Armory 0.93 testing release! (with 0.05 BTC bug bounty)

[Roy Badami]

If it causes any other problems at all with development, I'd like to register my interest in removing support for OSX. It's a minority user group [...]

OS X is a minority user group in much the same way that Linux is a minority user group.  They're broadly comparable in size. [EDIT: which is larger seems to depend on who you ask and what metric for "larger" you choose.]

Sure, it remains to be seen which way Windows and OS X are heading - without a crystal ball it's impossible to tell - but it's quite possible [EDIT: even quite likely] that in the very long term they'll both evolve into walled gardens, and FOSS operating systems will be the only unrestricted general purpose operating systems.

[As a complete aside, I've seen one commentary that suggested that the reason for Valve's interest in developing their Linux-based Steam Machines is precisely because they are worried that in the long term (think >10 years) Windows may well stop being an open platform where their users can install games via their Steam platform - rather than being limited to only installing software via Microsoft's app store.]

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[Carlton Banks]

If it causes any other problems at all with development, I'd like to register my interest in removing support for OSX. It's a minority user group [...]

OS X is a minority user group in much the same way that Linux is a minority user group.  They're broadly comparable in size. [EDIT: which is larger seems to depend on who you ask and what metric for "larger" you choose.]

I'd always assume that Linux is way smaller, in fact. There's a significant difference though: Apple forces large costs onto the developer in the shape of licences for it's development tools (which get updated every time OSX does, which is at least $1000 annually IIRC). Maybe someone at ATI can chime in: are we at the point yet where Apple are charging in a 365-days type licence? (i.e. once 12 months expires, development suite locks the user from compiling or similar)

As for the future... did you see that Google Drive and (official) .NET runtime are being cultivated for Linux? You will be assimilated  

[Roy Badami]

If it causes any other problems at all with development, I'd like to register my interest in removing support for OSX. It's a minority user group [...]

OS X is a minority user group in much the same way that Linux is a minority user group.  They're broadly comparable in size. [EDIT: which is larger seems to depend on who you ask and what metric for "larger" you choose.]

I'd always assume that Linux is way smaller, in fact. There's a significant difference though: Apple forces large costs onto the developer in the shape of licences for it's development tools (which get updated every time OSX does, which is at least $1000 annually IIRC). Maybe someone at ATI can chime in: are we at the point yet where Apple are charging in a 365-days type licence? (i.e. once 12 months expires, development suite locks the user from compiling or similar)

As for the future... did you see that Google Drive and (official) .NET runtime are being cultivated for Linux? You will be assimilated  

Last time I downloaded Xcode it was free.  Pretty sure you can still develop for OS X without paying.  [EDIT: And have you any idea how much an MSDN/Visual Studio subscription costs per year?  But you can still develop with Visual Studio Express for free]

[Carlton Banks]

It's certainly true that the free versions of Visual Studio and xCode are highly usable products atm, not sure whether the legal publishing limitations are the most restrictive part of using them

[Roy Badami]

It's certainly true that the free versions of Visual Studio and xCode are highly usable products atm, not sure whether the legal publishing limitations are the most restrictive part of using them

And I don't really see that changing.  The platforms need the teenagers and the college students who are learning to program to be able to use their platform otherwise they are just hurting their future supply of professional developers.  AIUI, even iOS development has become less onerous over the years, both in terms of fees and in terms of what you have to agree to in the developer agreement.  A software ecosystem that excludes developers from it can't survive in the long term.

EDIT: Anyway, we're probably going way off topic for the thread here

[hardhouseinc]

No, using the latest stable version 0.92.3.
I tried opening in offline mode and the program opens just fine.
Only crashes at Building Databases then the Armory-QT service
will crash at the same percentage every time.

Is there another more appropriate thread here I can post on
for support?

Are you using the testing version?

[TimS]

Last time I downloaded Xcode it was free.  Pretty sure you can still develop for OS X without paying.  [EDIT: And have you any idea how much an MSDN/Visual Studio subscription costs per year?  But you can still develop with Visual Studio Express for free]

Even better now: http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs
Basically, VS Pro is free unless you're a big (>$1m/year) business.

[etotheipi]

Question to the folks who've been testing 0.93 the most:  what are your biggest remaining concerns with this release?  If I told you I was going to release the software after fixing the tx export problem (which will be in a .6 release in the next 24 hours), what would you complain about the most?  No version of Armory is perfect, and at some point we have to say "pencils down", as long as there's no security or major usability issues.

I'm welcome to take feedback from anyone, but in particular I'm inviting:

helgabutters, TimS, zombieslayer9099, justusranvier, bitpop, and Carlton Banks 

My apologies if you have been participating actively and I missed your name:  I haven't been following this thread too closely myself, and I just picked out names at a glance that had multiple feedback posts.  Ideally, I'd at least get a few thoughts back from everyone who has been involved in this the last few weeks.

(EDIT:  OSX doesn't count... I'm hoping OSX is relatively stable, but at this point we can't dump too much more in terms of resources into it for the 0.93 release)

[justusranvier]

Question to the folks who've been testing 0.93 the most:  what are your biggest remaining concerns with this release?  If I told you I was going to release the software after fixing the tx export problem (which will be in a .6 release in the next 24 hours), what would you complain about the most?  No version of Armory is perfect, and at some point we have to say "pencils down", as long as there's no security or major usability issues.

I'm welcome to take feedback from anyone, but in particular I'm inviting:

helgabutters, TimS, zombieslayer9099, justusranvier, bitpop, and Carlton Banks 

My apologies if you have been participating actively and I missed your name:  I haven't been following this thread too closely myself, and I just picked out names at a glance that had multiple feedback posts.  Ideally, I'd at least get a few thoughts back from everyone who has been involved in this the last few weeks.

(EDIT:  OSX doesn't count... I'm hoping OSX is relatively stable, but at this point we can't dump too much more in terms of resources into it for the 0.93 release)

One caveat: the extent of my testing has been:

• Does it compile?
• Will it load and show my balance

Other than generating a few new deposit addresses, I haven't used it for anything beyond that.

That being said, I'm extremely happy with the improvements in blockchain scanning and load times and haven't noticed any unfixed regressions.

[zombieslayer9099]

Armory is most stable on Linux, correct? I have an Ubuntu VM and am testing Armory on it(with blockchain), and I might migrate all my wallets over to that VM since it appears more stable (It can handle Bitcoin Qt on its own).

Also if moving wallet files, are address labels and imported addresses carried over with it?

[goatpig]

Armory is most stable on Linux, correct? I have an Ubuntu VM and am testing Armory on it, and I might migrate all my wallets over to that VM since it appears more stable (It can handle Bitcoin Qt on its own).

I would say Windows since this is what I dev on 95% of the time. However, I do test the finalized code on Debian and go through the bug checklist initially identified on Windows during the development phase. I don't directly test other Linux distros nor OSX.

Also if moving wallet files, are address labels and imported addresses carried over with it?

Yes, comments and labels are saved within the relevant wallet file.

[TimS]

(Windows 7, 0.92.99.5) When I try to import a lockbox from a file and select a file, the open file dialog quickly closes and reopens. If I select a file from this reopened dialog, it works correctly (puts the second file's content into the window so that I can import it).

Okay, a contest.  Extra 2 bounties for the winner!

Wtf do we do with the paging control widget?  Since writing the above message, we have spent even more time debating this.  The problem stems from the fact that
- If it's placed on the tableview itself, it obstructs things (or at least, it annoys me), and the user may not want/need it
- If it's placed outside the tableview, then the dialog must have extra space to put it.   Not a problem for the main window, but it will need to be placed for the wallet address ledger and the lockbox ledger.  Both those dialogs are short on space.

