Digit Magazine 1999 December/cDigit issue 18 - December 1999.iso/mac/essential/BBEdit/BBEdit Lite 4.6/BBEdit Lite Compatability Notes

Text File | 1999-08-16 | 10.9 KB | 270 lines | [TEXT/R*ch]

BBEdit Lite Compatability Notes
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August 16, 1999

This document covers various topics concerning system configuration
issues and other topics which are not covered by the BBEdit Lite User's
Manual.


System Requirements
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BBEdit Lite now requires System 7.0 or later in order to operate
correctly. System 7.1 or later is required for use of Macintosh Drag and
Drop, and use of System 7.5 or later is recommended.


"Can't Purge a Locked Block" error
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If you receive this error message when trying to launch BBEdit, your
system has been infected with the MDEF-B virus (or a variant of it). To
correct this, run the Disinfectant utility to identify and repair any
infected files.

Object Support Library Problems
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There is a bug in certain versions of the Object Support Library, a
component of the OS used to support scriptable applications. This bug
potentially affects all scriptable applications, not just BBEdit. Inside
of BBEdit, the most common manifestation of this problem is an
"insufficient memory" error message that results when you choose "About
BBEdit..." Another frequently reported symptom is that BBEdit's
scripting dictionary is unavailable when using the "Open Dictionary..."
command from Apple's script editor (or other OSA script-authoring
environments).

Version 1.2 of the Object Support Library (OSL) corrects the underlying
fault. The updated OSL is included with MacOS 8. If you're using an
earlier version of the OS, you can obtain the latest OSL via anonymous
FTP from <ftp://ftp.scripting.com/apple/objectSupportLib.sit.hqx>.

VM 8.0 Fix
-- --- ---

We have identified a Mac OS 8.0 compatibility issue, which arises when
using Apple's virtual memory (VM). Although this issue was originally
confirmed to exist on 68040 systems, we have reason to believe that it
may also occur on PowerPC systems.

When using our products, the problem manifests itself as generalized
instability when running BBEdit (any version) under Mac OS 8.0 with
virtual memory turned on. BBEdit may sometimes crash when starting up,
but if it doesn't, other misbehaviors will present themselves, such as
errors or garbled text when copying, pasting, or scrolling text.

However, the effects of this compatibility issue are not specifically
related to BBEdit, and may affect other applications as well.

This compatibility issue will likely be addressed in a future release of
Mac OS. In the meantime, we have written a system extension which should
correct the problem. Open the "VM 8.0 Fix" folder, and drag the "VM 8.0
Fix" file on to your active System folder. Then restart your machine.

The VM 8.0 Fix extension does not patch any Mac OS routines, nor will it
load on any version of the Mac OS other than 8.0.0.

Mac OS 8.1 corrects the problem that necessitated the VM 8.0 fix; if you
are using Mac OS 8.1 or later, the VM Fix will not load and will not
affect the behavior of your system.

"Can't Undo" Alerts
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A number of actions, most notably many extensions, are not undoable.
As a matter of course, BBEdit will pose an alert: "<action> is not
undoable. Do you still wish to proceed?" If these alerts annoy you,
you can turn them off. The appropriate option is in the Editor section
of the "Preferences" dialog. (The "Preferences..." command is found
under the Edit menu.)

Desktop File Problems
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On occasion, you may find that the Finder does not display the correct
icon for BBEdit documents, or that you cannot drag documents onto the
BBEdit application (or an alias to the application) to open them.

This behavior is not indicative of a problem with BBEdit; rather, it is
an indication that the database that the Finder uses to associate
applications, icons, and documents (known as the "Desktop file") has
become confused or corrupted.

When this happens, it is usually desirable to force the Finder to rebuild
the Desktop. To do this, reboot your machine, and immediately hold down
the Shift key until the message "Extensions Off" appears. As soon as
this message appears, release the Shift key, and hold down the Command
and Option keys. For each volume that mounts at startup, the Finder
will ask whether you wish to rebuild the Desktop. Click "OK", and the
Finder will do so.

Corruption in the Desktop file can also render BBEdit unable to locate
external services. If you have a service installed (say, the THINK
Project Manager), but BBEdit does not make the service available to you,
rebuilding your desktop will usually help. (This assumes that you've
already checked to make sure that the application you are trying to use
is of an appropriate version.)

Memory Usage
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BBEdit uses System temp memory to hold the files it opens, so you will
not need to increase the application's partition size to edit large
files. However, some operations, such as Copy and Paste on large blocks
of text, performing a multi-file search over many files and folders, or
using XTND translation to import and export files, requires that more
memory be made directly available to the application. If you often
perform tasks like these, we advise that you increase BBEdit's
recommended memory size allocation, as your needs dictate.


