tholen@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (David Tholen) (03/11/91)
Has anybody successfully completed the tutorial in Microsoft Word for OS/2 (version 1.1 -- the Windows look-alike that runs under Presentation Manager) while running under OS/2 version 1.3? I've managed to get only partly through the tutorial when the machine starts beeping at me, and sometimes flashing WordBASIC error messages, such as "Illegal Function Call". I've even had it generate a protection violation and kill the session. Reinstallation did no good, and I'm scratching my head as to what to try next. Learning Word without the tutorial will be tough, given that the printed User's Reference is arranged dictionary style and doesn't really teach the basics.
meyer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Meyer) (03/12/91)
tholen@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (David Tholen) writes: >Has anybody successfully completed the tutorial in Microsoft Word for OS/2 >(version 1.1 -- the Windows look-alike that runs under Presentation Manager) >while running under OS/2 version 1.3? I've managed to get only partly SE or EE? I've had no problems when using EE 1.3, (though I haven't needed the tutorial) but I cannot get it to run correctly on my Standard edition machine at home. It keeps confusing the keyboard, and after a while the mouse no longer works. Anyone else have/had these problems? Don +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Don Meyer internet: dlmeyer@uiuc.edu "He who restricts another's right to self-defense is accomplice to any crime committed because of the lack of self defense."
lairdkb@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Kyler Laird) (03/12/91)
Is Word for OS/2 incredibly slow (I use a 386DX-25 with 8MB RAM.) or have I simply been spoiled by XyWrite?
cur022%cluster@ukc.ac.uk (Bob Eager) (03/12/91)
In article <1991Mar11.194615.12930@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, meyer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Meyer) writes: > I've had no problems when using EE 1.3, (though I haven't needed the tutorial) > but I cannot get it to run correctly on my Standard edition machine at home. > It keeps confusing the keyboard, and after a while the mouse no longer works. > Anyone else have/had these problems? There is an updated DLL for use with Word on OS/2 1.3. It's on Compuserve; otherwise I guess you could try calling Microsoft. -------------------------+------------------------------------------------- Bob Eager | University of Kent at Canterbury | +44 227 764000 ext 7589 -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
ballard@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Alan Ballard) (03/13/91)
In article <1991Mar11.194615.12930@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> meyer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Meyer) writes: >...I cannot get it to run correctly on my Standard edition machine at home. >It keeps confusing the keyboard, and after a while the mouse no longer works. >Anyone else have/had these problems? This is a known problem with Word for PM and OS/2 1.3 SE. A fix for this is available from Microsoft. You can also download it from a BBS at 206-637-9009 - file PMWORDU.EXE, which you run (in DOS) to unpack into a new PMWORDU.DLL. Alan Ballard | Internet: ballard@ucs.ubc.ca University Computing Services | Bitnet: USERAB1@UBCMTSG University of British Columbia | Phone: 604-228-3074 Vancouver B.C. Canada V6R 1W5 | Fax: 604-228-5116
ballard@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Alan Ballard) (03/13/91)
In article <7643@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> lairdkb@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Kyler Laird) writes: >Is Word for OS/2 incredibly slow (I use a 386DX-25 with 8MB RAM.) or have I >simply been spoiled by XyWrite? It's incredibly slow, at least under some combinations of hardware/software. I've heard some people say it performs really well. I have it on two systems, one of which performs terribly, the other OK, though not great. Haven't figured out the factors that make the difference yet. My first is a 16mhz 386, OS/2 1.2 SE, 12MB memory, VGA. Works OK. The other is 20mhz 386, OS/2 1.3 SE, 6MB memory, 8514/A. Works terribly. I don't think the memory makes the difference... Word is too dumb to use it... my free memory display never drops below 6MB on the first machine. I've also noticed (via my cpu monitor), that word contains polling loops in some cases. One more example of Microsoft's lack of support for OS/2... they've done the bare minimum to make this run with the SMK. Alan Ballard | Internet: ballard@ucs.ubc.ca University Computing Services | Bitnet: USERAB1@UBCMTSG University of British Columbia | Phone: 604-228-3074 Vancouver B.C. Canada V6R 1W5 | Fax: 604-228-5116
meyer@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Meyer) (03/13/91)
ballard@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Alan Ballard) writes: > >One more example of Microsoft's lack of support for OS/2... they've done >the bare minimum to make this run with the SMK. I'll say. Don't press a key or press a mouse button while Word is printing... they were too cheap to put in a separate thread for printing, and it often won't yield control to the kernel when printing. Therefore, I get "Word is not responding, Terminate it?" messages. If I say no, it continues fine and eventually finishes printing. The system then becomes responsive again. One thing in its favor though, Outside of the above, I have only gotten the program to crash once, and that was with a file corrupted by the Windows version. Even then, it just died quietly like all good OS/2 apps should. (The Windows version kills windows most of the time, and crashes 5 to 10 times every day.) Mixed blessings.... Thanks for the pointer to the new DLLs for PMWord. If there is anyplace I can put them for others to get at, let me know. (ftp sites) Don +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Don Meyer internet: dlmeyer@uiuc.edu "He who restricts another's right to self-defense is accomplice to any crime committed because of the lack of self defense."
