[comp.sys.mac.comm] TheNews bug? or si bug?

abennett@athena.mit.edu (Andrew Bennett) (01/26/91)

I'm trying out TheNews on an si, and have found a bug.  Whether it is in the si,
TheNews, or what, I have no idea.

Here's my setup:

MacIIsi with 5 meg of memory, an asanti ethernet card (plugs directly into the
processor slot), 13" color monitor.

Inits on or off doesn't seem to make a differnce.  All other programs I use
(MacIP, tn3270, NCSA TCP, VersaTerm 3.10) work fine.

The symptom:

when I start up TheNews and create a new groups file, all works fine; it finds
the  news server, finds the groups, lets me read & post, etc.

When I try to execute an *existing* newsgroups file, I am told that the
application "Unexpectedly quit" and I am returned to the (multi)finder.  From
then on, if I try to execute any other program, they also "Unexpectedly quit".
If I try and re-execute TheNews, it hangs the system.

Any suggestions?

-Drew

--
Andrew Bennett          abennett@mit.edu
MIT Room 11-124H        abennett%athena@mitvma.bitnet
77 Massachusetts Ave.   Phone: (617) 253-7174
Cambridge, MA  02139    <Standard disclaimers apply> 
--

Barry Schoenfelner - bas@chem.wayne.edu (01/26/91)

In article <1991Jan25.182248.19024@athena.mit.edu> abennett@athena.mit.edu
(Andrew Bennett) writes:
>when I start up TheNews and create a new groups file, all works fine; it finds
>the  news server, finds the groups, lets me read & post, etc.
>
>When I try to execute an *existing* newsgroups file, I am told that the
>application "Unexpectedly quit" and I am returned to the (multi)finder.  From
>then on, if I try to execute any other program, they also "Unexpectedly quit".
>If I try and re-execute TheNews, it hangs the system.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>-Drew

I see the same bug too on an SE/30 running 6.0.3 and MacTCP 1.0.1.

Barry

owen@raven.phys.washington.edu (Russell Owen) (01/29/91)

In article <1991Jan25.213640.26325@cs.wayne.edu> Barry Schoenfelner -
bas@chem.wayne.edu writes:
>In article <1991Jan25.182248.19024@athena.mit.edu> abennett@athena.mit.edu
>(Andrew Bennett) writes:
>>when I start up TheNews and create a new groups file, all works fine; it
finds
>>the  news server, finds the groups, lets me read & post, etc.
>>
>>When I try to execute an *existing* newsgroups file, I am told that the
>>application "Unexpectedly quit" and I am returned to the (multi)finder.  From
>>then on, if I try to execute any other program, they also "Unexpectedly
quit".
>>If I try and re-execute TheNews, it hangs the system.
>>
>I see the same bug too on an SE/30 running 6.0.3 and MacTCP 1.0.1.
>
TheNews v. 1.2 works fine on my SE/30 (6.0.5, Multifinder, MacTCP 1.0.1).

Here are a few things to try:
- Update to system 6.0.7 (or at least 6.0.5 for an older Mac).
- If this just started happening, replace the program and/or news group file.
- Get version 1.4--the latest. I haven't seen it yet, but it's out somewhere.

And there's the usual Multifinder fixes for any ills:
- Assign TheNews more memory. My copy needed it to handle busy newsgroups.
- Check the system heap. Look at About Finder... and see how much free space
System has. If it's very small (much less than 25% of the total space). This
problem will cause various crashes, not just from TheNews. Get HeapFixer or
something similar, or get rid of memory-eating INITs.

The author, Bill Cramer, is available at cramer@neptune.iex.com. I would
definitely contact him befor giving up on TheNews. I have occasional problems
with it, but it usually works just fine.

Good luck
-- Russell
owen@raven.phys.washington.edu

abennett@athena.mit.edu (Andrew Bennett) (01/29/91)

Well, I found that part of my problem is that I am running v1.0 when I should
be running v1.4

I got 1.0 from Sumex.  Where is 1.4?

-Drew

--
Andrew Bennett          abennett@mit.edu
MIT Room 11-124H        abennett%athena@mitvma.bitnet
77 Massachusetts Ave.   Phone: (617) 253-7174
Cambridge, MA  02139    <Standard disclaimers apply> 
--