrs files into my own?
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Not directly.
pyrs files are essentially Python code which gets
evaluated. As long as you let Pears manipulate them on its own, they should be
safe. However, if you manipulate them manually, or you try to import other people's
files, Pears has no control over them any more. These files are not by definition
trustworthy, so I've decided to not implement an import/export mechanism for them.
However, exchange of feeds with other users is possible using XML formats.
If you're wondering about the reasons for this choice, they're quite simple:
I like being able to manipulate the saved data manually (pickling or some database
solution is not suitable), I want the solution to work with the built-in batteries
of Python 2.2 (CSV module is only included in Python 2.3) and I don't want to reinvent
the wheel (roll my own solution). In the case of Pears I find using eval() is not an
additional risk: the entire program is distributed in source form, so if someone has
access to the saved files, he/she also has access to the program itself and could modify
pears.py directly to do damage.
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How long did it take to make?
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I've kinda lost track of the time I spent on Pears. You can follow developments by checking
out the history on my website.
Obviously I don't work full-time on it.
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I erased my items cache and now some feeds will not send me their items. What can I do?
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Pears uses bandwidth saving techniques: it stores some tags about the feeds it downloads
and sends those tags back when it updates. Based on these, feeds which support this feature
can find out if anything new was added since Pears last downloaded the feed. If nothing new
was added, nothing is sent back. It saves you time and it saves the feed author money.
Now if you delete your topics cache, the tags mentioned above are still present. You can get
rid of them by going to the Options menu. Under Advanced you'll find an item
for dumping the etag/modified tags. Click on it, then refresh your feeds normally.
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Can you put feature X in Pears?/I found a bug, will you repair it?
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Feel free to contact me
with your requests or bug reports.
I am open to adding new features, based
on whether I think they're useful to anyone but yourself and on whether
their degree of usefulness justifies the development time that will go into them.
Regarding bugs, note that Windows XP is my main platform and though I check to see if
Pears runs ok on Linux, some bugs only really are detectable
if the application is used for longer periods of time. I will probably find any bugs
like that if they appear in Windows XP, but I probably won't find them if they only appear
in Linux or other Windows versions. That being said, the application is identical
for all platforms, so platform-specific issues should be rare or non-existant. Pears
is very stable in my experience and I'd like it to be very stable in every user's experience,
regardless of the platform. As you can see by looking at the history of the 0.7.x releases,
I'm willing to spend quite some time improving its functionality on other platforms.
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