joeb@hpnmdla.hp.com (Joe Barnhart) (03/14/91)
In comp.os.os2.apps, ballard@cheddar.ucs.ubc.ca (Alan Ballard) writes: | Haven't figured out the factors that make the difference yet. In the case of OS/2 ver 1.2 vs. 1.3, the big difference seems to be Adobe Type Manager. That's why Word under 1.2 seems "OK". I've noticed that if I select non-ATM fonts (under OS/2 1.3), PM Word displays text _much_ faster than with ATM fonts. I'd sure like to see a fix for this problem, as it makes ATM fonts virtually unusable with PM Word. I don't know if the fix would be in PM Word, in OS/2 ATM, or both. On another problem, I've noticed that PM Word doesn't properly print underlines with my LaserJet IIP and the Microsoft font cartridge. Instead of underlining one word or a phrase, PM Word will print underlines under entire lines of text -- occasionally even off the right margin. (Underlines work fine with ATM fonts.) -- Joe "death to SMK apps" B. #include <standard.disclaimer>
tholen@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (David Tholen) (03/18/91)
I received the Word for OS/2 patch diskette from Microsoft on Saturday. Here's some information that you may or may not have seen in comp.os.os2.apps. Only Standard Edition is affected, not Extended Edition. Only version 1.3 is affected, not version 1.2 or 1.21. Only SYSLEVEL XR00000 is affected. The implication is that there is a more recent CSD revision to OS/2 SE version 1.3, but I saw no information about it on the IBM BBS in Atlanta; it had only CSDs to version 1.2. Also, the implication is that the problem is with OS/2, not with Word. Because the Word replacement DLL only fixes the problem for Word, this bug could potentially affect other OS/2 PM applications, thus the only real fix is to get a CSD from IBM. If a newer version of OS/2 is installed, the replacement DLL should be discarded in favor of the original one shipped with the Word for OS/2 package (PMWordU.Dll). The new DLL did solve the problems I was experiencing earlier, though a new one cropped up today. I was up to the part of the tutorial that deals with printing, and I experienced a protection violation. It died gracefully, as protected mode programs should, and did not bring down the system. The problem may have been due to the fact that I did not have my printer turned on at the time I was running the tutorial, and maybe it tried to print something, but there was no warning about any impending printing. I also ran across one other minor bug. At one point, when it's "Your turn" to practice some functions, the user is asked to compare the contents of Full Menus with Short Menus. Don't leave that exercise with Short Menus in effect, because a little later on, you're asked to click on View Preferences. View Preferences isn't available when Short Menus is in effect, so you wind up in a loop -- the tutorial keeps giving you a hint as to what to do, but the program won't let you do it. I had to break out of the tutorial to regain control.
db3l@arnor.UUCP (David Bolen) (03/19/91)
In article <11991@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> tholen@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (David Tholen) writes: >Only Standard Edition is affected, not Extended Edition. >Only version 1.3 is affected, not version 1.2 or 1.21. >Only SYSLEVEL XR00000 is affected. The implication is that there is a more >recent CSD revision to OS/2 SE version 1.3, but I saw no information about >it on the IBM BBS in Atlanta; it had only CSDs to version 1.2. > >Also, the implication is that the problem is with OS/2, not with Word. >Because the Word replacement DLL only fixes the problem for Word, this bug >could potentially affect other OS/2 PM applications, (...) Well, I'm definitely no more official a source than anyone else, but what I've heard is that the bug was in Word and not in OS/2. The problem was that Word used some internal knowledge about OS/2 and/or made assumptions about some undocumented OS/2 features. In other words, Word was not a "nice" program. When OS/2 1.3 came out (SE), that internal behavior changed, and thus Word began to break. The reason that it happens with SE and not EE is that EE has a couple of month lag time behind SE and generally gets some updates applied to fix problems that show up in SE. These same fixes are then eventually released as an SE CSD. One of the things I think that was done was to restore the undocumented behavior, or at least fix it so that programs that depended on it (not sure of anything around besides Word) would still work. So I don't think this is the sort of thing you need to worry about breaking most other programs. I believe that applications written to the documented interfaces shouldn't experience any problems. I don't think there are any CSDs around yet for 1.3 SE, so the reference you got to the specific syslevel was probably just to keep the information accurate if and when CSDs are released. They would know that any future CSD would fix the problem since the first CSD to be released should include any fixes that were added to EE following the SE release. -- -- David -- /-----------------------------------------------------------------------\ \ David Bolen / | Laboratory Automation, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center | / P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 \ | - - - - - - - - - - - - M i t h r a n d i r - - - - - - - - - - - - | | Internet : db3l@ibm.com | Bitnet : db3l@yktvmv | | Usenet : uunet!bywater!arnor!larios!db3l | Phone : (914) 945-1940 | | /---------------------------------------------------------------\ | \-( All comments/opinions are mine and don't represent those of IBM )-/ \---------------------------------------------------------------/