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From: boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Norton Utils and Excel
Message-ID: <1990Aug23.070322.9301@world.std.com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 07:03:22 GMT
References: <1538@ntmtv.UUCP> <679@dbase.A-T.COM>
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
Lines: 43

cy@dbase.A-T.COM (Cy Shuster) writes:
>In article <1538@ntmtv.UUCP> takahash@ntmtv.UUCP (Alan Takahashi) writes:
>>When running Microsoft Excel 1.5, I've run across the following
>>problems:
>>   1) Disk access seems to be alot slower.
>>   2) Chart files that used to run in Excel now seem to generate
>>       "Out of Memory" errors.  This message is random, and cannot
>>       be reliably reproduced.
>>   3) The Mac crashes randomly (ID=02).
>How much memory do you have in total? All of these problems could be
>due to not enough memory. Also, remember Excel is sensitive to how
>much memory is available in the first meg, regardless of total size.
>Can any Excel weenies shed further light?

Excel 1.5's memory management was very poor.  It accessed only the first
1MB of available RAM, and in my experience was crashing constantly (in
particular, it did not seem to be on good terms with MultiFinder). Excel
2.2 has no memory-management-related problems that I know of, is functioning
reliably in my heavy-use environment, and is 32-bit-clean (i.e. compatible
with System 7).

Aside from the practicalities of this particular issue, I wonder why certain
users refuse to upgrade to current versions of their software.  I understand
upgrading is sometimes expensive, but it's the only way the publisher can 
fix bugs, compatibility problems and design flaws, and to add new features.
The computer industry is all about progress; it doesn't make sense to try to
freeze its development by refusing to take advantage of its new offerings.
At any rate, once a company has fixed a program's problems in an upgrade
(as Microsoft has done in Excel 2.2), users who do not avail themselves of
it in all decency should stop whining about the bugs in the now-obsolete
version of the program they're running.  It's also not the responsibility
of the publishers of well-behaved programs such as Norton Utils to accomodate
outdated, ill-mannered software such as Excel 1.5 just because some NUM
customers insist on running this relic.


Boris Levitin
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WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston                         boris@world.std.com
Audience & Marketing Research              wgbx!boris_levitin@athena.mit.edu
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(The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide 
with those of my employer or anyone else.  The WGBH tag is for ID only.)