Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
idlusers-news-gateway: id AA04374; Wed, 27 Jul 94 10:30:48 +0200 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for idlusers@maz.sma.ch); Wed, 27 Jul 1994 10:28:45 +0200 Hallo IDL - Users ! We use IDL since 2-3 years. And we were very happy about it. I bought a PC-Version (3.5.1) for my own, because of this. But the new release (3.6.1) makes me very unhappy. We upgraded from 3.1.1 to 3.6.1, because 3.5.1 seems to have a few bugs (on PC and UNIX). RSI respectively CreaSo (German distributor) have done a lot of PR for it. But the result is not in our mind. 1. There is no manual ( I mean an actual one, which describes the new widgets, handles and so on ). 2. They announce the new release for begin of june 94, but it really comes end of july. In awaiting of the new release we wait. But RSI or his distributers didn't inform their users, why there was such a long delay. 3. There is no upgrade for WINDOWS users until now. Very bad for such people, who bought an WINDOWS - Version a few weeks ago, in awaiting for the upgrade now. PC-Version have only 60 days guarantee. I hope, that RSI will change this policy and extend their maintenance up to 1 year as other software companies do. But this is all neglectible in contrast to the following: 4. The appearance has changed from (in our case) OPENWIN to MOTIF. That's not tragic, but all our widget applications lose their appearance as they were designed to. (We use IDL 3.x.1 on SUN with SunOS 4.1.1 - 4.1.3 and Solaris 2.3) a) In many cases (WIDGETs) the switches /ROW or /COLUMN are exchanged. Why? b) PC 3.5.1 has exchanged XSIZE, YSIZE-keywords in WIDGET_LIST c) How can I use MOTIF-Pulldown-Menues as under OPENLOOK (I mean how can I pop them to the pin wall as before). It seems not documented. d) Many WIDGET doesn't appear or not in the right way on the screen. e) The Idl file in the IDL_DIR helps a little bit in installing MOTIF-IDL on UNIX - Platforms. But is it useful to all kinds of maschines? We us a lot widgets, and we expext a similiar outfit on 1. all our maschines and 2. the same functionality of our applications under 3.1.1 and 3.6.1 5. CW_ANIMATE.PRO must have a bug in the !D.X_VSIZE,!D.Y_VSIZE because the intern structure S.SIZEX, S.SIZEY returns wrong values for width and heigth of images. (same in UNIX 3.5.1) On the PC (3.5.1) the eventhandler of CW_ANIMATE doesn't work, when CW_ANIMATE is integrated in another widget- application. 6. Every release the same procedure: We have to change our license.dat file. CreaSo announced before: You have not until V 4.0, but it happens again. When we ask them for the new password, they couldn't respond directly, because they had to call GB for a new one. My question is: When RSI knows, that a new release is coming and finally installed on their server, why do they not send a list of all new passwords to their distributors? It's no question, that after upgrading all customers call their dealer. Why having such an annoying delay? I know this is no programming question to the NEWS-Group, but I am wondering, that RSI makes us such a lot trouble. We have installed both 3.1.1 and 3.6.1, but we suggest the user to take the old one until 3.6.1 has fixed. EURAD-Administration Postanschrift: Universitaet zu Koeln (GERMANY) Institut fuer Geophysik und Meteorologie - Projekt EURAD - Atmosphaerische Umweltforschung Dr.Andreas Oberreuter, Aachener Strasse 201-209, 50931 Koeln Telefon: 0221 - 400 22 20 / 400 22 58 (Sekretariat) Fax: 0221 - 400 23 20 E-Mail: ao@eurad.uni-koeln.de