Today's session started with me hammering away at the power button on the PC and wondering why the machine refused to turn on. I noticed a couple of days ago the power light was on when the PC wasn't, but I attributed this to a recent power outage and the problem went away when I reset the PSU.
However, today's incident brought back echoes from the past where I'd ignored similar tell-tale signs of a dying PSU. Luckily, stores here in Victoria tend to open at 8:30, so I was able to snag a new PSU and get the machine working again within the hour.
My first job was to get my files backed up; I'd negelected to back them up a couple of days previously (thinking, "What's the worst that can happen?"), but today's debacle was all the reassurance I needed that lost files = lost hours.
The bulk of today's session involved tracking down the annoying crashes I'd been experiencing; there were all number of suggestions, including incorrect array sizes, incorrect bank sizes (FishEd uses arrays of Databanks for maps and suchlike), and incorrect variable parameters. After 2 hours trying all manner of things, I threw all my relevant variables up on-screen and noticed a few sinister negative values.
After spotting this problem, it suddenly occurred to me that my new zoom code failed to recalculate two critical variables which control how far the map can be scrolled in any direction. Several keypresses later, the whole caboodle was working like a charm (and what's more, the memory leak issues seem to be a thing of the past). Elated, I did the only thing an ENglish Programmer can do in these circumstances - have a cup of tea. :)
