Via:        UK.AC.EX.CEN; 12 NOV 92 17:01:19 GMT
X-Mailer:   ELM [version 2.3 PL0]
Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 92 12:44:52 GMT
From:         M.E.Bennun@CEN.EX.AC.UK
Subject:      Spelling checker/help screen problems
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

I've raised this already, but perhaps if I phrase the problem slightly
differently it might spark off a thought. I'm at my wit's end.

I upgraded a properly-functioning v. 3.0 to 3.1 with disks supplied
for the purpose. Various files get modified to effect the change.
Now, everythig seems to load ok and works satisfactorily till I
distract the beast's attention for a moment. Thereafter, it seems to
be unable to locate and present the help screens on the spelling
checker correctly; the text of the case menu is slightly
corrupted ("Leave word as #$@!$%?), and the text of the menu for
"double occurrence" of words is simply missing; if the panel appears
towards the end of the text, there is simply a blank empty box four
lines deep and a screen wide; and if in the middle of text the box
just encircles four lines of text. The effect is as if the system
cannot find the text of the menu.

The fault is corrected temporarily by reloading the UK speller (with
F1-o-s-d-p-u), but recurs when I do something like whip out to dos or
fiddle with another file. It occurs both on a 486 and my 386sx laptop.
My instinctive feeling is that there is something wrong with
startup.int or default.set. Both seem to have been unaltered by the
upgrade from 3 to 3.1. I have added a line as advised by READSPEL (a
file added in the upgrade) to startup.int to make the UK speller the
default one (this creates an appropriate editor.ov3 and apparently
makes it the default); I add a personal dictionary with load +; I have
added a line reading savec 0; my default.set has d:\ as the overflow,
and the editor overlay files duly get copied to the ramdrive. Looking
at editor.ov3, it contains the very text of the menus which are
causing the grief.

Does the fault lie in NB.EXE - please, what is the date and size of
3.1's, somebody? Trouble is, the upgrading seems to have changed the
date of mine. Should I use expanded memory, which I eliminate entirely
in place of a great ramdrive and a great cache which seems more
sensible for NB use?  Is there a magic number of files, stacks, and
buffers (of which I have ensured a plenitude) in config.sys? Is there
a subtle memory quarrel somewhere?

I'm sorry to keep on hammering on this; but it MUST be solved because
- genius that I am - while it's no problem to me apart from the
inelegance and the slower operation which the 386 seems to suffer from
when the fault is effective, NB is fighting a losing battle here and I
want to present a perfectly-running system to any users; it's no
answer to say - just reload the speller if it happens. It happened not
in the past, and it must happen not now.

When it rains now the rain is horizontal; __when__ (sneer sneer) the
sun shines, the colours are wonderful; the apples are on the way out,
though we've got buckets of them everywhere. Now the Great Winter
Awfulness looms - I find nowt good to say about the gloom, mud, cold,
and wet of a Devon winter. And when your spelling checker lets you
down, there's very little left worth going on for....{;-{ (winking
depressed smiley with contact lenses, frown and bushy eyebrows). There
is something so very dismal about a bunch of crows slowly creaking
across a grey, grey sky on a cold evening.

Cheers everyone!
 ---------------
Mervyn E. Bennun, Law Department, University of Exeter
Phone: (+44) (0) 392 263 161
Postal Address: Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, Devon, U.K.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU