From: dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552)
Subject: Re: Harpoon Designers Set (Harppon Bugs)
Organization: just me
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 13:45:09 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games

In article <1992Aug14.211921.1286@datascope.com> jld@datascope.com (Jay L. Davis) writes:
>In article <1992Aug07.121010.20140@srg.srg.af.mil> dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552) writes:
>>Someone recently posted that the problem with Harpoon and QEMM is probably
>>with the specific configuration of QEMM.  I appreciate that this person is
>>having no problems, but I would like to point out that it is Spectrum
>>Holobyte which is describing this as a bug; *they* say that *their* software
>>is not fully compatible with QEMM, with or without the switch.  Not the
>>other way around.
>>
>>Just another data point...
>>		David Pipes
>>robear@digex.com
>
>
>Well, I hate to say this, but maybe the person at SH was wrong. Too many
>times I have seen people completely messed up by bad help. I wish
>customer support people would just say "we don't know" or "we're not
>sure" rather than "It must not be compatable." Sort of like when
>a mechanic can't find a problem they always say "That's the way it is
>supposed to be."
>

I called them again and spoke with a different person, who reiterated the
point and went into quite a lot of detail, referring in the first person
to some of the development problems.  This is not the first time I have
gotten one of their developers on the phone as tech support, and I have
found them to be quite knowledgable.

He stated that they "did not know" exactly what the problem was, but that
the software was developed under QEMM 5.0 and loves that version.  QEMM
6.0 breaks it.  They *love* QEMM and do not recommend in any way that people
give it up, they are just warning that 6.0 and Harpoon 1.3 are incompatible.

He also stated that the "handles=255" fix is for a different problem and will
not affect the QEMM crashes, as someone previously asserted.

>And it really is true that most "compatability" problems with QEMM
>can be traced to specific setups. For example, having boards with
>registers mapped into high memory, strange BIOS's that have
>things at unexpected addresses, etc. One big thing I have noticed
>is that a large number of "compatability" problems with QEMM v6
>is stealth mode. My suggestion is that if you don't absolutly need
>stealth mode, shut it off. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches.

I agree.  But I have QEMM 6.0 with no weird options, AMI bios, nothing
else mapping into high memory, etc.  I have no other compatability problems
with QEMM and find it to be a superb product which I often recommend to 
friends.

So, should I not believe a developer given the above information?  Remember,
no one here is bashing QEMM; just saying that the company found problems
which they felt they did not have time to address before release, and thus
recommends using another memory manager for this product alone.

If you really are running 6.0 and Harpoon 1.3 with *no* crashes/lockups,
I suggest you call these folks and ask to speak with a developer about your
setup.  I know they would *love* to find a solution to recommend to people,
especially if it *is* a configuration problem.

For my part, I'll try stealth mode off.

>
>---Jay Davis

	David Pipes
robear@digex.com