#Questions, Complaints
20 messages in this thread
Betty, I understand that each forum has subject areas, and that with Whap!
the user can pick which subject area they wish do receive messages from.
(ie This is posted to the Whap! subject area, of the AmigaTech Forum) I
also understand that these subject areas will change from time to time. (ie
The Transactor area in the AmigaVend Forum is now no longer in service.
(Can't support a ghost.)) My questions are, "Will Whap! pickup on these
changes?", and if not, "How can I periodically force Whap! to fetch the
subject areas?" Thanks. I still have a problem using View! with a 2090A
card. I have tried 3 different hard drives, and with each one it is the
same thing. When I select the small "R" beside the forum name (to read
messages), my HD light comes on for about 1 to 1.5 minutes, and then ALWAYS
"Task Held… ". This is the thing that keeps me from totally enjoying
Whap!, and therefore registering. PLEASE, in a near future release, get rid
of View!'s use of 16 colours, and go with 8. I doubt if the screen uses
more than 8 colours now.
Tom,
To get Whap! to recognize Forum changes, you need to delete the .SEC file
for that forum (i.e. to update AmigaVend, "delete Whap:AmigaVend.SEC").
Whap! will then regenerate it the next time you log on to CIS.
I'm currently beta-testing a new View! for Steve, and your screen request
is already in place. You can now choose a 1 or 2 bitplane custom screen
(interlaced, if desired) or a workbench window for View!.
I don't know what would cause the "R" problem. I also use a 2090A and
haven't had any problems. You might want to make certain View! is located
in the same directory as Whap!. Also, if you use WShell and SetExecute,
you will need to run Whap! from the CLI. For6 some reason, SetExecute and
Whap!/View! don't get along. Hope this helps.
– Dave
Dave:
I'm using Whap! 1.7 and 1.8 (registered, but on different disks for
different forums) and WB 1.2 and 1.3 (different uses on different disks).
When in View! and trying to print a displayed message, I get no printout if
using the Whap 1.7 / WB 1.2 combo. The system loads the printer driver but
nothing else happens. I know the driver (which is identical to the one in
the other combo) is OK, because if I flip to a CLI and do a "copy TEXT to
par:" command, the printout comes forth. What's the problem?
Also, another unnerving problem: I've had a guru or two when using Whap!
or View!. When I reboot, the message and temp files in VD0: usually are
still there, but Whap! doesn't necessarily recognize that fact. Either it
won't find them at all, or simply doesn't light up the "R" buttons, though
it will go seek out those files. That happens in 1.7 for sure; don't
recall it happening in 1.8, but may also occur. In any case, I have to use
MORE or KEEP to go through those messages, sometimes.
Ron,
It's been a long time since I used Whap! 1.7 and WB 1.2, but your
printing problem may be related to the driver (then again, I may be way off
base :). WB 1.3 came with all-new printer drivers; I'm not certain they're
compatible with WB 1.2. To check, go to a CLI and try "copy TEXT to PRT:".
Copying the file to PAR: simply sends the file to the parallel port and
bypasses the printer driver completely. The only other suggestion I would
have is to upgrade the 1.2 disk to 1.3.
I remember Whap!/View! not realizing message files existed after a crash,
but haven't run into the problem in quite a while. Try updating you 1.7
version to 1.8 and see if it cures the problem.
Hope this helps,
– Dave
Thanks Dave-
I look forward to the new version of wahp!/View!. When can we expect
to see it?
Tom;
I know that what I am going to say probably will not help much but……. I
am running Whap! on an Amiga with '030, Kronos controller and 2090
controller. Some time ago, I had problems with Whap! doing what you
described (the system at that time was an A2000/3Meg and 2090). I was
blaming Whap! but no one could seem to duplicate what I was seeing. I
unfortunately don't remember the details of the fix but I do remember
basically what worked. I changed the order of a couple of commands in the
S:Startup-Sequence file. I remember my amazement, it was not necessary to
delete any but only re-arrange them. Thus, you might want to give that a
try.
