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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

3782.0. "PPage Woes or Does Commadore Have a Problem?" by NAVIER::MELLITZ () Sat May 12 1990 09:54

     I've been working with Pro Page V1.31 for a couple of weeks now.
     I have a 2000HD w/2Meg that I got in April. (V1.3.2 34.28)

     I've  been having some real crazy problems....

     First off, the HD install command file fails if you have APR
     installed.  I hacked the command procedure until I got it
     to install successfully.

     But that's the least of my problems.  I've been working on  a one
     page document with only CG font with containing 70 blocks. When
     opening a document I often get the message, "Document is
     Corrupt" or "Not a Pro Page File". Erg...

     I then started a dialog with the folks a PPage (Gold Disk). The
     first time I called, they told me not to use "SAVE" but use "SAVE
     AS". "SAVE" they said, was flakey. They said also to delete the
     contents of the CGCache directory.  I went home and tried this
     and it worked on a few copies of the document that I had been working
     on. But thing get stranger from here.....

     I discovered by that if I hard reboot the system (ie wait a
     minute or so), PPage is likely to read in my document. The
     same document was indicating "corrupt" a minute or so before
     when I just did a soft reboot!

     Here another strango... I was finally able to create may page (after
     2 weeks trying figure out what NOT to do.) Then I created a Post
     Script file. (about 2000 lines)  I discovered the file contained
     non-ASCII characters dispersed throughout. I was unable to 
     print on any postscipt printer because of this.

     The folks at PPage told me I may have a rev 6.0 or 6.1
     motherboard (which they told me were flakey) or a bad Fat Agnus
     chip.  Has anyone else had such a problem? If so how do I resolve
     it?

     ... Rich


T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
3782.1try thisSALEM::LEIMBERGERTue May 15 1990 08:515
    Boot off your standard 1.3 workbench. Then run the lines demo,and
    the clock.After about a half hour if lines starts drawing outside
    it's box,or the clock acts strange you have a defective agnus. This
    info was gleaned from Amazing Computing vol 4 #9 september 1989.
    							bill 
3782.2Clock went south. Hmmm...NAVIER::MELLITZTue May 15 1990 11:3211
    
    
    I just started the clock and line right now. (I'm logged in at home
    now.) Interesting... my clock is not showing the right time (and
    date). Hmmm...

    
    
    Thanks,
    
    Rich
3782.3it works for meYIPPEE::GOULNIKYves GOULNIK - EAITC/Mfg ValbonneSun May 13 1990 06:5816
	I've been using PPage for almost two months now, on an A500 with
	1Meg, an additional floppy disk drive and no HD, without any such
	problem. I have a rev5 board, and don't use CGFonts but Postscript
	output and it works fine.

	The only funny character is a ^D at EOF that the LPS40 here at the
	office chokes on, so edit the file and strip it before printing.

	There are minor or erratic problems, like a box edge disappearing
	or characters that won't go away but that's bearable. In any case,
	Save always worked fine. One of the things that get on my nerve is
	that when you frame a text box and subsequently change its size,
	the frame will keep its original size. And one thing that I really
	miss is not being able to rotate/stretch text.
Yv
3782.4Bug ListDICKNS::MACDONALDVAXELN - Realtime Software PubsSun May 13 1990 11:3443
    There are a few known bugs in V1.31 ...
    
    o Never save in 200% magnification mode. This will almost
      always result in an unrecoverable corrupt file. This may be
      related to the use of the SAVE requester.
    
    o Never attempt to put a frame around an imported bitmap. Instead
      use the box utility to draw a frame. Saving a file with a frame
      around the imported bitmap can result in an unrecoverable
      corrupt file. This may be related to the use of the SAVE requester.
    
    o CGfonts are a problem area. Occasionally PPage V1.31 has a problem
      with new sizes of fonts, either on the screen or when printing
      to a dot-matrix. The program freezes. You must reboot. To get
      around this, you need to use CACHEEDIT and manually add the new
      size to the appropriate cache (i.g., TimesBI 180x180 or 75x75, etc.).
      I recommend manually creating the caches for all the fonts, styles,
      and sizes you'll need. Then save an extra copy of the CGCACHE dorectory
      just in case.

    o Always save a file using the SAVE AS requester, not the SAVE requester.

