[comp.sys.amiga] Helpful 2.0 Advice

peter@cbmvax.commodore.com (Peter Cherna) (07/11/90)

In article <534@beguine.UUCP> Bill.Frandsen@samba.acs.unc.edu (BBS Account) writes:
>Just the other evening, I got to work with a A3000 in 2.0 mode.  The dealer
>who was demoing it had just gotten a shipment of 12 AmigaVision
>packages in on Tuesday, and had also just received an update to 2.0 and
>placed it on his A3000.  However, as he noticed (as well as myself), more
>things were breaking under this newest version of 2.0.  On of them being
>Commodore's own Preferences/SetClock-Calendar (forgot what the icon's name
>was).  If you clicked on Save, Use, or Cancel, it would jump the date back
>6 days or so, back to the first of the month, and would not allow you to
>exit with any of the 3 gadgets.  However, the close gadget in the corner
>of the window would let you shut down the program. 

Umm, interesting.  For a while now, the "Time Preferences" program has
not had a close gadget.  Are you sure the dealer didn't "downgrade" his
system, or perhaps is mixing one beta version of Kickstart with a different
beta version of Workbench?  Make sure that they both are from the same
set, and preferably the release versions.  Type "version" from the Shell,
or use the Workbench "Version" menu option.  You should see
Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.  Accept nothing less.


**** HELPFUL NOTE FOR ALL OF US ****

If you are making observations about the behavior of the 2.0 release,
please supply the two version numbers your machine reports when you
take the steps I described.  Also note that a lot of compatibility problems
were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.

     Peter
--
     Peter Cherna, Software Engineer, Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
     {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!peter    peter@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
My opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer.
"This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left."

es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (07/11/90)

In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>**** HELPFUL NOTE FOR ALL OF US ****
>
>If you are making observations about the behavior of the 2.0 release,
>please supply the two version numbers your machine reports when you
>take the steps I described.  Also note that a lot of compatibility problems
>were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.

	Peter, it seems to me that release 2.0 BROKE many things
that worked in Beta. Whap!, the compuserve navigator, worked fine
under beta 2.0 on a 2500/20. Now it won't work on the A3000.
Perhaps it is the A3000 itself, maybe. There is also PenPal,
which the people at Softwood were very surprised to hear didn't
work anymore. It did work under their beta versions, though.

>
>     Peter
>--
>     Peter Cherna, Software Engineer, Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
>     {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!peter    peter@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
>My opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer.
>"This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left."


	-- Ethan

Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu

"If Commodore had to market sushi they'd call it `raw cold fish'"
		-- The Bandito, inevitably stolen from someone else

dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) (07/12/90)

In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.

I take it you mis-remembered/typoed, because the disks I got from CATS
last week which are labeled as the release give me kick 33.180 and
work 33.68 when I check the version booting from those disks.


--
	There are two ways to improve on human factors in computing:
 to make the programmers less stupid and/or to make the users less stupid.  
		Both are necessary, but neither is likely.
     -Dale Larson, Digital Teddy Bear (dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu)

consp13@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Marcus Cannava) (07/12/90)

|>In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
|>>**** HELPFUL NOTE FOR ALL OF US ****
|>>
|>>If you are making observations about the behavior of the 2.0 release,
|>>please supply the two version numbers your machine reports when you
|>>take the steps I described.  Also note that a lot of compatibility problems
|>>were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
|>>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.
|>

I am using the version listed above. (36.141, 36.68).

|>	Peter, it seems to me that release 2.0 BROKE many things
|>that worked in Beta. Whap!, the compuserve navigator, worked fine
|>under beta 2.0 on a 2500/20. Now it won't work on the A3000.
|>Perhaps it is the A3000 itself, maybe. There is also PenPal,
|>which the people at Softwood were very surprised to hear didn't
|>work anymore. It did work under their beta versions, though.
|>

                               
	Not to mention the Janus software from Commodore's own
BridgeBoard! It has not worked at all for me under WB 2.0! I've
heard rumors that it had no compatibility problems with the
Beta 2.0, which is why this bug was never detected!

