ephraim@leander.think.com (Ephraim Vishniac) (05/02/90)
In article <10112@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ee299bw@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (KWIJIBO on the loose!) writes: >I've had lots of weird things happen with Word 4.00B as well. My >boss can't use it as a startup app under MultiFinder, because if you >do it will ask you to "Please insert the disk <name of *hard* >drive>" No other startup app does this, except Microsoft Excel 2.2. Could you try setting ResEdit 1.2 as a startup app and tell me if it does the same thing? Here's why I wonder: I'm working on a device driver for a removable-media drive. I just ran into a problem where ResEdit would spontaneously eject the disk. If I re-inserted it, ResEdit ejected it again a few seconds later. This turned out to be a combination of my fault and ResEdit's fault. Through an editing error (cut one line too many) I was posting a "Disk Inserted" event every few seconds when the disk was already mounted. When any app gets Disk Inserted, it's supposed to mount the volume. If the volume's already mounted, it gets a volume-on-line error. If you get a mount error, you call DIBadMount, and it ejects the offending disk. The Finder is smart enough to recognize VolOnLinErr as a special case, and ignore it. Some apps [including ones sold by Microsoft, I suspect] aren't that clever. What's this got to do with setting a startup app? To cover quirks in the startup process, many disk drivers post an extra "disk inserted" as the system enters normal operation, just to be sure the disk gets mounted. Normally, the Finder gets these and handles them. If you've got other startup apps set, though, somebody else will handle them. If it's somebody who doesn't special-case VolOnLinErr, your disk will be "ejected." Moments later, it'll be needed again and you'll get the "Please insert..." alert. I suspect that if you try setting ResEdit as your startup application, you'll get the same behavior you found with the Microsoft applications. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com ThinkingCorp@applelink.apple.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142 One of the flaws in the anarchic bopper society was the ease with which such crazed rumors could spread.