From: kab@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (kenneth.a.becker)
Subject: Re: Frame on Microsoft Windows 3.0 - Need Help
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 15:13:33 GMT
Summary: Yeah, it works o.k.

In article <Bx9KyL.IJ9@NeoSoft.com>, rohit@NeoSoft.com (Rohit Mehrotra) writes:
> 
> I am about to order FRAM on MS-Windows3.1. Are there any other horror
> stories, that I need to know. I am very skeptical of the MS-Windows
> version, however  I would be having a 486/16MB RAM/Win-3.1
> 
> Is it going to be an acceptable configuration for this application.
> 
> Is there anyone out there who is using it on this platform.
> -- 
> Rohit Mehrotra

Well, I've been using Frame between work (OpenWindows version) and home
(386-33 MHz with 8 Meg) with no major problems.  There are a couple of
issues, however:
1)  Frame on a PC wants to see a printer with equal dot pitches in x
and y.  For example, if you start up Frame with a default printer whose
x by y dot pitch is 360 x 180, your characters end being strewn all
over the sceen. The printouts look the same way, i.e., the same as the
mucked-up screen display. With equal pitch (180 x 180, 360 x 360, 300 x 300, 
etc.) everything looks fine and prints fine as well.  What this means:
those with 9-pin dot matrix printers need not apply.  If all you have
at home is a 9-pin printer, you can get around the problem by
installing through the control panel a postscript printer on "FILE"
(rather than LPT1:, for example), and making that printer the default
printer before you start up Frame. You won't be able to print anything,
but you'll at least be able to view and edit the document. Frame's
comment on all this was that the printer driver supplied by Microsoft
was broken.  Yeah, right:  then how come Microsoft Write, the Notepad,
and good 'ol MS Word have no problems? (This is no longer a problem for
me, as it happens: my old FX-85 smoked, literally, and I picked up a
24-pinner this last weekend that works just fine.)

2)  Make sure that you keep the "autosave" option on and running.  I
get frame crashes when hitting the F8 or F9 keys and then start
scrolling through the font or paragraph libraries.  The error always is
"adobe type manager display error - abrupt termination."  The Frame
window dissapears half the time, and Windows has to be restarted; the
other half, Frame pops up a window asking if one wishes to save the
file. (Yes!) Then it quits, and Windows has to be restarted before any
more work is done.

Other than the above two bugs, FrameMaker works quite well.  I've been
able to use the templates generated by the crowd at work with no
problems and have written and edited a few documents from home.  One
can use DDE and OLE with FrameMaker; however, bringing the objects over
to the Unix end never seems to work extrememly satisfactorally.  You
get printouts, but the Windows based items never look as good as they
do on a Windows platform.

There is just one thing, or set of things, that I wish Frame would do:
have the ability to print out ASCII, with more-or-less the correct
formatting, so I can email documents to those with dumb terminals or
without the cash for workstations/PC's capable of running Frame.  Yeah,
there's probably a filter pack out there:  however, every other work
processing package >>exports<< as well as imports, and I'm tired of
Frame's default policy of "everything in, nothing out."


		Ken Becker kab@hotstone.att.com
		
		
The opinions expressed above are mine, all mine!
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame