[comp.sys.mac.programmer] Spinnaker PLUS?

pv0b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Pomona Anupol Valero) (06/05/91)

hi there,

i was wondering if there was anyone out there familiar with the above stated
program?  for those that are curious, it's a take-off of Hypercard.  but one
supposedly ideal feature is the simplicity of porting over scripts written off
a mac system over to the dos version of the programs.

well, one of the problems i'm having is that i can't seem to read in any data
files in the dos version.  all of the commands look legal to me and the stacks
operate as they should in the mac system.  the error mssg i keep getting is,
"can't open file."  i see this as a definite compatibility problem since the
mac version works fine.

another problem i have seems to be with a bug in the plus program itself.
pointers seem to go haywire and data gets carried over from other data sets
in other folders all over the place.

has anyone out there ever done any scripting in plus?  we tried callind their
support department last week and got their answering machine, but they haven't
even tried to get back to us yet.

any help regarding this would be much appreciated,
pomona valero

john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (06/07/91)

In <8cHFAaC00WCSMHRJlO@andrew.cmu.edu> pv0b+@andrew.cmu.edu writes:
> but one supposedly ideal feature is the simplicity of porting over scripts
> written off a mac system over to the dos version of the programs.

This part works well for me.  I take stacks back and forth from Mac
to Windoze 3.0 without problems in most cases.

> well, one of the problems i'm having is that i can't seem to read in any data
> files in the dos version.  all of the commands look legal to me and the stacks
> operate as they should in the mac system.  the error mssg i keep getting is,
> "can't open file."  i see this as a definite compatibility problem since the
> mac version works fine.

Spinaker PLUS caches file path names somewhere in the stack.  When you move
the stack to a different machine, the path will probably change.  Try using
absolute path names.  When PLUS cannot find an input file, it will usually
create an empty file.  This confuses the program even more.

> another problem i have seems to be with a bug in the plus program itself.
> pointers seem to go haywire and data gets carried over from other data sets
> in other folders all over the place.

Plus caches the path names of all stacks that you work with.  I had problems
after making a back-up copy of my stacks.  Since I called other stacks,
the stack I opened was the original, but the other stacks were my back-ups.
This drove me nuts until I figured out what was going on.  I now always
rename my back-ups.

> has anyone out there ever done any scripting in plus?  we tried callind their
> support department last week and got their answering machine, but they haven't
> even tried to get back to us yet.

Yes, I have done a bit of scripting.  It is painful because the program
is so slow.  Spinaker has been somewhat responsive to my calls.  I am
a developer, and located just a mile from their office, so maybe I am just
a special case.  I do have a big mouth, however....

-john-

-- 
=============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               (612) 942-6969             john@newave.mn.org
NeWave Communications, Ltd.                        ...uunet!tcnet!newave!john