Printing with Substituted Fonts
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Because of idiosyncracies in various printer drivers, including both the
LaserWriter and StyleWriter drivers, there are some character spacing
anomalies when printing with a substituted monospaced font (i.e. Monaco).
To avoid these problems, print in a non-substituted, monospaced PostScript
font such as Courier. (With BBEdit, you can of course edit in one font,
and print in another.)


Fractional Spacing
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BBEdit supports a "Fractional Spacing" option when printing. We
recommend that you use this option if you are printing in a small
(less than 9-point) font size.


FaxSTF "FaxPrint" Printer Driver
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Version 2.2.3 of the "FaxPrint" printer driver, supplied with the FaxSTF
fax software package, has a bug in it which can cause all applications,
not just BBEdit, to malfunction. STF Technologies has been notified of
the problem. In the meantime, to avoid potential problems, choose another
printer driver, such as the ImageWriter or LaserWriter driver, except
when you are planning to fax documents directly from within BBEdit.

Later versions of the FaxSTF software, used under System 7.5.3, reportedly
cause problems when opening files. Contact STF Technologies for the latest
information on the availability of a fix.


LaserWriter "Preferences Damaged" Warning
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On occasion, version 8.2.2 of the LaserWriter driver will issue a
warning message about missing or damaged preferences. We have contacted
Apple regarding this issue, and they believe it to be due to a bug in
the LaserWriter driver. We have also had reports that the recently
released LaserWriter 8.3 driver may exhibit this same problem. If you
get this message, simply choose "Page Setup" or "Print" from the File
menu, and you should be able to continue without any difficulty.


NOW Utilities
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Older versions of Super Boomerang have a bug which affects BBEdit;
in particular, you cannot type upper-case letters in the "Save As..."
dialog. This bug is fixed in version 4.0 and later of the NOW Utilities
package; contact Now Software for an update.

Now Save may cause BBEdit's "File" menu to become scrambled. If this
happens, turn off Now Save when running BBEdit.

Please also note that you will not be able to modify the command key
equivalents for BBEdit's menu items using Now Menus.

We have received reports of problems caused by Now Utilities 6.0, and
are currently investigating. Please check our Web site at
<http://web.barebones.com/support/support.html> for up-to-date information.


Standard File Hacks
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There are some third-party extensions which modify the standard "Open"
and "Save" dialogs (known colloquially as "Standard File"). In a couple
of known cases, some of these extensions have a bug which causes
correctly written applications to crash. Specifically:

    - "Click, there it is!", version 1.0.1. Version 1.0.4 or later have
       fixed this problem. Registered owners should contact the author
       for more information.

    -  Quickeys version 2.1 also appears to have a similar problem.
       Please contact CE Software for an update.

If either of these extensions is installed, BBEdit will most likely
crash when trying to bring up a Standard File dialog. (BBEdit's "Open"
and "Save" dialogs should work correctly, but other dialogs, such as
the File Types section of the preferences dialog, will not.)

In addition, problems have been reported in which the Standard File
Package crashes, or BBEdit takes an "emergency exit", when Peter
Lewis' "CDIconKiller" extension is in use.

Finally, we have received reports that StuffIt Shortcut will sometimes
cause BBEdit to crash when you choose "Open..." from the File menu.
We are working with Aladdin to identify and resolve this issue.


The BalloonWriter INIT
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Version 1.0.1 of Apple's "BalloonWriter" extension interferes with
the correct display and operation of BBEdit's dynamic menus. To avoid
this conflict, disable or remove BalloonWriter from your system.


Contact Information
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Should you have questions about BBEdit Lite, please send us e-mail:

    [e-mail]

Please note that we cannot provide support for BBEdit Lite or our other
freeware products via phone or fax.

For sales, licensing, and all other inquiries, we may be contacted
as follows:

Bare Bones Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 1048
Bedford, MA 01730-1048

phone:    [phone]
fax:    [phone]

email:    [e-mail]
Web:    http://web.barebones.com/

From time to time, we will release updates to correct problems in the
software, and/or add minor functionality. Updates to our freeware
may be found on the Freeware page on our Web site, as well is in
the Freeware directory on our public FTP area:

    ftp://ftp.barebones.com/pub/freeware/

We will also provide technical support bulletins, as warranted by
circumstances, to address some commonly encountered problems. You can
also find a list of frequently asked questions about BBEdit on our
Web page.

If you do have a problem with the software, please let us know. All too
often, users do not report problems for one reason or another. Remember
that if we do not hear about a problem, we can't fix it.


Additional Acknowledgements
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The regular-expression library used for 'grep' searching is based on the
'regexp' package, written by Henry Spencer of the University of
Toronto. Pete Keleher provided a Mac- compatible version, from which
BBEdit's code is derived.


Thanks!
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Thank you for using BBEdit Lite. If you have any suggestions for
improvements, or any problems to report, do not be shy. Our experience
shows that feedback from our customers has consistently led to better
products and happier users.

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