Backtalk: A Continuing Dialog on the Development Library and Platform
James van Eaton
I’m back with yet another edition of Backtalk, the column where your questions, gripes, suggestions, and other concerns are addressed. Do you have an idea about how to improve the Microsoft Developer Network program? Is there something we can do to help you get the information you need to develop and test your applications? Have you found something that’s not quite right on any of the CDs you’ve received as part of your subscription? If you answered “yes” to any of these, write us! We want to hear from you, really. Send all correspondence to msdn@microsoft.com. You may not get a personal reply, but we do read all the mail, we promise, so let us hear from you.
Library Archive Snafu
In an effort to make the information you are looking for easier to find and to make room for exciting new content, the Developer Network team combed the Library CD for all 16-bit related information and moved it onto its own CD, the Library Archive. This CD was shipped to all subscribers along with the January 97 Library CD. Unfortunately a bug crept into the Archive CD’s setup that you don’t see until you try to launch the Archive CD on a computer running a 16-bit version of the Windows operating system, such as Windows for Workgroups 3.11: the InfoViewer application complains about infoview.ini and simply won’t start. Tim Bride, a subscriber in Philadelphia, PA, summed up the situation for us: “Ouch!” Our faces are red with embarrassment, but luckily the fix is easy.
The Fix:
[MSDN.Settings] licensed.name=Your Name licensed.organization=Your organization license_version=01/28/97 license_last_read=11/09/95
[series] MSDN=msdncd18.MVB MSDNcdc=MSDNcdc.MVB
If your [series] section does not have these entries, add or change the information under the [series] section to match the above.
This information can also be found in the online Library release notes at http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/whatshot.htm.
January 97 Library Setup Error
A less serious bug started manifesting itself just after the January 97 Library CD hit the streets. After Setup declares that it completed successfully, another dialog box appears that complains about a Windows help file not being copied to the hard drive. You can safely ignore this error—it is caused by legacy code that should have been pulled from a dusty custom DLL.
Universal Subscription Now Includes FrontPage 97!
When the FrontPage 97 beta, which many of you downloaded from the Web, expired on January 31, 1997, MSDN’s mailbox was suddenly flooded with messages from subscribers like Stevie Kheel of Anchorage, AK, who suggested that FrontPage be added to the Universal subscription level so Web developers would be able to create and maintain professional-quality Web sites easily. Well, hundreds of MSDN members can’t be wrong, so I am pleased to announce that FrontPage 97 is included in the March interim shipment that will also feature Microsoft Visual Studio, the developer tool suite that includes all of Microsoft’s Visual tools: Visual C++ 5.0, Visual J++ 1.1, Visual Basic 5.0, Visual InterDev, and Visual FoxPro.
Don’t Toy with the KB
I wish I could say it wasn’t so, but we’ve done it again. Jodi Krois of Manchester, NH, can be counted among the masses who took the time to rightly inform us that many knowledge base (KB) articles that appeared in the October 96 release of the Library CD were conspicuously missing from the January 97 Library CD. This wasn’t due to a change in policy—all articles will be restored in the next edition of the Library. Here’s the skinny: when the snapshot of the KB database was taken, a filter was applied so only articles that had been classified as developer- or programming-related were returned. The guilty parties have been ceremoniously lashed and beg your forgiveness. In the meantime, the whole knowledge base is available on the Web at http://www.microsoft.com/kb/.
Release Valise Malaise
How does that slogan go? "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night . . . ? While it's true that we try our darnedest to get your Library shipments to you as soon as possible, once they leave the warehouse we simply can't control what happens to the packages before they reach your door. When Janine Carey of Montreal, Quebec, received her January shipment, she wrote to inform us that her "binders looked like [her city's hockey team's star player] Mark Recchi had been practicing his infamous slapshot with it!" Luckily the CDs were 100% intact. . . ! I know she can't have been the only one to have this experience, so I thought I'd let you know that if you find your shipment was damaged in transit, please contact your local MSDN subscription center to have a replacement binder shipped to you. On the other hand, if you find that a CD in your binder doesn't seem to be able to be read, I strongly urge you to first try cleaning it with a soft, non-abrasive cloth—of all the media that is returned as "faulty," very few are found to actually be defective. Of course this does not include the half-dozen or so of you who found an audio CD with the latest Gujarati tabla hits screened with an MSDN label and dropped in your pack!
Remember, we can’t read your mind so the only way for us to know how to help you get more out of MSDN is to write us. If that isn’t enough to motivate you, maybe the prospect of seeing your name printed in this column is. In any case, I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Ciao!