peters@pulman.dec.com (Don Peters, APO-1/F8, 289-1242) (10/01/86)
I thought I'd pass along some experience I had with a software package
called Regent-Base. I ordered this program about two weeks ago, based
upon a recommendation that this software had a good GEM interface and
was fairly powerful.
The manual comes with a classy cover, but the internal documentation
looks like it was quickly made, with numerous typographical errors
scattered throughout the manual. They couldn't have used a spelling
checker on it, although I think they have a product called Regent Spell!
After studying the manual for many hours, I wrote my first application. I
was able to design a GEM-appearing screen without too much difficulty, and
started on the report generation phase. I soon ran into unexpected error
messages that didn't apply. In fact, I soon uncovered about about six
problems, ones that severly impacted my application.
So, refering to their documentation, they say to contact them from the
hours of 10 am to 2 pm for help. But they neglected to list a phone number,
and I had to call information for it. On my first try, all I got was a
recorded message. On my second try, the next day, someone answered who
couldn't help me. In fact, he said, only "Frank" could help me, and
Frank wouldn't be back for a few days. Well, several days later I called
again. Again, a recorded message. I left my name and phone number. No
reply. Three more days I called, all during their service hours, and
always getting the same recorded message.
I'm now wondering if they are still in business. If they have a staff, it
must be extremely small if only one person in the company is capable of
answering technical questions on the product. I'm sorry I bought this
product, and can only relate these experiences to others out there who
are wondering about purchasing it. My recommendation is to avoid Regent
Base until they come out with a less buggy version and until they can
muster a staff to answer the phone.
/Don Peters, Digital, 617-689-1242/
...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-pulman!petersBillHolland.ES@XEROX.COM (10/02/86)
I picked up Regent Base also and have the same feelings as to the manual,I've called them quite often and have been able to talk to Frank,He's been most helful, and all of the time it's been my fault. It is very powerful and makes very good use of gem. I think it's like a "Rbase 5000"clone almost.They are working on a tutor program and this should help alot. As it stands I would Highly recommend this product if you "RTM" several times, very very carefuly.For customer support you might call all during the day.I WONDER DOES IT MATTER THAT I LIVE ONLY A FEW MILES AWAY. Bill Holland
glenn@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Glenn C. Scott) (10/02/86)
I too recently purchase a copy of Regent Base with the hopes of using it to maintain mailing list, etc. I first tried to use some of the example programmes supplied on the disc and quickly ran into problems. I tried for 5 evenings to work around the problems and evenutally wrote a 5 page letter to Regent Software, Attn. Frank Cohen. About two days later I received a phone call from Mr. Cohen thanking me for my letter and he preceeded to answer each of my questions or problems I itemised in the letter. In short Regent Base has a long way to go before it's very useful. I feel that, for myself, my money would have been better spent on dinner. For those of you who want detailed information, I've included parts of my letter to him and I've tried to recall each of his answers. No Sequel Editor Documentation: I have the documentation for V1.0 and although it does discuss some of the things in the Forms Editor, there is no documentation for the Sequel Editor. In spite of this, I have been able to use it as it is very similar to the Procedure Editor in the Forms Editor. Note: Sequel is the language in which you write your database programmes. It's like the language BASIC, sans flow control statements except for a sort-of GO TO. Regent Base comes with two types of editors, Sequel and Forms. The Forms editor is used to construct a GEM screen format and the Sequel editor is used to construct your database programmes. All the editors are very primitive. Apparently the software was release without any documentation for the Sequel Editor and the manual is being rewritten. Sequel Editor long line bug: Enter a line of characters almost extending the full width of the screen. Now move to the middle or beginning of that line. Press the INSERT key repeatedly until the previously typed characters move off the right edge of the screen. Now press the DELETE key to erase those inserted blank characters. After a while you will notice that there is an infinite source of characters from the right edge of the screen -- far more than you originally typed in. There are many bugs in the two Sequel editors and they are being fixed