I run two instances simultaneously also - One with zoomed in level and
orientation for eyepiece, mount, and scope, the other for 'naked eye' view
(alt-az and different zoom level). This dual set-up makes star-hopping a
lot easier - I would like to request that we at least are allowed to do this
with separate install folders. Avoiding conflicts is agreeable - I have
lots of hard drive space for a second install.



Anthony J. Kroes

Cedar Drive Observatory

Pulaski, WI



From: guide-user@yahoogroups.com [mailto:guide-user@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Bill J Gray
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 12:58 PM
To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [guide-user] Multiple instances no longer allowed





Hi Dave, Larry,

Yup, this is intentional behavior.

The problem is that if you have two or more instances of Guide
running, they tend to conflict in weird ways. Sometimes you can get
away with it (and it sounds as if you both were doing this without
too much trouble.) But it's quite likely that files will get
corrupted and crashes will occur.

This is especially apt to happen when you shut one instance
down. It'll do some cleaning out of a cache folder, not realizing
that somebody else is currently using that folder.

Although it occurs to me that one _can_ do this safely if the
two instances are starting from different directories. In that
case, they'll have different caches.

Also, if you've multiple instances running in the same folder,
they'll be using the same .tdf files (for example). So if you toggle
quasars on or off in one instance, that'll get reflected in the
other instance. There's a lot of scope for unexpected misbehavior.
Which is why I just restricted things to a single instance, rather
than attempting to make multiple instances possible; doing the latter
looked like a forbidding prospect.

Lemme think about this one a bit more. At the very least, I'd
best enable running multiple instances from different folders. In
addition to that, it might be well to have the option of running
multiple instances from the same folder (with the caveat that it's
somewhat dangerous, as I gather you've both found.)

-- Bill





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