=>73<=, bill =>KB7LX @ K4IWW<=
Were the commands that you reorganized directly related to Whap!? I too
have a 2000, w/3 Meg, but a 2090A card w/ a Quantum ProDrive 40. I don't
have anything else running in the background. My temperary fix is to run
off of a floppy until the new version is out. I will check my s/s-s and try
do delete/reorder stuff. Thanks for the idea.
Tom,
I am also running a 2000, 3Meg, 2090A w/ Quantum 40 and had problems with
View crashing the machine every time I ran it. I discovered that View had
been run through PowerPacker and grabbed a copy from the DL and
un-PowerPacked View. Since then I have not had a single problem with View.
I don't have the faintest idea why this should have made a difference, but
it worked.
Peter_S (LeCroy Corp)
"Software is never having to say you're finished"
Tom;
No, not necessarily. It seems that I did not take the time to determine
exactly what programs were involved. I would be particularly wary of
things like 'memwatch', 'srt', 'fast fonts', 'blitz disk', 'assign', 'resi
or resident', 'fastmemfirst', and the like. It is probably related to an
interaction between a couple of such program more than between those
programs and Whap! One thing that I do remember, was that Whap! was not
the only program affected. The slowdown for Whap! was most severe
(sometimes to the point of complete failure) but some other programs were
affected.
=>73<=, bill =>KB7LX @ K4IWW<=
Thanks Bill, I'll try getting rid of those types of programs one at a time
and see if I can narrow it down. I got a suggestion the other day that
View! and Whap! were compressed files, and that if I decompress them, it
would work much better. I got PPack2.lzh from the Lib 13, but that doesn't
seem to be the type of compression technique that was used. I lost my
messages disk, so I don't know who sent me the decompression suggestion. I
should have asked which program they had used, and where I can find it.
You have the correct program. Whap! is not compressed, View! is.
-sja
Tom,
I sent you the message about un-PowerPacking View. I un-PP'd View since I
use it from hard disk and didn't care if the program was larger, just
wanted it to load faster. Afterwards I noticed that it didn't crash
anymore. I never had any problems running View from floppy, only from the
hard disks. My system is also a little flakey and I've been told by Dave
from CBM support that it needs to be upgraded from 4.1 motherboard to 4.5
MB, just have not been able to get it done yet. Cutting down on the
activity (not "unpacking" View at run time) may be why it worked for me.
Peter_S (LeCroy Corp)
"Software is never having to say you're finished"
Tom,
To get a new list of subjects, etc., just delete the file forum.SEC
(whatever the forum name might be) in your Whap directory. The next time
you sign on, Whap! will get the new list for you, and then you can set it
up as you did originally.
You will be pleased to know that there will soon be an update to WHap! and
View!, and that you will be able to select far more things than you now can
– at least in View!. I have not seen the Whap! update. I cannot tell you
just when, but I know that the new View! is in beta test. So – pretty soon
now. (That sounds better than "Real Soon Now," doesn't it?) 🙂
……Betty
Thanks for the reply Betty. I feel better just knowing that I don't have to
live with this forever. I really like the CONCEPT of Whap!/View! if not the
whole program.
Tom,
Whap! and View! are one of the nicest possible things about CIS for
AMigans. Just wonderful, I think. I cannot imagine managing all these
messages without it. Hang in there and it will work for you. Takes a bit
more experimenting for some than for others, though. I don't know why that
is, but it has worked that way. I hope yours settles in soon.
……Betty
A question…
After reading some of your replies to people, Betty, I noticed that the
nice neat formatting job Compuserve does to them destroys the neat little
set up you had. (one message in particular was a library description, and
the lines ran together and all, I'm sure you know what I mean).
Anyway, I noticed the ghosted "Save Unformatted" in the View! menu. This
seems like it'd be a good thing to have unghosted. Do you know if there
are any plans to bring it back…or if not, why it was gotten rid of in the
first place?
Thanks,
Julia
Julia,
I don't know about the plans for View!. I do know that I can force the
formatting when I write messages – but sometimes I forget. To force it,
you put a . at the beginning of each line you want left as it was typed.
The . will not appear in the message, but will hold the formatting.
……Betty
Or a space, or a tab — as long as there is something in the first column
other than alpha/numeric.