[comp.sys.mac.system] On Cue Weirdness

ralphm@portia.Stanford.EDU (Ralph Melton) (07/26/90)

My apologies to those who have previously read this on c.s.m.misc.

I seem to 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,
and in other weirdness.  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; accessing 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 a 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." 

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 have the Holy Backup which
Saves Me From Anguish and Woe.  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: