Roku Developer Program

[CaptSpify]

Hello,
I'm a newer dev, so forgive me if this is obvious but I can't seem to get the debugger to work for me. I'm having trouble getting my app to initially load. Whenever I upload it, nothing happens. I've run the Examples and they work fine. They even output to the debugger.

Whenever I upload mine, I get nothing from the debugger. I even tried a really simple Program:

 Function Main()
     print "Begin"
     stop
 End Function

That should just echo "Begin" into the debugger and quit, right?

Also, the documentation says that I should be able to hit CTRL-C on the debugger to make it interactive. Whenever I do that, nothing happens.
Here is the output from the debugger for me uploading my app, and then pressing CTRL-C:

Connected to 192.168.1.3.
Escape character is '^]'.
^C

Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for the help!

[YungBlood]

You should get some response when you try to run it. Even if it's a compile error, or just "------ Running -------". Sounds like you have an issue with how you are trying to load it.

[destruk]

There have been issues with using control-C - sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Control-C should break execution of your running app and get you a prompt with a flashing cursor in the debugger window.
You can also use 'stop' - or code a temporary test error on purpose into your code for it to break into debugger mode when your program tries to execute. - such concepts like forcing a program crash intentionally are my own - I'm sure they are not recommended by the majority of programmers out there.
Judicious use of print statements are a good idea when debugging your code - they can be removed before publication.

[TheEndless]

You can only have one session open with the debugger at a time, and the first session always wins. Opening a second session will connect, but show an empty screen. So, a few things... a) are you sure you're connecting to port 8085? Several ports are open to telnet, so you might be telnetting to the wrong one for the debugger., b) are you sure you don't have another connection open elsewhere. You can force all connections closed by rebooting the box, and c) have you tried modifying one of the sample apps that you say do work? Perhaps there's an issue with the contents of your zip file...?

[CaptSpify]

"TheEndless" wrote:
You can only have one session open with the debugger at a time, and the first session always wins. Opening a second session will connect, but show an empty screen. So, a few things... a) are you sure you're connecting to port 8085? Several ports are open to telnet, so you might be telnetting to the wrong one for the debugger., b) are you sure you don't have another connection open elsewhere. You can force all connections closed by rebooting the box, and c) have you tried modifying one of the sample apps that you say do work? Perhaps there's an issue with the contents of your zip file...?

Yes, I have tried rebooting. I've also double-checked that I'm connecting to Port 8085. The weird thing is, that I am getting the output when I load the example apps. That means that it's working, just not for my apps. Should my app work? or is there something else I should try to debug "installing" my app?

[RokuJoel]

I'm guessing there is something fishy with how you are zipping up your channel before loading it, or something wrong with the folder structure within. Maybe you are missing the manifest file.

Instead of starting completely from scratcy, duplicate one of the examples like simpleposter or simpleinfo, rename the folder, and replace the contents of the .brs file with the code you want to experiment. To properly zip on a windows pc, open the folder of your project, select all, and send to zip, upload that zip, remember to remove the zip from the folder when done. Try to remove any hidden/system files from the folders before zipping. On a mac, right-click or ctrl-click the folder name of your project and select Archive, or Compress (depending on the version of Mac OS you are using)

- Joel

[EnTerr]

Is it possible that the channel exits because no any visual component (e.g. roPosterScreen, roParagraphScreen) has been deployed?
i get the impression there are multiple threads, one for GUI, one for scripts and the script one is not necessarily the main one.