Obviously we want it to be available for those that need it, and it shouldn't be a easter-egg... it should be easily accessible for users that want it (i.e. we don't want to have a feature then get emails asking for us to implement it because they don't realize it's there).

One option is to leave it where it is, but add a setting to allow the user to disable/hide it.  That's probably the easiest to implement, and not a bad choice.  I'll give an extra two bounties to whoever provides and idea that we like enough to implement.  If you have a transaction history of 1,000,000 rows, spanning multiple years, how would you like to navigate that history?  And if you switch the filter to a wallet that has only one page of history, what happens to that control?  Should it be hidden, moved, or left where it is?  Should it be totally user configurable.

Ideally, whatever it is can be non-intrusive enough to have visible all the time and not inconvenience users that have small transaction histories and/or don't need the fancy controls.

When the user has over 100 (or whatever) transactions in the given list, show a search button (e.g. magnifying glass or calendar icon, or just "Search" or "Filter") on the Date column header (or hovering where the "#" is now) of the transaction tableview. Clicking it opens up the dialog that currently opens when you click "Date:" in the hovering box. Maybe add a time option, too.

I don't think that most users would need/want to search by Block # (especially since the Block is not shown on the transaction list!) or need a shortcut to jump to the Top (they have a scroll bar), like the dialog has now. And if you only have a few transactions in your list, there's no point in having anything more complicated than scrolling to search it. Putting the search icon in the Date column header means that you don't have to worry about making space for it, or having it cover data.

Maybe the 100 figure should be configurable, including "always show" and "never show [the search button]" options, to help users discover it and adjust the behavior to their liking? I don't see any other configuration options being necessary.

Question to the folks who've been testing 0.93 the most:  what are your biggest remaining concerns with this release?  If I told you I was going to release the software after fixing the tx export problem (which will be in a .6 release in the next 24 hours), what would you complain about the most?  No version of Armory is perfect, and at some point we have to say "pencils down", as long as there's no security or major usability issues.

--supernode, --datadir, and --satoshi-datadir are, to the best of my knowledge, command-line-only options: you can't specify them in a config file (probably others, but those are the ones I've used and noticed it on). This is an annoyance, albeit minor: keeping track of proper shortcuts/startup links to Armory, making sure I don't accidentally let the installer run Armory after it finishes (because it won't specify my command-line options), etc.

Using my supernode to its fullest extent (e.g. running a blockchain explorer) without great difficulty requires running armoryd.py on Linux. It would be nice if Armory (Qt) on Windows could be configured to respond to the same API commands.

TBH, I probably wouldn't be complaining except that you asked for it.

[goatpig]

(Windows 7, 0.92.99.5) When I try to import a lockbox from a file and select a file, the open file dialog quickly closes and reopens. If I select a file from this reopened dialog, it works correctly (puts the second file's content into the window so that I can import it).

That should be fixed in upcoming .6

Using my supernode to its fullest extent (e.g. running a blockchain explorer) without great difficulty requires running armoryd.py on Linux. It would be nice if Armory (Qt) on Windows could be configured to respond to the same API commands.

That would be kind of a pain. A much cheaper alternative would be freezing armoryd (the save way ArmoryQt.py turned into an exe with its Python environment on Windows).

[etotheipi]

Speaking of .6....

As always, use the secure downloader as your primary source!

  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8+ (32- and 64-bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing for MacOSX 10.7+ (64bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing for Ubuntu 12.04+ (32bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing for Ubuntu 12.04+ (64bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing for RaspberryPi  (armhf)

  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing Offline Bundle for Ubuntu 12.04 exact (32bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing Offline Bundle for Ubuntu 12.04 exact (64bit)
  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing Offline Bundle for RaspberryPi  (armhf)

  Armory 0.92.99.6-testing: Signed hashes of all installers


The biggest fix is the tx history export.  There were a few things wrong with it that should be fixed now.  

