Atropine 1.3.0 coming soon - your help needed!

[Graeme Cole]

This thread is relevant to anyone who uses Atropine (the co-event administration tool, not the medicinal alkaloid).

As previously mentioned here, the next version of Atropine will be distributed as a standalone Windows executable, the main benefit of which is that Windows users will be able to use Atropine without having Python installed.

It will look a lot like the pre-release testing-only version of 1.3.0 I've uploaded here: https://greem.uk/atropine/atropine-1.3.0-test.html

(If anyone's interested - I built it using PyInstaller, which is a useful piece of kit that takes a Python program and spits out an executable file. However, you almost certainly won't need to know that.)

I've tested that this works on Windows on my desktop and laptop, both of which use Windows 11. I'm pretty confident that it should work on Windows 10 or 11, which nowadays should cover most Windows machines, but I can't verify this.

This is where you all come in.

If you use Atropine on Windows, and especially if you intend to run an event with it in 2025, please take a few minutes to check that the new executable Atropine will work on your computer. You'll need to download the zip file containing the executable, extract the zip file to a folder of your choice, run atropine.exe, visit the localhost browser link it gives you, and check that the basic functionality works for you.

If you can create a tournament, set a player list, generate fixtures for one round and enter a result, that's a success. Please post in this thread to say what version of Windows you have, and that it worked. This is useful information even if you also use Windows 11 - it's always good to check I haven't somehow made an application that only works on my machine.

If you can't do these things - for example, because you get a weird error - please post in this thread to say so. Tell me what version of Windows you have, and please also screenshot or copy/paste any error message you get. I will then try to fix whatever the problem is. If I can't fix it, then don't worry - for the foreseeable future Atropine will still be released in the "old" way as well, but as before, you'd need Python in order to run that.

The final 1.3.0 version of Atropine will, all being well, look and work basically the same as in the test build above. So, if you spot any other issues with it, or want to suggest any last-minute improvements, there's a suggestion box for that.

[Fiona T]

Avast ain't happy - have sent you screenshots...

[Fiona T]

Blocked by Avast, then Chrome, then windows defender.

Having got round all that, worked nicely on Windows 11 - created a 1 round tourney and entered the results successfully

[Graeme Cole]

Thanks for testing it. Looks like some virus checkers take a dislike to executables made by Pyinstaller for some reason. I'll see if there's another way I can build it.

[Graeme Cole]

I rebuilt PyInstaller, then repackaged Atropine without the --onefile option, so it's now an executable file and a directory of stuff rather than just an executable file. According to random internet folklore, this is supposed to make it look a bit less like malware to overzealous virus checkers, and apparently it's had some degree of success. virustotal.com now claims only 2 out of 72 security vendors have a problem with it (it was previously 5), and Avast isn't one of them.

I've updated the test download page above. If you go to https://greem.uk/atropine/atropine-1.3.0-test.html now, you'll find a zip file containing a Windows executable (atropine.exe) and a directory of stuff. Extract the zip file to a folder of your choice, open it, and run atropine.exe as before.

[Graeme Cole]

Final reminder about this, to everyone who intends to use Atropine in running a co-event in 2025. I haven't received any more reports of problems with the new test version since Fiona's post above. If I don't hear anything, I'll assume that there are no more problems, and this will be how Atropine works from now on.

Note that even though the next versions of Atropine will still be available in the "old" format which requires Python, these will still contain the significant internal changes that have been made to Atropine for technical reasons related to new releases of Python. So it's still a good idea for you to test the 1.3.0-pre3 version linked above, just in case.

If you do have problems with the new Atropine, please make them known now. We don't want the situation where you only discover a problem on the morning of your event, when I might not be around to fix it.

[Ben Wilson]

I've (finally) run a test event today and everything seems to be fine for my purposes.

[Graeme Cole]

The new version of Atropine, 1.3.0, is now available at the usual place. Instructions are provided, but not much has changed except that Windows users now have an Atropine build that doesn't need Python. Windows users are encouraged to try this build first. You can always revert to the traditional Python-requiring build if necessary.

As well as being able to run without Python being installed, the main improvements are as follows:

• Tourney database files are now stored in your "Application Data" folder, rather than a "tourneys" folder that lives with the Atropine installation. A note at the bottom of the main Atropine page (the one that lets you create a tourney) tells you where this folder is, if you're interested.
• New display view: Standings/Fixtures (Vertical), which puts the standings on the left half of the screen, and the results for this round or the fixtures for the next round (if available) on the right half.
• Minor improvements to some of the spot prize pages such as Overachievers. This now shows matches where someone beat a player seeded far above them. For this to work, you need to have entered the players in rating order on the setup page, and told Atropine you did that.
• The Standings page can now show you how the standings looked at the end of past rounds.

Mac users - if you have any success or otherwise using Atropine 1.3.0 on a Mac (obviously, this will have to be the build that requires Python and not the Windows one), I'd be interested to find out!

[Graeme Cole]

Atropine 1.3.1 is now available. As before, there is a Windows executable version and a traditional distribution that requires Python to be installed.

There are only a few minor changes compared to 1.3.0:

• The HTML and Text reports from the "Export results" page now have a "Podium" section showing who came first, second and third.
• Display Options: the "Show name-to-table index instead of fixture list..." checkbox now defaults to off for new tourneys, so by default the "name-to-table-index" will not be shown on the public display at the start of a round. You'll see the individual fixtures instead. Most organisers unchecked this box anyway.
• The "Second Wind" page now considers performance improvements from every round to the next one, not just Round 1 to Round 2.
• The results entry interface now has a more prominent link to the "Edit fixtures" page.

As always, organisers of upcoming events are requested to try it out and tell me about any problems.

The default behaviour of the Swiss Army Blunderbuss fixture generator is still unchanged ("play someone near you in the standings"), but I haven't forgotten that some people would prefer the default to be "play a random player on the same number of wins as you". I know COLIN used that for some rounds/days, Oxford didn't use it, and I think MK didn't either. However, if enough events switch to this method, I'll make it the default.

[Fiona T]

executable not working for me, but quite possibly user error !

[Graeme Cole]

executable not working for me, but quite possibly user error !

Could you elaborate? How far did you get? Do you get any error message?

[Fiona T]

told my virus checker to ignore the errors, extracted the zip, clicked the executable, told windows defender it was fine, flashed up a window and nothing. Tried again, window flashed up and disappeared.

[Graeme Cole]

told my virus checker to ignore the errors, extracted the zip, clicked the executable, told windows defender it was fine, flashed up a window and nothing. Tried again, window flashed up and disappeared.

The atropine-1.3.1-windows-exe.zip file should contain two things: an executable file named atropine.exe, and a folder named _internal.

After you extract the contents of the zip file, atropine.exe expects that "_internal" folder to be next to it, in the same place relative to atropine.exe. If the "_internal" folder is not there, atropine.exe will behave as you describe. Did you move the executable to someplace else and not move the _internal folder at the same time?

If that's not the problem, could you open a command prompt, navigate to where atropine.exe is and run it from the command line? Then if it's giving you an error message you'll be able to see what it is.

[Fiona T]

Ok that was weird then - it stuck the _internal folder at a level above the .exe when I unzipped. Moved it and it works. Probably user error!

[Fiona T]

yep - re-extracted and all fine. Must have done something daft first time!