Orphalese Tarot Zone Community Forum

Hi all:

This morning I was updating Windows (I do it manually, since I hate to see the little shield icon flashing on Taskbar), and it installed a complete new version of the .NET runtime, about 24Mb. So far, OT works fine on my machine, but does this will have an impact on the program, Richard? Just curious. Best regards.

Hi Dominatrix,

I was interested to hear that version 2.0 is out - I just downloaded it myself.

When you install a new version of the .NET Framework it doesn't replace any previous versions you might have had installed. Instead it sits next to them side by side. When more than one version of the Framework is installed on a machine, which one is used by any given program is determined by the settings in the config file included with the program.

At the moment, if you open the file tarot.exe.config with a text editor you will see the following tags:

&lt.startup
&lt.requiredRuntime imageVersion=v1.0.3705 version=v1.0.3705/&gt.
&lt.supportedRuntime version=v1.0.3705/&gt.
&lt.supportedRuntime version=v1.1.4322/&gt.
&lt./startup&gt.

The relevant ones are the supportedRuntime tags. They determine, in order of preference, which version of the Framework will be used by the program. So at the moment, even though you have installed version 2, it won't make any difference to the program unless you change the configuration file.

As I know you are very at home with these things, please feel free to edit the configuration file so that it looks like this:

&lt.startup>
&lt.requiredRuntime imageVersion=v1.0.3705 version=v1.0.3705/&gt.
&lt.supportedRuntime version=v2.0.50727/&gt.
&lt.supportedRuntime version=v1.1.4322/&gt.
&lt.supportedRuntime version=v1.0.3705/&gt.
&lt./startup&gt.

Now you should find that when you run the program it uses version 2 of the Framework. You can see what version is being used by looking at the About box in the Orphalese Tarot.

I am trying this myself at the moment and have noticed a couple of small differences in the appearance of certain controls. For example, the little box that you can use to set the proportion of reversed cards on the options form now has a thin blue rectangle around the number. This illustates how each successive version of .NET actually replaces all the components that are used to create the program's interface (those 20 megs have to go somewhere, right?). But I hope that the only difference you will see with version 2.0 is that a few things perhaps work better, or that nothing is significantly different - please let me know if you spot anything going wrong!

Cheers
Richard

Gee, now I know why my Windows folder goes for 1'86Gb... Microsoft wanted to substitute Java with .NET, but as you explain it, it seems they're doing the same thing than Sun Microsystems: you can have several Java Virtual Machines installed on your system, and every program uses the version that fits the most. That means that I have available .NET 1.0, .NET 1.1, NET 1.1 Spanish runtime and .NET 2.0 at the same time? Brrr... I'm having goosebumps!

I noticed a while ago the .NET version present on About window, and that's a good thing, helps to know where you're stepping. I've already done what you told me, and now I'm using OT with .NET 2.0. No side effects or strange behaviours to report, everything is just fine, as always. I've noticed the blue box on reversals, but since I'm using Windowblinds 5 with XP (a program that skins the whole OS with different colours, styles and flavours), it is easy for me to go unnoticed on these changes, since OT looks pretty different depending on the skin I'm using at the moment.

Anyway, it is a good thing to have the possibilty of remaining faithful to the .NET version you have, since not everyone wants or is able to update to the last-minute-version-before-the-next-one. Microsoft Genuine Advantage Validation Tool is troubling a lot of people with shady licenses on the update field, and knowing Orphalese will work despite the version change is VERY important. Great to know Orphalese is backwards compatible... Best regards.