The Bat somehow corrupts the registry when you select it as the default mailer. The
following test should recreate the problem:
1. Install Eudora Light
2. Run Eudora so it asks "should I be your default mail program?". Answer Yes.
3. Install The Bat.
4. Run The Bat so it asks "should I be your default mail program?". Answer
Yes.
5. Run Eudora again so it asks "should I be your default mail program?".
Answer Yes.
6. Winodws will crash hard.
It is difficult to fix the registry at this point. My solution is to exit from
Windows to DOS mode and type:
scanreg /restore
Which can restore yesterday's copy of the registry. I'm not sure if this works on
all Win98 workstations. I'm pretty sure it doesn't work on Win95 workstations. I've
had no problem with Eudora and other mailers (Outlook, Netscape), so I think the
problem is related to The Bat.
My configuration? IBM ThinkPad 770X with 320MB RAM, Pentium 300MHz, running Win98
(first edition). Resources are not a problem because you can recreate the windows
crashing problem just after reboot.
FYI, I'm sending this via Eudora because I am happy *not* to run The Bat. It seems
like no one on this list is really interested in fixing problems ... only
rationalizations:
- When I report usability problems ... the response is "it's the user's fault".
- When I report problems with the on-line help ... I'm told that I didn't go
through every option and experiment (the response should have been "let's make the
on-line help more useful").
- When I report an internationalization problem (or a localization problem,
depending on your perspective) ... I'm told that I should be happy with the date in
the format of "dd MMM yyyy" (regardless of my localization settings).
- When I report that the text entry box operates differently than all others
(i.e., cursor positioning is wrong) ... I'm told that the main feature of that
very-different approach is that I can build tables by just going "cursor down" (yes, I
used the Z editor and all its prior versions in the mid-1970's, but how often does one
need to build tables in E-mail) ... regardless, the UI to this program is very
different than all other Windows (or even Motif) applications ... this causes
usability problems.
The people that create open source software have higher quality because everyone can
fix things. This software should be open-sourced so that problems could get fixed.
The application is very far from being mature. Sure, Eudora Light isn't perfect and
lacks many bells and whistles, but it is *reliable*, it uses an *existing* file
format, and for many people it is relatively easy to learn *basic* use (it can also do
a reasonable job for filtering, address books, and fonts). I'm a software engineer
for over 20 years, but I am choosing E-mail products for *non-technical* people (thus,
interest in products like Eudora, Outlook, Netscape, The Bat).
I'm sure many of you will send criticisms of my points, but you should take a serious
look at the questions posed above (paragraph and bullets starting with "FYI") and the
responses given over the E-mail reflector. I really think you should ask yourself (1)
if those responses I've received are reasonable, and (2) if those responses would
encourage wide-scale use of The Bat, just as Eudora has.
I heard about The Bat because someone forwarded E-mail to me about a story in the
Register. I think the Register should be listening to this discussion ... they might
not be as gushing next time in their reporting.
Finally, I'm *not* a big fan of Eudora, but I use it because it works. There are a
bunch of little quirks, but mostly stuff I can live with. Because E-mail is critical
to my business, I can't live with a buggy, hard-to-use problem like The Bat. Since I
paid for The Bat, I'll probably keep it around to get at those occassional uuencoded
files that Eudora doesn't handle well.
Good luck!
-FF
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Farance, Farance Inc. T: +1 212 486 4700 F: +1 212 759 1605
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.farance.com
Standards, products, services for the Global Information Infrastructure
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