gregr@tekig4.UUCP (Greg Rogers) (06/08/85)
I'm running the new GEM interface for an IBM PC with a Hercules Mono Graphics board and it works pretty well in most respects. Its nice having the hard disk speed of the IBM vs the floppies of the Mac, and also REAL directories. On the minus side the IBM graphics are considerably slower and GEM can't open new windows when a new folder (directory) is opened so the current folder replaces its parent in the window. This makes it awkward to copy files between folders on the same disk. The solution is to open a second window from the same disk (this is allowed) and then open folders in this window until you have the target folder for the copy in this second window. Quite awkward compared to the Mac but you soon learn to always have two windows from your hard disk open for copying purposes. Anyway there are many more plus and minus points for a full review but I haven't time right now, maybe later if anyone's interested. What I do have is a problem with GEM that perhaps someone else on the net might have experienced or has an explaination. Neither DRI or Microsoft could help. GEM allows an application program to be loaded automatically along with the document it created by simply double clicking on the document icon (just as Mac). OR if the application icon is double clicked a dialog box allows you to enter a document name before the application is loaded. Now figure this out. If WORD ver 1.1 is the application, GEM simply ignores the first character of the document name, regardless of whether the name is typed in the dialog box, or if you had clicked the document icon. If WORD ver 2.0 is used the both cases work fine. This isn't so bad you say, use the latest version. But the latest version of Multiplan, ver 1.2, also loses the first character of the document name. MS Chart which was done later in time, than Multiplan works just fine, and I haven't found any other software that has this strange problem. Look's like Microsoft changed something between WORD 1.1 and WORD 2.0. How did DRI miss this bug with as popular a program as Multiplan? Anyway anyone have any ideas about whats going on here?