This program has 1 known incompatibility. See subject heading under that name below.
About this version
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This program is an interim upgrade of version 1.0, which was released in March 1994. This release fixes a few of the more obvious and annoying bugs that people reported to me over the past six weeks. A more substantial upgrade is a couple of months away, so this will have to do for now. However, if enough bug reports accumulate and warrant another interim upgrade, I will be happy to release it. Keep an eye out on your distribution point, or, if you want to be on my e-mail mailing list, send me your name and e-mail address. I'll report directly to you when upgrades are available.
What this version fixes
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• Many people were impressed with version 1.0's “don't ask, don't tell” reminder function, which alerted the user that a reminder had come due, but which neglected to tell the user exactly *what* he was being reminded of. Unfortunately, this was not a feature, but rather was a bug. I've fixed this in version 1.01. Reminders that appear when Guy Friday is in the foreground now explicitly tell you what they are reminding you about.
• Guy Friday used to crash when a reminder was highlighted in the "Reminder List" window and the user selected "Cut" from the Edit menu. Version 1.01 fixes that. To delete reminders, select "Remove Reminder" from the Reminder menu.
• Guy Friday used to crash when you tried to create your 100th info nugget. This is now fixed. Create as many nuggets as you want.
• I eliminated the interesting psychedelic effect that ocurred when you tried to scroll the "help window" past the end of the scroll bar.
• I got rid of a few scrap resources which were vestiges from earlier development versions. This means the program takes up less room on your disk and makes for faster uploading and downloading.
• I fixed a few weird bugs relating to cut and paste. Guy Friday used to let you select Cut and Paste from the edit menu, even when it wasn't appropriate. (This could lead to system crashes.) Also, nuggets no longer automatically deselect when you choose items from the Edit menu or from the File menu.
• The program used to report an "unanticipated error" when the user hit Quit from the Page Setup menu. While indeed the cancelling was "unanticipated," I realize in retrospect that such action should not qualify as an error.
• I fixed a bug which caused repeating reminders that were "postponed" to alert the user at the *postponed* time the second time around. In this version, if you have a weekly reminder scheduled for 8:00 pm and you postpone it for 15 minutes, next week the reminder will pop up, as it should, at 8:00 pm, not 8:15. Got that?
Known Incompatibilities
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Several users have reported that Guy Friday is incompatible with PopChar versions 2.x, which causes Guy Friday to crash randomly. Apparently, PopChar version 1.0 is okay. THIS RELEASE DOES NOT SOLVE THAT INCOMPATIBILITY PROBLEM. I am still trying to determine exactly what the source of the incompatibility is, i.e. whether it's my lousy programming or that of Mr. Blaschek, the author of PopChar. In any case, I promise I am working on it and will try to have a fix for the next release. In the interim, it looks like people will have to choose between PopChar and Guy Friday, which is a shame.
Power Macs
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I've gotten a report from a Power Mac user that one needs to increase the memory allocation of Guy Friday to 750K to get the program to work. I have no idea why this is, but I'm looking into it. Since version 1.01 allocates more master pointers than version 1.0, I recommend that Power Mac users first try running at the suggested allocation and see what happens (always a reassuring suggestion when coming from a software developer). I welcome mail from Power Mac users, reporting whether or not the program works and at what memory allocation. Alas, until several thousand of you register Guy Friday, I can't afford a Power Mac of my own.
For our foreign friends
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Many users outside the U.S. wrote to complain that Guy Friday's telephone intelligence is hardwired for U.S. phone numbers. I apologize, although--in my defense--I have to say that I rarely consider the world outside of Manhattan, let alone outside the U.S. I am working on adding foreign phone compatibility to the next version. If you live outside the U.S., I would appreciate your e-mailing me a little note explaining how your phone system works: i.e. is there a long-distance prefix? how do area codes work? how many digits in a number? etc. I want to make sure the next version works with your system, so please be sure to drop me a line.
Until the next version comes out, foreign users should be aware that there is a way to turn off the telephone "intelligence" features. In "Telephone Preferences..." make sure the "Be smart about phone #'s" box is not clicked. This means that Guy Friday will dial exactly what you have typed into an info nugget, area code and all. It's a bit of a pain in the ass, I admit, but it'll have to do as a stop-gap measure until I can get the new version out.
Join the Guy Friday mailing list
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Please drop me a line telling me your e-mail address. That way I can keep you informed about upgrades, disastrous bugs, my social life, etc. When you write, please tell me what you do, where you found Guy Friday, and whether you use and/or like it. I appreciate criticism as much as slavish praise, although be aware that a little slavish praise can't hurt.
Register Please
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Many people have written to tell me how much they like Guy Friday. I appreciate your kind words. I also want to thank honest users who have registered the software. As you know, I try to be extremely responsive to users who need help or report bugs. Your support allows me to continue working on Guy Friday.
I Could Use Help Distributing This
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I could use some help distributing Guy Friday to the masses. I'm pretty confident that this version is free of horrible bugs, so I wouldn't mind posting Guy Friday on FTP servers, online services, etc. Alas, this is all too much for my feeble brain and slow modem, so I welcome any help from fans out there that want to spread the gospel of the field-less PIM. Particularly, I don't think Guy Friday has (at the time of this writing) reached America Online, Genie, or the SUMEX aim FTP server at Stanford. And remember, if you like this damn thing, why not tell people?
Disclaimer
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I would like to stress that Guy Friday 1.x is an early release, and, by its very nature, probably suffers from some bugs. I do my best to find and eliminate them, and also to keep registered users and/or mailing-list members informed about them, but neither I nor Generation X Software can be held responsible for any infernal disaster caused by Guy Friday. Keep a backup of your data file, keep a backup of your hard disk, stay at least 12" away from your color monitor, and eat leafy green vegetables.