    
    The CGFonts problem is the most troubling for me, since it crops up
    unexpectedly sometimes. It DOES NOT corrupt the file. It merely
    locks up the computer. You can get around it my manually creating
    the cache files with CACHEEDIT, and not using any fonts, sizes or
    styles other than those you've selected.
    
    I suspect that Gold Disk is well-aware of this problem by now is
    is working on a fix. If you don't use CGFonts from the new CGFonts
    disk, you won't experience this problem. (In other words, if you
    are using the V1.31 version with the supplied CGFonts, no prob).
    
    Some other little nits include failure of certain certainsized CGFonts
    to display on the screen as BOLD. They print out as bold, but won't
    display as bold.
    
    -Paul
    
    BTW, NARC.LZH on dickns::user:[macdonald.public] is a newsletter
    created with V1.31 PPage.
    
3782.5Erg... More on the SagaNAVIER::MELLITZMon May 14 1990 06:1033
    I think I may have made a blunder.  At the advice of the PPage people
    I called the dealer where I bought the system (System Eyes) since
    my warranty runs out in a week or so.  The (@System Eyes) folks
    told me to bring in the system. This may have been a mistake.
    
    Before he even looked at the problem he said this was going to cost
    me *big bucks* if he finds a virus or bad software. Not really a
    comforting remark.  I did run virus x, harddisk verify, and the
    A2091 memory diagnistic.  He talks about an *new* a virus but 
    didn't have any details.
    
    When we power up the system and invoked ppage.  The entire screen
    broke up into a tiny randomized colored checkerboard pattern.  He said
    "yeh, sort of looks like a hardware problem."
    
    Then I asked him how he was going to determine what was wrong. He said
    he "was going to look arround."  I said "do you mean that you have
    diagnostics."  He said "yes."  That seems weird because I haven't
    really heard about any available diagnostics.  He then rushed off to
    lunch.  It seemed like he just brushed me off.  On leaving he said "it
    would take a week or so to get to it."    I hope he doesn't trash my
    disk. It's a lot of work to restore it. 
    
    The reason I really decided to the dealer in the first place was
    that my LA50 print driver was acting weird too. It wouldn't
    print underlines anymore.
    
    
    Oh well. Just waiting helplessly now,
    
    Rich
    
    
3782.6Frames, IFF, and CGFontsNAVIER::MELLITZMon May 14 1990 06:2021
>      o Never attempt to put a frame around an imported bitmap. Instead
>      use the box utility to draw a frame. Saving a file with a frame
>      around the imported bitmap can result in an unrecoverable
>      corrupt file. This may be related to the use of the SAVE requester.
    
    Oh! The first thing I did was to create a frame and import and an
    IFF file with my logo for a style page.  I did notice that if I
    didn't "load the bit map immediatly" that I was able to save and
    restore my files (sort of.)
    
    If you use the box utility to create a frame to put an IFF file
    in, how do you get ride of the outline of the box?
    
>   o CGfonts are a problem area. Occasionally PPage V1.31 has a problem
>   with new sizes of fonts, either on the screen or when printing
    
    52 point for sure will give you a software error. This was true
    even on the A3000 at System Eyes.

    

3782.7DICKNS::MACDONALDVAXELN - Realtime Software PubsWed May 16 1990 15:059
    The imported IFF is in its own box. You simply do not select a frame
    for it. Instead you draw a box around it.
    
    52 points takes up a huge amount of memory. Possibly he either ran
    out of memory or did not allow enough space in his cache. The cache
    is limited to 256K unless you change it with CACHEEDIT.
    
    BTW, a new Gold Disk Tech Support person now answers questions on
    both PLINK and Compuserve.
3782.8I'll delete cachedit,try againSALEM::LEIMBERGERThu May 17 1990 08:4411
    RE -1
    	I was playing with the 3000 at System Eyes to see if I could
    isolate the problem. While a 52 point font would crash the system,
    a 72 point font worked well.I thought this and the fact that they
    are running with 4megs would rule out memory problem. It is possible
    that the problem was in cachedit,I did not take time to look at
    that. Paul may be right in that cachedit did not have enough room
    to build a 52 point font(maybe the 72 point was done already).
    I will clean out cachedit: tonight,and see if it will work with
    a 52 point type.
    							bill