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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.apps
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!psuvax1!atlantis.psu.edu!barr
- From: barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr)
- Subject: Re: Problems with WP 5.0!! WP 5.1 how much better??
- Message-ID: <s-d1Huhqk9@atlantis.psu.edu>
- Keywords: wordperfect sun unix
- Sender: news@atlantis.psu.edu (Usenet)
- Organization: Penn State Population Research Institute
- References: <esimon.716121971@imlab1>
- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 14:11:53 GMT
- Lines: 82
-
- In article <esimon.716121971@imlab1> esimon@wd.estec.esa.nl writes:
- >1) If I give a briefing of our principal problems, can anybody tell my
- >in which sense WP 5.1 is really a progress?
-
- The interface is totally redone. It has all the features of 5.1.
-
- >2) Does the 5.0->5.1 upgrade of the UNIX version correspond to the
- >5.0->5.1 upgrade of the DOS version? Is WP 5.1 UNIX somehow better
- >than the DOS 5.1?
-
- Yes, you're not running on a PeeCee. :-) I must say it certainly
- is much nicer _looking_ than the DOS version.
-
- >Context: SUN ELC's with SUNOS 4.1.1 and OpenWin 3.0.
- >
- >PROBLEMS:
- >Initially severe problems related to the file locking mechanism running
- >WP via NFS from a SUN 3 server. WP wasn't able to run or got stucked
- >after some time, requiring reboot of everything. Killing processes wasn't
- >enough. Disabling file locking (recommended by WP) only mostly solved the
- >matter.
-
- WP 5.0 file locking bit the wang. If you had tmpfs the print spooler
- just totally barfed. (You had to force it to run with wpexe -f)
- I have yet to see any file locking problems with 5.1.
-
- >When starting WP 5.0, the program may get stucked in the initial F3 / F7
- >screen. F7=Exit or any other key wouldn't work. This happend 1 out of 25
- >times we start WP. It is sometimes possible to quit the window, other
- >times it is necessary to kill it with kaliber -9. When killing the process,
- >the error message "lock-manager: RPC error: (18) RPC: (unknown error code)"
- >occurs on the console. It has been required to reboot you server (running
- >WP licence serving) to recover from this error.
-
- Have not seen this with 5.1. (Although i didn't see it with 5.0 either)
-
- >Function keys F11 and F12 (Reveal Codes and Block) don't work with OpenWin
- >(L1 and L2 do the same job!).
-
- Well, that's just dumb Openwindows. Under openwin, F11 and F12 have a
- different keysym than under X. Yay Sun.
-
- >Our WP users have experienced that WP can collapse suddenly with window,
- >process and editor contents just disappearing. We never succeded to
- >reproduce this or to explain why. Automatic backup every minute makes us
- >live.
-
- I've seen this a few times in 5.1 as well. When many levels deep in
- dialog boxes, sometimes wp just quits with no error.
-
- >WP can blowing up the mouse interface, making selection of text with the
- >mouse impossible. Restart of WP doesn't help, restart of OpenWin does.
-
- I suspect this to be an openwin problem.
-
- >REMARKS:
- >WP 5.0 is too compatible with the DOS versions. File compatibility is
- >shure valuable, but under X or OpenWindows, the touch and feel shouldn't
- >be that of a PC.
-
- Yes, it was frightfully apparent in WP 5.0 that they ported the whole thing
- with a PC mentality. Any application whose preferred way of printing
- is to take over your serial port should be promptly be given psychiatric
- evaluation.
-
- >This remark specially regards the text selection approach
- >and the cut and past. Cut and past between WP and other X applications is
- >not possible with WP 5.0.
-
- WP 5.1 now uses the X cut buffer.
-
- >WP for UNIX is rather slow, even compared to 286 PC!
-
- 5.1 is quite usable on the ELC's we have. Of course, we're running
- X11R5, not (sl)Openwindows. I'm sure you'd be much happier if you ran
- xwp under X11R5. As always, make sure you have plenty of memory.
-
- --Dave
- Friends don't let friends use WordPerfect.
- --
- System Administrator, Population Research Institute barr@pop.psu.edu
- Emacs is a fine operating system, but I still prefer UNIX. - Tom Christiansen
-