MOPEKS Guide to Quality Control

MOPEKS^® Guide to Quality Control

Introduction

It is extremely rare to come across a computer program that performs perfectly in all circumstances and MOPEKS is no exception to that rule. That is why you are advised to restart MOPEKS if you are about to commence a significant task. The longer you use it in a single session the more likely it is to fail. This is because one or more of the thousands of variables involved may acquire unexpected values which cause an error.

Other errors may occur because you have managed to run the MOPEKS in a way that I never anticipated - if you spend years developing a program, it is difficult to imagine what it looks like to a new user. I have often downloaded software written by other people and thought 'what am I supposed to do now?' Doubtless the programmer thought it was obvious. To me it was not and I just start pressing buttons - usually with surprising results.

MOPEKS may also fail because you have input data that is invalid. If that happens, you should get a 'red warning' asking you to correct the data. This error will normally be recorded in the Error Log.

Red Warnings

To illustrate this, I deliberately introduced a programming error early on in MOPEKS (just temporarily, I hasten to add) . Sure enough, when it started I got a red warning in the Advice form as below:

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Viewing the Error Log

You can access the Error Log in three ways but the the simplest ways are to either click the 'Error Log' button on the Advice form above when the error occurs or just navigate to the following file and click on it:

C:\MOPEKS\Error Log\Error Log.mtxt

It is possible that your computer may not know how to open a file with the extension 'mtxt', in which case it may ask you how you wish to open it. If that happens, choose Notepad or Wordpad. This should NOT happen because when MOPEKS starts up it will ask you whether you are happy to associate it with certain files extensions. This process is described in great detail in 'FAQ ⇨ General ⇨ #06'

When the file opens, it should look something like the screen shot below. Or, better, it may be completely empty!

The error entries may be a bit obscure but their main purpose is to help me develop and test MOPEKS. For that reason, if you have errors, it would be very helpful if you would email the relevant part of your error log to me (see 'Contact' on naviagtion bar above)

Incidentally, the entries highlighted in blue below which relate to the number of copies appear to be illogical. This is because the error shown (division by zero) occurred before the variables concerned had been correctly set up.

Error messages are often confusing. Not just in MOPEKS but in many other computer programs also. Sometimes because the error indicated is a consequence of an earlier error which went undetected. Or maybe the program is allowed to continue to run after an error is detected with the result that a whole shower of errors are shown. Most of which are not real errors.

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Error Log via Quality Control

Start MOPEKS and when the Reception form is visible (see 'Guide ⇨ Reception') set the radio button on 'Quality Control'. Then press the green "Continue" button. At this point the 'Quality Control' form should appear as below. You can then scroll up and down and copy and paste if you wish.

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