PCShare Bug Lists

PCShare - Y2K.

All versions prior to v3.2 (incl. PCShare 4 beta):

The 'Read PC Clock' message utilises a 2 digit date code. The resultant action of this code will depend on the host computer's interpretation of the code '00' returned for 2000. See the Y2K page for more details on other possible dependencies. Interface change implemented in PCShare v4.0 & v3.2 released now.

Aug 1999

PCShare - all versions

1. PCShare becomes confused when changing the 'Path to PCshare' setting in the 'Config/Settings' dialog box AND you have the PCShare environment variable set. Solution is to either not set the environment variable & launch PCShare from the directory where the config file is located OR to change the path inside PCShare, quit & update the environment variable in your autoexec.bat file. Forthcoming Windows versions will use the registry to avoid this issue.

Aug 1999

PCShare V4.0, V3.2, V3.11 - all platforms

1. 'Path to PCShare' path in the Config/Settings dialog may have an extra backslash displayed. eg. 'C:\PC_SHARE\\'. This causes no operational problems.

Aug 1999
 

PCShare for Windows V3.xx (all versions)

1. 'Cancel' button on colour select dialog has no effect, any changes are actioned. Also, regardless of cancelling a font/colour dialog box on the Config menu, changes are written to the system config file. Fixed in V4.0 release.

Dec 1998

2. Slow screen update/scroll speed. Documented a long time ago this that I was unhappy about the performance of text being displayed in the windows, particularly when scrolling (it became slowly than the old GO51 graphics mode on the Dragon itself). Despite several software 'fixes' this has remained the case. I'm happy to say that having just upgraded the graphics card from my old 1MB PCI job (circa early '95) to something a bit newer it now hurtles along. So I don't intend investing any more time on this problem when graphics cards are so cheap at the present.

Nov 1998

3. Graphics 'trails' left behind when scrolling text. The graphics display is corrupted and leaves portions of it over the screen. A resize, or max/minimize restores the display.Fixed in v4.0 release (not beta).

Aug 1999

PCShare - all versions prior to V3.11

1. Have discovered that current 8255 driver used in ALL versions of PCShare prior to V3.11 is unreliable on faster processors (by unreliable I mean it works on a DX2, not on a P266, anything inbetween is unknown). The Windows DLL and DOS executables from v3.11 should correct this fault. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

June 1998

PCShare for Windows V3.1/V3.01

1. PCShare crashes with an invalid page fault if the PCShare Directory entered into the Config Settings does not exist. Also, the PCShare directory path must be terminated with a '\' modifier eg. 'C:\PCSHARE\' rather than the form 'C:\PCSHARE'. If it is omitted PCShare will crash in the same manner. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

2. Windows NT Only: PCShare does not highlight text correctly when selecting for Copy or File Export. Instead, the whole area is painted black. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

June 1998

1. When running 'Dynacalc' under OS9 the menu of the spreadsheet package sometimes not seen when running. Strange text/windowing effects also experienced. Probably a video emulation (GO51) problem. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

2.Old or 'stale' screen displays sometimes seen after a window has been scrolled via the scroll bars. Problem occurs after a window has been resized and also accounts for the 'Dynacalc' problem (see 1 above) and may also cause other unexpected displays. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

3. PC keyboard doesn't generate 'Ctrl $' as per the Dragon keyboard. Later versions of OS9 Stylograph use this sequence for setting text attributes. Solution is to define an unused entry in the keyboard map (eg. a function key) to generate the code 29 (decimal) then use this instead.

4. Cursor symbol not always removed from display window, typically after another has overlapped it.

April 1998

1. Copy region flicker during selection. Not strictly a bug but down to the method used to highlight the selected region. Planned update in next release.

Oct 1997

PCShare for DOS V3.1/V3.11

1. PCShare is liable to crash the machine if the PCShare Directory entered into the Config Settings does not exist. Also, the PCShare directory path must be terminated with a '\' modifier eg. 'C:\PCSHARE\' rather than the form 'C:\PCSHARE'. If it is omitted PCShare will crash in the same manner. Fixed in V3.11 Upgrade.

June 1998

1. Internal clipboard 'Copy' function retrieves 1 too many characters from the currently selected highlight region.

2. Pressing Esc to abort a highlighted selection may not fully clear the selection from the display.

3. Not all key combinations listed in the keyboard map menu are definable. The definitions may be entered but are not actioned by the software. The keyboard maps are identical to the Windows variants which do allow all the listed keys to be defined, however limitations in the DOS IO system prevent easy detection of these keys. At some point I will try to rectify the situation.

Keys affected in particular include the Break key (not definable at all) and special control keys (arrows, page up, page down) which do not support SHIFT key combinations.

4. Linker produces 5 warnings of the type: 

  Linker Warning: DOSSEG directive ignored in library file tcpcwml.lib in module 'xyz'
when building a new PCShare executable with the development kit. These warnings can be ignored.

Jan 1998

OS9 Drivers - latest driver set shipped since V3.11 software

1. Networked devices cannot be referenced directly via PCSBF through Win32 versions of PCShare eg. '\\jons-pc\shares' will return an Error #201 - invalid pathname. No fix planned yet.

Aug 1999

2. OS9 Executables cannot be run from PC disks, just returns Error 216 if on CHX without accessing driver, Error 215 if a full path used (file is opened okay, then closed).

3. Current DOS directories not maintained by OS9. Any task altering the DOS directory will cause all other task's DOS directories to change.

Nov 1997