So today I decided to mess around with something called Tyler Meade. Honestly, I dunno much about it, but saw folks talking online and figured, why not? Jumped straight in like I usually do.
The Setup Phase
First thing, dug around for some files. Found this zip folder people mentioned. Downloaded it, unzipped the thing. Looked straightforward enough – a few folders, some config files. My usual move is just to double-click whatever looks like the main file. Found one called run_*, clicked it.
Nada. Blank command prompt flashed for half a second and vanished. Tried it again. Same deal. Dead end right off the bat. Got that sinking feeling already.
Trying to Fix the Wreck
Alright, time to get my hands dirty. Opened the command prompt myself, navigated slowly to the folder where that bat file lived. Ran it manually this time, so I could see the errors. Boom:
- Missing dependencies – the thing spat out a bunch of gibberish about missing .dll files. Great.
- Python? Really? – Apparently part of it needed Python. Didn’t have the right version installed, naturally.
- Permission Denied – On some random log file it tried to write. Classic Windows stuff.
Scratched my head. Okay, install Python, I guess. Downloaded the latest Python, ran the installer, ticked that “add to PATH” box everyone says is important. Went back, tried the bat file again. Different errors now!
Started Googling the specific missing .dll names. Half an hour later, found out I needed some Visual C++ redistributable packages installed. Microsoft’s website is a maze, but eventually found the download, ran it.
Crossed my fingers, ran the bat file again. Command prompt actually stayed open this time! For about three seconds. Then it crashed hard with this “Unhandled Exception” nonsense. Heart sank. Checked the crash dump – something about a null reference. Total gibberish to me.
Giving Up Gracefully
By this point, wasted most of my morning. Coffee cold. Frustration level: critical. Looked online again, deeper this time. Found obscure forum posts mentioning needing very specific older versions of Python libraries and configuring environment variables just so.
Frankly? Not worth it. My gut feeling was right at the start – this thing was a house of cards waiting to fall. Way too finicky for a Tuesday. Closed everything down, dumped the project folder into my “Maybe Later” subfolder (where things go to die).
Felt dumb for wasting so much time. But hey, at least I got a blog post out of it. Saved you the hassle, right? Trust me, sometimes playing with weird stuff online sounds fun until you actually start doing it. Stick to your knitting, or at least, stick to things that have actual documentation.
