Original Post
I'm not one usually given to getting annoyed with people, but have just had to do a little "support" on one of my calculator games. The original email read:
Quote:Now, ladies and gentlemen, the ZIP download for this particular game contains a couple of files [the calculator binaries], and 2 folders. One marked "source" and another marked "readme". Click here to see the content of that folder. I fired off this email in response:
Subject: firetrack I was wonderin if u have any new games and how can i run this firetrack 2 game i have alot of ram and it says error low ram!............what do i do?
Quote:Am I just a grumpy sod? Or do you get annoying emails like the one I got? Was I right to answer in the way I did, or should I just be the nice fluffy individual and say "why of course, you just do this!". I used to act like that, but the constant flow of stupid questions (one constant series caused me to have to just email people single line emails with the link http://benryves.com/linkinghelp.htm, for example) has reduced me to this level. Grr. Update: His response is here. Update 2: Final response is here. [Edited by - benryves on February 12, 2005 7:27:14 PM]
Subject: Read the file marked "ReadMe" next time, please. Dear Yk2846; *sighs* I have broken down what you need to do in two simple steps. If you have difficulty reading or understanding them, please find a responsible adult to assist you. Step 1: Learn some English. Please. The abuse of the full stop in your email brings tears to my eyes - they all seem to run to the end the first sentence and gather between it and the second one. Your usage of the "Shift" key is erratic. "Alot" is not a world. [See http://dictionary.cambridge.org/results.asp?searchword=alot]. If you are going to ask for help, at least do it in a clear manner and you won't come across as such an idiot. Step 2: Look in the Fire Track 2 zip file and you'll see a folder called "readme". This implies that you should read the contents of it. Inside that folder is a file called "ReadMe.htm". Open this by double-clicking. Section 2 is headed: "2. Installation, and the problems with RAM". Click that link or scroll down. Had you actually bothered to read this document [I do write them for a reason], you would have seen that (and here I quote directly from the body of the "ReadMe" file): -------- This page file is quite large - you'll have difficulty running the program with less than 8KB of RAM free. If you do, you'll get this message: (At this point there's a picture that displays the "ERROR! Low RAM \ 2ND to Quit." message exactly as it appears on the calculator.) Press 2nd and delete or archive a few programs until you stop getting the message. This will affect Ion users worse than MirageOS users as with Ion you need to have the shell in RAM too. Once you get to the title screen, you're all set! -------- So, I guess what you need to do is to do just what it says - delete or archive a few programs until the program actually runs [about 8KB of RAM needs to be freed up - look at the counter at the top of the screen]. It [Fire Track 2] can't do that for you. If you don't know how to do that, I suggest you take a look at the thick white manual that comes with the calculator. Again, people spend a lot of time writing documentation so that people such as yourself can read it and work out how to get around it without wasting the developer's time answering emails. Maybe you don't think that "ERROR! Low RAM" is a clear enough indication of a case of low memory? How else do you want me to present it? Maybe I'd even have more spare time to develop games if I didn't have to answer emails such as this? Ben