[zombieslayer9099]

The only bug I can find in .6 is when I click View Details after right clicking a TX, Armory still displays transaction inputs on all incoming transactions only as Non-Standard: 3J98t1WpEZ73CNmQviecrnyiWrnqRhWNLy when that is never the case. All outgoing transactions and any incoming transactions that have inputs from my wallets or lockboxes display normally, and it does this on my Ubuntu VM as well. This isn't a major issue but it does bother me a lot.

[zombieslayer9099]

Just found something else, when I delete private keys from a wallet (make it watching-only) Armory scans the wallet TX history again.

Also I think it should be changed to where you can go into wallet properties while it is scanning, but not be able to look at balances or send bitcoins, instead next to the addresses put 'Scanning: [percent]% or just the 3 dots that are there when building DB or rescanning it.

One more thing, it seems that the Qt dialog on OSX cannot detect USB drives.

[doug_armory]

One more thing, it seems that the Qt dialog on OSX cannot detect USB drives.

Unfortunately, there's no ideal solution for the Qt dialogs. The Qt dialogs require you to either copy the files over to your normal drive or create a symbolic link to the thumb drive, which will let you access the thumb drive. The native dialogs can pick them up but some people have issues getting the dialogs to work.

[bitpop]

I love armory!

It's perfect other than ongoing issues.

Shortcut command line args get deleted during installation. Auto run is default and can mess me up.

Can't spend unconfirmed transactions.

How do I recreate a lockbox I lost? When creating I can't choose the specific address needed.

Any plans for hd lockbox?

Possibly lockbox transactions mentioned in main screen.

When opening the lockbox screen, it cuts off the top of the window, resizing pops it back down thankfully.

Might as well make the goto button stay open now that it's moved, no need for hiding.

[zombieslayer9099]

I have one more small request. Can the minimum required addresses for lockbox creation be lowered to 1? I've got a multisig address that i generated in vanitygen and I can't use it. I don't know how to create it through Bitcoin Qt either

[goatpig]

I have one more small request. Can the minimum required addresses for lockbox creation be lowered to 1? I've got a multisig address that i generated in vanitygen and I can't use it. I don't know how to create it through Bitcoin Qt either

I'm not sure what you mean by 1. 1-of-1 multisig address? That would be a simple P2PKH. 1-of-N? You would still need the N addresses to either fund the multisig script or redeem the P2SH script. What you have is probably a P2SH address (starts with 3?). What are the underlying addresses? You would have to import their respective private keys to your wallets and create a lockbox from that.

The only bug I can find in .6 is when I click View Details after right clicking a TX, Armory still displays transaction inputs on all incoming transactions only as Non-Standard: 3J98t1WpEZ73CNmQviecrnyiWrnqRhWNLy when that is never the case. All outgoing transactions and any incoming transactions that have inputs from my wallets or lockboxes display normally, and it does this on my Ubuntu VM as well. This isn't a major issue but it does bother me a lot.

Addresses starting with 3 are P2SH. Does it do it on addresses starting with 1?

Can't spend unconfirmed transactions.

This isn't a technical issue, it's more of a feature. You can spend unconfirmed change, that's all. If you want the ability to spend any unconfirmed tx, start a thread, get some users behind the demand, that should get etotheipi's attention.

How do I recreate a lockbox I lost? When creating I can't choose the specific address needed.

Lockboxes have backup strings, you're supposed to save that. If you don't have the backup string, you'll have to find the addresses you used for it. The address book dialog used in lockbox creation only displays addresses in use. If you built your lockbox from unused addresses you'll have to go fish for them in each respective wallets properties window (uncheck hide unused) and copy paste the public keys (not the addresses) manually during lockbox creation.

Any plans for hd lockbox?

That's part of the new wallets

Might as well make the goto button stay open now that it's moved, no need for hiding.

Same code is used for address and lockbox ledgers, they don't have the same free space as the main ledger.