jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small) (09/30/88)
I have noticed another disturbing problem with the Smart Wordprocessor software - and I assume all of the other Smart modules as well. If you have a period (.) in the name of any directory component of a path to a Smart file, (for example: /u/joe/Filecabinet/you.got.gum/smart.doc) then when you try to access the file, you get the marvelous multi-user error message: "Document name is currently in use." - after which you will be placed in the Wordprocessor with an unnamed document. I really have no idea where Smart thinks you now are, but you cannot stat any of the files in the current (if any) directory (using Smart's Directory command) and you will be unable to rename or save the document should you proceed to do work. This is what happens if you use the User Agent which (I believe) passes the entire absolute pathname to Smart upon invocation. If you start up Smart from the shell and give a relative pathname without the offensive directory component, slightly different behavior occurs but there are still problems. The solution is to change all directory names. Substituting underscores for the periods works (as in: /u/joe/Filecabinet/you_got_gum/smart.doc). Now you can access the file with no problem. Notice that the mysterious "other user" who was using you file has, in the process, now been exorcised from your machine. (Love those informative error messages.) It is interesting to note that while Smart imposes the 12-character (8 + .doc) name limitation to the Smart filename, you can have 14-character directory names in the path. There is no excuse for AT&T allowing their name to be attached to a product which has been so poorly tested and integrated with the UNIX environment - especially when there is no documentation of the limitations. If anyone else has discovered any special quirks in Smart or has any tricks they have learned concerning the administration of this software on the UNIX-PC, I would appreciate hearing about them. -- Jeffery Small (206) 485-5596 uw-beaver!uw-nsr!uw-warp C. Jeffery Small and Associates !cjsa!jeff 19112 152nd Ave NE - Woodinville, WA 98072 uunet!nwnexus