ralphm@portia.Stanford.EDU (Ralph Melton) (07/24/90)
After copying On Cue 1.3 from a friend, I have concluded that this is such an incredibly useful utility that I should go ahead and buy it for myself. I have read, though, that ICOM Simulations, the makers of On Cue, have On Cue II, a major revision, in the works. Unfortunately, I have no hard data about the time scales involved. It could be released next month, or it could be released after System 7 :-) So, given this quantity of speculation and little data, is it probable that I will get a better deal by purchasing On Cue 1.3 and then upgrading to On Cue II, or by waiting until On Cue II? On a slightly related note, I believe that I have found an inconsistency between On Cue 1.3, Suitcase II 1.2.6, and MacroMaker 1.0.1. This manifests only when all three are activated in the system folder, and is present even when no other INITs are activated. This manifests itself in the disappearrance of one of On Cue's document submenus. To be precise, I get the following behavior: My On Cue menu looks like this, where '>' indicates the triangle of a hierarchical menu: +------------------+ | Disinfectant | | Microsoft Word >| | ResEdit >| | Stuffit 1.5.1 | | SUM Disk Clinic | | THINK Pascal >| +------------------+ The normal submenu for "Microsoft Word" contains "Other ..." and "base letter". The submenu for "ResEdit" contains "Other ..." and "SortGraph.pi.rsrc". Now, when MacroMaker, Suitcase II, and On Cue are turned on, the submenu for Microsoft Word disappears. The triangle for a submenu is still present, but no submenu appears. If I choose the "Configure ..." option and then go to the "Attach Documents" panel, it lists no documents as being attached to Microsoft Word. If I attempt to attach the document "base letter" it beeps and says "'base letter' already installed." If I try to attach another document to Microsoft Word instead of "base letter", the Configure screen immediately exits. Subsequently trying to access the On Cue menu results in a blink of the screen in the Finder; starting it within any application returns "The application has unexpectedly quit (84)." 84 is a "Menu Purged Error." If I select Word, enable the "Remove Applications" checkbox, and choose "Remove", Configure immediately exits. On reexamining the On Cue menu, Word is still present, but it no longer has the submenu triangle. Attaching "base letter" to it again works as intended, and it behaves normally now, but it reverts to the previous condition on startup. If I try to remove ResEdit, it disappears completely from the menu. If I try to go to Configure to reinstall it, the screen blinks if I'm in the Finder, and the Configure screen does not appear. If I try to reinstall it by choosing the "other ..." application and checking the "install application in menu" box, it says "ResEdit installed in menu." Activate events then get processed, but no update events; in the Finder, I can see the title bar of the current window, but its icons do not get drawn. The hard disk then spins for several seconds, then the screen flashes several times and an oddly-shaped blank dialog box with a triple border appears. Nothing responds to mouse clicks or keyboard commands. After Restart, On Cue does not install itself. Ulp. I guess that means no more experimentation. "If you play with anything long enough, it will break." This may answer the question of whether I buy now or wait. What happened? Why won't On Cue install? Why did these things happen only with MacromMaker and Suitcase II 1.2.6 installed? (I was using Suitcase II 1.2.2 previously with no ill effect. Disabling either MacroMaker of Suitcase alleviated the problem.) Is this just a subtle hint that I ought to go ahead and buy On Cue? Is it a hint that I don't _really_ need MacroMaker? What's going on? (I am suddenly heartened by the realization that I made a backup last night. After restoring On Cue, I think I'll just leave MacroMaker off unless someone proposes a specific test.) I eagerly await any enlightenment. Ralph Melton melton@utdc1.utdallas.edu -- Ralph Melton ralphm@portia.stanford.edu "Remenber this, my friend: