From: barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr)
Subject: Re: Problems with WP 5.0!! WP 5.1 how much better??
Keywords: wordperfect sun unix
Organization: Penn State Population Research Institute
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 14:11:53 GMT

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
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.apps