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From: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU (Six o'clock News)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: After Dark 2.0 - WOW!
Message-ID: <27619@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 9 Sep 90 10:15:36 GMT
References: <1147@limbo.Intuitive.Com> <6319@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <24056@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <6361@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Reply-To: bruce@cory.Berkeley.EDUIn article <6361@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ins_apw@jhunix.UUCP (Philip Wong) writes:
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 39

>Hasn't anyone else had trouble with crashes on AD?  I've had crashes with
>TOPS and also while d/l and u/l.  It also causes problems with ATM or something
>such that all the icons and menus loose their names.  All that is left is
>their first letter and in a wierd font.  I still can't say I would recommend
>it until some of these major things are ironed out.
>
>ins_apw@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU  <--use this address, not the UUCP one
From: bruce@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Bruce Burkhalter)
Path: cory.Berkeley.EDU!bruce

Philip, please call our Technical Support!  You have said you are having
problems with AD 2.0 earlier.  We can't help you unless you get in touch
with us.  We have not heard of *any* the problems you are having.  We have
TOPS running all of the time with no problems.  I have no idea what is going
on with fonts.  As I said before, AD 2.0 does not do anything with fonts.

We find that most problems people have are caused by some weird init or a
corrupted System file.  While I am not ruling out a problem with AD 2.0, I
believe problems like you are having would have been reported in droves awhile
ago.  AD 1.1 had a problem on the Mac IIci and within 2 days we had over 20
reports of the problem.

Please call us!  If there is a problem with AD 2.0, I want to fix it.  If
there isn't, I don't want AD 2.0 to get a "bad rep" on the net.

You also had questions about how and why AD 2.0's System IQ works.  When enabled
System IQ monitors disk activity, CPU activity, and serial port activity.  If
AD 2.0 senses that the Mac is busy, it will not go to sleep.  If AD 2.0 is 
already asleep and the Mac becomes busy, AD 2.0 will slow its animation way
down to 1 frame per second giving more time to the Mac.

We feel this is better than Pyro!'s way.  Pyro! has "primary" and "secondary"
modules that flip back and forth when the Mac is busy.  The moduls also have
a "persistance" setting that controls how busy the Mac must be before it will
switch.  We feel this is complex, confusing, and overkill.  System IQ is a
simple check box and for most users it is more than enough.

Bruce Burkhalter
Berkeley Systems, Inc.