earleh@dartvax.UUCP (Earle R. Horton) (08/11/87)
Just got Servant .951 downloaded, and thought other subscribers to
comp.sys.mac might want some of my comments before they try it. This is
in no way to be contrued as a flame (Who? Me, flame someone?) but I
thought others might benefit from my experiences.
Downloaded the program, made it its own startup disk with Servant in the
system folder as "Finder". Put some stuff on the disk: Columbia Kermit
0.8(34), VersaTerm 2.30, microemacs 3.8. {I have the source code for
Kermit and microemacs (neither one does anything "strange"), and
VersaTerm I know to be pretty reliable.} Spent an hour or so running
things under Servant, switching back and forth, running desk
accessories, etc. Ran a few things off other disks in the external drive.
I would have sent in a bug report or two, but apparently I cannot do
so without purchasing (shudder) an Apple printer so I can use one of
Apple's "device-independent" printer drivers.
Here are some of the results:
Thanks, Andy, I always wanted to know what would happen if I actually
succeeded in putting the startup disk in the trash can. (It puts the
disk icon in there with narry a complaint, you find out what happens next.)
Does not know how to deal with running out of memory. Will open up desk
accessories whenever you ask it to, even if all of RAM is currently in
use.
More on desk accessories: Events don't always get sent to the right
window. You may find yourself clicking forever in an attempt to close a
desk accessory window, but no one is at home.
Huge blocks of memory (100-200k) tend to "disappear" when switching
between applications. Especially if la bombe has been seen. Where do
they go?
There is a "Resume" button in the bomb box of most applications when run
under Servant .951. Unfortunately, pressing it does not always have the
desired result. This is particularly true when the error occurs when
in the Servant window. Press "Resume" five or six times, then get
dancing random bits on the screen.
Worse yet, THE RESTART BUTTON DOES NOT WORK VERY OFTEN. This raises
an interesting question: "Resume" doesn't look very safe, and "Restart"
usually does not work, so what do I do if there is no programmer's
switch installed? One time I tried it, "Restart" got me into a
situation which eventually resulted in the startup disk (the one
with Servant on it) begin destroyed and the disk motor running on
and on, apparently forever. Please put this program on your hard
disk along with the only copy of your Ph.D. thesis.
"Resource Open" leads to some manipulation of resources which actually
works. Unfortunately, the program appears to incorporate absolutely
no safeties (much in the same spirit as ResEdit.) I am running Kermit
right now under Servant. I just flipped over to the Servant window,
did a "Resource Open" of the Servant resource file, put everything
in the trash can, then selected "Empty Trash". Kermit is still
functioning normally, but Servant is in a strange state, since it has
no resources to work with. The program has no expiration date, in
this release, but my copy expires as soon as I get done typing this
in. (Five minutes later, after reboot and format.) Excuse, me, but
my copy just expired.
After this experience, I come to the conclusion that the whole thing
was a hallucination; perhaps I ate some moldy rye bread. I certainly
hope so.
Disclaimer: I am a 512KE owner. I am discontinued, and my opinion
does not count. Next year, yours won't either.
--
*********************************************************************
*Earle R. Horton, H.B. 8000, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 *
*********************************************************************eric@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Eric Fielding) (08/12/87)
In a recent article earleh@dartvax.UUCP (Earle R. Horton) wrote: >Just got Servant .951 downloaded, and thought other subscribers to Same here. >Does not know how to deal with running out of memory. For some strange reason it gives the first application opened a lot more memory than if the same application is opened later. >[Trashed a disk] ...Please put this program on your hard >disk along with the only copy of your Ph.D. thesis. Unfortunately I don't have a hard disk and have not finished writing my dissertation ;-]. I would not want to even put a floppy with the only copy of anything in my mac with a piece of Beta test software like this. >"Resource Open" leads to some manipulation of resources which actually >works. Unfortunately, the program appears to incorporate absolutely >no safeties (much in the same spirit as ResEdit.) I am running Kermit If the only alternative is ResEdit, then I don't see the lack of safeties as a problem. Servant is kind of cute having icons for each of the resources. The big problem is that it does not seem to have editting templates for many of the common resources. The fonts, DITL, DLOG's, BNDL's, etc. all come up with a generic binary editor. The only resources that seemed to work were the icons (which can actually be editted from the desktop), and STR's, tho' I have not checked that many. >*Earle R. Horton, H.B. 8000, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 * ++Eric Fielding