Can I run 2 instances of Studio 2015 at the same time?

While I am waiting for the analysis of a large project to complete (30 minutes so far), I am tempted to open another instance of Studio 2015 so that I can begin translating another project.

Before I do so, I would like someone from SDL to confirm that nothing nasty is going to happen.

I imagine that having two instances of Studio working on the same project would cause sharing problems with the sdlproj file, so I would work on different projects.

Could the two instances share TMs or other files, or would this cause problems?

Thank you!

Bruce Campbell

ASAP Language Services

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  • Hi Bruce,

    You can work on 2 projects in the same instance of Studio, but you cannot use the same TMs. You would need to create a copy of the TMs first in order to do this. This would be the same for multiple instances of Studio as well.

    You can also run multiple batch tasks on the same project in the same instance of Studio but you should do this in the proper order (pre-translate files then analyze files for example).

    Thanks
    Luke

  • Thank you Alison, Luke and Jesse,

    I am glad to hear that you have not run into problems Alison. That is a very good sign.

    Jesse, luckily I am running Windows 7 with an NTFS file system and no network share, so the problem areas in the SQLite FAQ you mention don't apply to me.

    Your two answers seem to indicate that running two instances sharing TMs would be fine.

    I did a quick Google to see whether termbases are also SQLite databases, but did not find anything in the 5 or 6 hits I checked. Do you know whether they are SQLite?

    Luke, when I click on your name, the description indicates that you work for SDL.

    Your answer seems to contradict those that Alison and Jesse gave.

    I am particularly confused by your statement that "You can work on 2 projects in the **same instance** of Studio, but you cannot use the same TMs".

    If editing two projects that share TMs at the same time is a problem, why did SDL design Studio so that you can do it?

    SDL could easily have restricted Studio so that it could only edit one project at a time.

    Luke, could you provide more detail on your answer? Do you work for SDL, and are Alison and Jesse incorrect in some way?

    I look forward to hearing from you :-)

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • Hi Bruce,

    Yes, I do work for SDL as a Localization Engineer. Alison and Jesse are certainly correct. My apologies if my answer confused the matter slightly :). I just meant to point out that you can run the analysis at the same time as doing other activities in one instance of Studio (i.e. analyze or pre-translate another project through batch tasks or translate a file in the Editor tab). If you are simply running an analysis, you could just minimize this pop-up window and run the other tasks.

    I just ran various tests using the same TM in one instance of Studio and all worked fine. The point where an issue might arise is if you are updating the same TM at the same time.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks
    Luke
  • Thank you Luke,

    I am glad to hear you agree with Alison and Jesse. But I am not sure why you qualify this agreement in your last sentence, where you say "an issue might arise ... if you are updating the same TM at the same time".

    I doubt that I will actually do any simultaneous updating, but it would be nice to make things crystal clear, if possible (for posterity :-)

    According to the SQLite FAQ that Jesse mentioned, the database would be locked when a write is performed and then unlocked after the write.

    If none of the locking problems mentioned in the SQLite faq apply (e.g. Windows 7 with a local NTFS file system should be fine), then locking should be reliable ...

    Is there something Jesse and Alison missed that would cause an issue if two processes are updating a TM at the same time?

    Does Studio use standard SQLite code ? Or has it for some strange reason made changes to SQLite locking ?

    Thank you!
    Bruce
    ASAP Language Services
  • Unknown said:
    I did a quick Google to see whether termbases are also SQLite databases, but did not find anything in the 5 or 6 hits I checked. Do you know whether they are SQLite?

    They are MSAccess... at least filebased Termbases are.

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Hi Bruce,

    Updating a TM creates a .journal temp file that I had thought was created each time you update and the 2nd time you update, it wouldn't be able to overwrite this temp file and would instead error out. I am certain I have received these errors in the past. However, I just did a test and it DID work fine. Point being, working on the same TM twice in one instance of Studio OR in multiple instances of Studio works fine.

    Thank you
    Luke
  • Thank you Luke and Paul,

    Your test appears to confirm that SQLite TM locking works fine, Luke, so it looks like we just have to be careful about the cases Jesse mentioned in the SQLite FAQ where locking is unreliable.

    And from your answer Paul, it looks like we don't have to worry about termbases, since MS Access uses record locking.

    Thank you everyone. That will make things easier when I am waiting for Studio to finish an operation :-)

    Best regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Solutions
  • Hi Luke,

    Just a note about the journal temp file. In the past when I used a buffalo NAS drive I had issues. This is due to the issue described below:
    producthelp.sdl.com/.../3910.html
  • Unknown said:
    it would be nice to make things crystal clear, if possible (for posterity :-)

    Hi Bruce et al,

    Crystal? Hmm... You've inspired me to say something I've said before. We have here complex software programmed by humans, processing varied source content with reference to complex databases of one sort and another, all again written by humans, on hardware built by humans, and that only explains the human-generated errors. Then we have the fascinating results of the release of all those electronic impulses generated by known programming code into the unpredictable environment of an unknown combination of all the possible third-party software and all its varying programming code. Add to that the stuff that comes down from 'the ether', from Windows updates through to invasive malware and the software produced and constantly updated to deal with it... The result is inevitably going to include what a software programmer I once knew called 'features' (bugs or inconsistencies in performance).

    The end result is that nothing can be absolutely crystal clear except 'on paper', really ;-)

    Brings to mind the pirate's quote... "code is more what you'd call 'guidelinesthan actual rules"... Well, sort of.

    I'm repeatedly impressed by the fact that the complex software combo that is Studio and MultiTerm pretty consistently works as amazingly brilliantly as it does. 

    Keep it up, the guys at SDL, you're doing an amazing job!

    Ali :D

  • Hi Alison,

    You're absolutely right! It is amazing how everything works in these big packages (most of the time :-)

    And although nothing will ever be "crystal" clear, it is comforting to know how the TMs are designed.

    And I feel safe now -- I really did not want to put my TMs at risk without first trying to find out a bit more!

    Thanks for your help :-)

    Regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
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