GOODWIN@SMCVAX.BITNET (Dave Goodwin) (12/15/90)
I have seen several mentions of possible virii on WordPerfect. Let me
add my two cents...
The problem with several copies of the same document within a
document, with correspondingly long times to move the cursor around,
is not at all virus related. It's simply a case of the user
retrieving the document into itself on several occasions. It's
especially common if a document starts with a centered page title.
Users see the blank screen and think they have to retrieve again
because it didn't work. In fact, all they had to do was move the
cursor down and they would have seen their text. Simple user error;
it happens all the time here.
We have also had our share of trashed disks and documents, and I have
to agree with the people who observed that this happens if you change
disks in the middle of something. We've deduced it to be one of
several side effects. First, inserting a disk into a machine already
in WordPerfect results in WP thinking that its temporary files have
certain names and are in certain places. Using the system then
essentially writes over spaces on the disk that WP thinks are
available, leading to the cross-linked files appearance. Second, on
large documents when WP has not been exited, the overflow files often
will contain text which ends up in the midst of the document belonging
to the second student to sit down at the machine. These problems can
be greatly minimized by simply refraining from inserting your disk
into a system on which WP is running. We stress that students should
reboot in such cases, but of course they rarely do. Hence the
grateful appreciation of Norton Utilities :^)
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Dave Goodwin |
Assistant Director, Academic Computing | To err is human.
VAX System Manager | To really foul things up,
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