Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mfci!bronson!tan
From: tan@bronson.UUCP (Tan Bronson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: VP/ix- "SOMEDAY IT WILL WORK!"
Message-ID: <1@bronson.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 89 16:30:37 GMT
References: <5980006@hplsla.HP.COM>
Reply-To: tan@bronson.UUCP (Tan Bronson)
Organization: Microvation Consultants Madison, Ct 06443
Lines: 46


    I've been using VP/ix for a month or so, and I thought I would share
my experiences.
    The first problem was the STB VGA card I used, vp/ix does not support it
so I got no color! They claimed that I needed a Pheonix or Award video Bios,
so I bought a Paradise card and it seems to work now! (As an aside the paradise
card has a warrenty which states they it will work anywhere or they will fix
it or buy you another card!)
    As a result of this dependancy, it's not too surprising that the
800x600 display drivers don't work! (it sure would be nice if they sco!)
    I also have the slow keystrokes problem and have reported this to sco.
I've found that hitting a `noop key' (shift or ctrl) will make the previous
keystroke `catch'.
    Another major bug/pain is using when Turbo Tax and trying to print out the
1040 form in `dot mode' (print the form out in the best detail possible). If
I try to print directly, it just hangs. When I try to flush using (F)lush
it print out part of the form, but it's junk. When I spool to disk it creates
a 172k(!) file, which I can lp to the printer (and it looks great!). When
I try to PRINT this spooled file, I get the same result as turbo tax did (hang).
    Another subtle bug I ran into, was when I left vp/ix running overnight
and found that my backup program was hanging wanting to open $HOME/vpix/C:!!!!!
It's cute to use use fancy locking, but the ONLY program Vp/ix should have
to worry about trying to modify this file in another VP/ix, so why can't they
use something more private (like advisory locking) ?
    A few other irritating problems:
	- you can not use /dev/install for the floppy devices
	    (which means you have to start up differently for each floppy type)
	- the two floppy problems (fixed in 1.1.1)
	- it would be nice to allocate the serial port from within VP/ix.
	(so I could decide to run Procomm AFTER I startup vpix.

    There is hope. A release 1.1.1 is coming out (when sco ?), which in
theory fixes the keyboard and mouse problems and has a few other features
which I forget.

    To address when Jim Morton brought up, I think we're better having a
limping VP/ix early, but we should ALL get the 1.1.1 and later releases
as a sign of good faith. This is not a simple product, but then again
it is not cheap either! If they can't get it right the first times,
then don't make us pay for their mistakes!
    We are the minority of DOS users, but I love being able to switch to
a dos program with out rebooting my machine!

    p.s. Lets generate a list of programs which don't work under VP/ix.
so far I've been able to use everything I've tried except for one
public domain ls.exe which HANGS my system !!!!!!!!!!!