				\marc
	
----

'I do not fear computers.. I fear the lack of them'  -- I. Asimov
									RNM

joe@cbmvax.commodore.com (Joe O'Hara - Product Assurance) (07/12/90)

In article <4970@milton.u.washington.edu> dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) writes:
>In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>>were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
>>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.
>
>I take it you mis-remembered/typoed, because the disks I got from CATS
>last week which are labeled as the release give me kick 33.180 and
>work 33.68 when I check the version booting from those disks.

I take it you're running on a different platform from A3000 using the
developer tools. Kickit does not redirect the version information for
kickstart: you're seeing the in-ROM version number. Please send complete
data about your problem, including full system configuration to CATS so
that we can track this down. WordPerfect is running under 2.0 on the
A3000 platform.
-- 
==========================================================================
  Joe O'Hara                ||      Disclaimer: I didn't say that!
  Commodore Electronics Ltd ||
  Product Assurance         || "I never lie when I have sand in my shoes."
  Systems Evaluation Group  ||             - Geordi LeForge, Star Trek TNG
==========================================================================

peter@cbmvax.commodore.com (Peter Cherna) (07/12/90)

In article <4970@milton.u.washington.edu> dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) writes:
>In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>>were fixed or worked around in the Release 2.0, which has the numbers
>>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.
>
>I take it you mis-remembered/typoed, because the disks I got from CATS
>last week which are labeled as the release give me kick 33.180 and
>work 33.68 when I check the version booting from those disks.

The Workbench disk is absolutely 36.68.  The Kickstart version number
that you are running should be 36.141, and typing or selecting
"version" on an A3000 tells you so.  If you are a developer running
2.0 on a 2000-class machine using our special tools, version gets fooled
into reporting the Kickstart version of your real ROM, and not the version
of 2.0 you loaded.  People who see "34.5" are running with 1.3 ROMs.
I now know you have 1.2 ROMs in your machine, version 33.180.  Try the
"config" utility we provide to developers.  It apparently knows to get
the real version number.

>     -Dale Larson, Digital Teddy Bear (dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu)

     Peter
--
     Peter Cherna, Software Engineer, Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
     {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!peter    peter@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
My opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer.
"This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left."

eric@cbmvax.commodore.com (Eric Cotton) (07/13/90)

In article <13139@cbmvax.commodore.com> peter@cbmvax (Peter Cherna) writes:
>In article <534@beguine.UUCP> Bill.Frandsen@samba.acs.unc.edu (BBS Account) writes:
>>Just the other evening, I got to work with a A3000 in 2.0 mode.  The dealer
>>who was demoing it had just gotten a shipment of 12 AmigaVision
>>packages in on Tuesday, and had also just received an update to 2.0 and
>>placed it on his A3000.  However, as he noticed (as well as myself), more
>>things were breaking under this newest version of 2.0.  On of them being
>>Commodore's own Preferences/SetClock-Calendar (forgot what the icon's name
>>was).  If you clicked on Save, Use, or Cancel, it would jump the date back
>>6 days or so, back to the first of the month, and would not allow you to
>>exit with any of the 3 gadgets.  However, the close gadget in the corner
>>of the window would let you shut down the program. 
>
>Umm, interesting.  For a while now, the "Time Preferences" program has
>not had a close gadget.  Are you sure the dealer didn't "downgrade" his
>system, or perhaps is mixing one beta version of Kickstart with a different
>beta version of Workbench?  Make sure that they both are from the same
>set, and preferably the release versions.  Type "version" from the Shell,
>or use the Workbench "Version" menu option.  You should see
>Kickstart 36.141, Workbench 36.68.  Accept nothing less.

Further details:

There did (briefly) exist an old version of the Time editor that behaved in
the way described above.  The final released version is 36.18.  Accept no
substitutes.

-- 
Eric Cotton
Commodore-Amiga                                               (215) 431-9100
1200 Wilson Drive                        {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!eric
West Chester, PA 19380            "I don't find this stuff amusing anymore."

tep@tots.UUCP (Tom Perrine) (07/13/90)

In article <13163@cbmvax.commodore.com> joe@cbmvax (Joe O'Hara - Product Assurance) writes:
>.... WordPerfect is running under 2.0 on the 3000 platform.

