Bug 2050 – Misleading LAME version error message

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Audacity 3.0.3 development began 19th April 2021

Audacity Bugzilla

Bug 2050 - Misleading LAME version error message


Summary:	Misleading LAME version error message

Status:	RESOLVED FIXED

Product:	Audacity
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	User Interface
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	Per OS All

Importance:	P5 Enhancement
Assigned To:	Steve Daulton

URL:
Keywords:

Depends on:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2018-12-17 07:26 UTC by Steve Daulton
Modified:	2019-03-11 13:48 UTC (History)
CC List:	6 users (show)

See Also:
Steps To Reproduce:	You can get LAME 3.100 from here: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php To trigger the error message, you will need to 1) temporarily uninstall the correct Audacity version of LAME, 2) Copy the lame_enc.dll from the downloaded ZIP, and place it in the same directory as audacity.exe 3) Launch Audacity 4) "Preferences > Libraries" and select lame_enc.dll from the audacity.exe directory You should then see the error message.
Release Note:
First Git SHA:
Group:	---
Workaround:
Closed:	2019-03-11 00:00:00

Flags:	petersampsonaudacity: Test‑OK‑Win+

Attachments
LAME 3.100 no-goerror message on W10 (19.83 KB, image/png) 2019-03-11 08:09 UTC, Peter Sampson	Details
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Description Steve Daulton 2018-12-17 07:26:59 UTC

If an incompatible version of Lame is installed, then attempting to export as MP3 gives the error message (from bool MP3Exporter::InitLibrary(wxString libpath)):

mBladeVersion.Printf(_("You are linking to lame_enc.dll v%d.%d. This version is not compatible with Audacity %d.%d.%d.\nPlease download the latest version of the LAME MP3 library."),
                              v.byMajorVersion,
                              v.byMinorVersion,
                              AUDACITY_VERSION,
                              AUDACITY_RELEASE,
                              AUDACITY_REVISION);

It is confusing if the user has the latest version of Lame installed because Audacity requires a Lame build that is NOT the latest version of Lame.

The error message would be clearer as:
"...Please download the latest version of 'LAME for Audacity'."

Logging this and assigning to myself as we are in string freeze.

Comment 1 Peter Sampson 2018-12-17 07:48:02 UTC

Of course it would be much easier if we just bundled LAME

Comment 2 Steve Daulton 2019-03-10 13:46:13 UTC

Fix committed at https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/b0738f6

This fix will become irrelevant when LAME is included, but may as well
fix it in the meantime.

Comment 3 Steve Daulton 2019-03-11 07:00:57 UTC

Updated steps to reproduce.

Comment 4 Peter Sampson 2019-03-11 08:09:29 UTC

Created attachment 804 [details]
LAME 3.100 no-goerror message on W10

Testing on W10 with 2.3.0 and 2.3.1 I cannot get Libraries Prefs to link to the LAME 3.100 that I downloaded.   

Also the same with the latest 2.3.2 alpha from Steve's Appveyor build:
audacity-2.3.2-alpha-237-b0738f6e099fcf3f9d0f58be9b8676269d441f99

So for me this is WORKSFORME on W10

Comment 5 Peter Sampson 2019-03-11 08:15:09 UTC

The error message is misleading anyway as it says to "download the latest version of LAME" - but the latest vn. of LAME is 3.100 and Audacity does NOT support that.

And why is it an "info" dialog and not an "error"

Comment 6 Cliff Scott 2019-03-11 08:31:40 UTC

3.100 is the version of the 64bit version we're now using.

Comment 7 Steve Daulton 2019-03-11 09:06:34 UTC

(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #5)
> The error message is misleading anyway as it says to "download the latest
> version of LAME" - but the latest vn. of LAME is 3.100 and Audacity does
> NOT support that.

That is precisely the bug that I fixed in
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/b0738f6

As the bug title says, this bug is about the message being misleading.
I have now updated the message so that it says:

"Please download the latest version of 'LAME for Audacity'."

rather than:

"Please download the latest version of the LAME MP3 library."

If you see the updated message, then this bug can be closed.

Comment 8 Peter Sampson 2019-03-11 09:13:15 UTC

(In reply to Cliff Scott from comment #6)
>3.100 is the version of the 64bit version we're now using
Yes indeed - but 32-bit Windows requires an earlier version 3.99.3

Comment 9 Peter Sampson 2019-03-11 09:14:11 UTC

(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #7)


Yes I do see that new message - might it be improved further if we actaullay told them there that "version 3.99.3" is the required version ?

Comment 10 Steve Daulton 2019-03-11 09:37:32 UTC

(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #9)
I don't think it's worth taking this further as we are intending to ship LAME with Audacity, so this error message will become redundant.