or worked around. I expressed my displeasure of having to learn another editor in order to create my Regent Base programmes and I asked how I could create my progammes using another editor (emacs). He said it was just an ascii text file and I could use any editor to create my programmes. I'm doubt if he has tried this as I found that if you saved a programme using the Sequel editor(s) the files had formatting characters or something in them. It wasn't as straight forward as I hoped. Sequel Editor can't write to other disc: Select the "Save Form" option from the drop-down menu. Enter pathname of another disc, for example D:\FOO. The editor will display an alert box with the message "Path not found". One of the bugs to be repaired. Forms Editor cancel bug: You can crash the Forms Editor by entering the Forms Editor from MENU.PRG. Select the Procedure Editor from the drop down menu. Select the "Save Procedure" item from the drop down menu. Select the cancel button on the resulting dialogue Box. Watch 2 bombs appear on your screen. One of the bugs to be repaired. Forms Editor can't close window bug: Start the Forms Editor from the main programme MENU.PRG. The Forms Editor starts-up with an empty window. Select the close box -- the window will not close. Now move the mouse onto the menu bar causing a menu to dropped down, and then deselect the drop-down menu by pressing a mouse button outside of the menu. Now press the close box on the window -- the window closes. A bug in GEM (?) Dialogue box bug: In the dialogue boxes in the Forms Editor used to name files, you can create a file with a colon ':' in it, such as A:FOO. This creates the file 'A:FOO' on the default disc (bug). Other programmes cannot find this file because the ':' is often interpreted as a delimiter and not part of the filename. Apparently Regent Software has there own set of dialogue boxes rather than the ones supplied in GEM. He said they would be using the GEM dialogue boxes in the future. Return Address bug in MAILRPT.FRM: The line that determines the return address from the MAILLIST.TBL should be changed from NAME^"MYADDRESS" to NAME="MYADDRESS". The ^ operator means "like" when matching two strings. The "like" operator will match the null string. I think this is a bug but Mr. Cohen wasn't convinced. Sorting problem: I attempted to use the sort programme as described in the documentation and consistently had trouble. I enter data into the MAILLIST.TBL via the entry form and then I return to the mail menu and select the SORT item. The sort programme displays it dialogue box and I enter the file MAILLIST as the database to sort and then I enter fields NAME, SORT1, SORT2 and then I select the option to begin sorting. The programme then displays its activity box and it counts up for a ways then then display and error message: "That field does not exist" and stops. The sort programme doesn't work correctly on a 1040ST. It's also slow. Mr. Cohen said it's being rewritten. Some MAILRPT.FRM options do not work: When I use the PHONE BOOK or Federal Express Label printer options from the report form I get a "Can't tab backwards" error. I didn't really get a good answer on this. Apparently the message occurs when a previous string is longer than the field it uses. "OUTPUT TO" cannot use the modem port: Currently the Regent Base OUTPUT TO directive cannot output to the modem port on the ST. I need to output to the modem port as I don't use a printer connected to the ST but rather another computer. The CONTROL.ACC desk accessory allows the user to indicate that the system printer is either on the printer port or on the modem port. This was my biggest complaint. In future versions provision will be made to output to the modem port. Form Editor labels are unreadable: When displaying the labels of items in a Form by selecting the Show Labels option from the menu, the labels are draw in such a way that they overlap or they are off of the screen. Future versions will have the labels display inside of their corresponding fields. The documentation indicates there is limited space in the Regent Base Sequel Editor or Procedure editor for programme text (I think it was 8 pages or so). Consequently Regent Base programmes are all scrunched up and not very easy to read. Is that limitation (8 pages of programme text) also present in the Regent Base interpretor ? The limit in the interpretor is 64K of text. The 8 page limit is in the editors only. The font used in the Sequel and Procedure editors editors is ugly. How can I change that font to a different font or to the system font ? The font is a DEGAS font file SYSTEM.FNT. I tried to replace it with another font but it didn't work. Glenn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn C. Scott System Development Corporation, 2525 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA. 90406 213-820-4111 X5653 UUCP: glenn@sdcrdcf.UUCP ARPA: Scott@DOCKMASTER.ARPA