Please tell Word Perfect! I called their technical support number
yesterday (7/12) and got the same "we'll port when we get a released
2.0", and that "WP is not guaranteed to run on 2.0, even with
non-proportional fonts" (they knew that proportional fonts were sure
death).

Since WP *usually* has excellent support, maybe you know something
about WP that they don't? :-)

Tom Perrine (tep)                       |Internet: tep@tots.Logicon.COM
Logicon                                 |UUCP: nosc!hamachi!tots!tep
Tactical and Training Systems Division  |-or-  sun!suntan!tots!tep
San Diego CA                            |GENIE: T.PERRINE
"Harried: with preschoolers"            |+1 619 455 1330
Home of the _Tower Operator Training System_ as seen in the SunTech Journal.

es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (07/13/90)

In article <155@tots.UUCP> tep@tots.Logicon.COM (Tom Perrine) writes:
>In article <13163@cbmvax.commodore.com> joe@cbmvax (Joe O'Hara - Product Assurance) writes:
>>.... WordPerfect is running under 2.0 on the 3000 platform.
>
>Please tell Word Perfect! I called their technical support number
>yesterday (7/12) and got the same "we'll port when we get a released
>2.0", and that "WP is not guaranteed to run on 2.0, even with
>non-proportional fonts" (they knew that proportional fonts were sure
>death).
>
>Since WP *usually* has excellent support, maybe you know something
>about WP that they don't? :-)

	WORDPERFECT DOES RUN UNDER 2.0! It just does. If you make
everything a non-proportional 8 point font everything works just
fine. I am running under a newly bought A3000, not a dealer model
and not a Beta. This is the release version.
	It is beginning to sound like there may have been a mixup
in what version was shipped with some models, however...

>
>Tom Perrine (tep)                       |Internet: tep@tots.Logicon.COM
>Logicon                                 |UUCP: nosc!hamachi!tots!tep
>Tactical and Training Systems Division  |-or-  sun!suntan!tots!tep
>San Diego CA                            |GENIE: T.PERRINE
>"Harried: with preschoolers"            |+1 619 455 1330
>Home of the _Tower Operator Training System_ as seen in the SunTech Journal.


	-- Ethan

Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu

"If Commodore had to market sushi they'd call it `raw cold fish'"
		-- The Bandito, inevitably stolen from someone else

mwm@raven.pa.dec.com (Mike (Real Amigas have keyboard garages) Meyer) (07/14/90)

In article <1990Jul13.005746.27391@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:
   In article <155@tots.UUCP> tep@tots.Logicon.COM (Tom Perrine) writes:
   >Please tell Word Perfect! I called their technical support number
   >yesterday (7/12) and got the same "we'll port when we get a released
   >2.0", and that "WP is not guaranteed to run on 2.0, even with
   >non-proportional fonts" (they knew that proportional fonts were sure
   >death).
   >
   >Since WP *usually* has excellent support, maybe you know something
   >about WP that they don't? :-)

	   WORDPERFECT DOES RUN UNDER 2.0! It just does.

It's obvious to me that WP is taking a quite legitimate CYA stand.
Right now, WP runs on 2.0 - at least under the two configurations
mentioned here (and probably a slew of others). However, that doesn't
mean that it'll run on all configurations, or that the set of
configurations it runs on will be the same with a release 2.0.

Given that, it would be foolish for them to guarantee WP on 2.0 as it
stands - they could well wind up chasing problems that were OS bugs,
and not WP bugs. Likewise, releasing a "port" is probably premature -
especially because everybody still has the option of running 1.3.

If they have excellent support, I would expect them to offer free (or
near-free) upgrades to registered users who have problems with the old
version on 2.0. Supporting users on pre-release versions of the next
OS isn't excellent; it's more like suicidal. Unless those users are
running beta test versions of WP, anyway.

Suggestion for all problems with applications software on 2.0: Talk to
the vendor, to verify that 1) you've got the latest version of the
software and 2) they've know about the problem so they can test for it
later. After you get 2.0 in ROM, see if the problem is still there,
and if so call them back about an upgrade.

	<mike

--
I went down to the hiring fair,				Mike Meyer
For to sell my labor.					mwm@relay.pa.dec.com
I noticed a maid in the very next row,			decwrl!mwm
I hoped she'd be my neighbor.