Hi Jack

Replying to a message of Jack Stein to Paul Marwick:

 JS> It does copy the file though, just not the FILES.BBS entry.

 JS> It's still a bug though, but looks like it stays that way.

:-( Thats the part I don't like...

 PM>> It will do the same if you try and copy a file with a long
 PM>> name and a FILES.BBS entry, or if you try and move the same
 PM>> file.

 JS> But it has no problem copying and moving files with long filenames,
 JS> just not when you are trying to copy a long filename file AND its
 JS> FILES.BBS entry.

I never said it had a problem with long filenames per se, just that it cannot
combine long file names and FILES.BBS sucessfully. 

 JS> OS2C claims to handle ZIP, ARJ and LHZ self-extracting archives, and
 JS> it does, perfectly.  Which other ones does FC/2 handle?

Perfectly? I think not. In fact, I'm sure not. I have a directory with 30 .EXE 
files, of which 29 are self extracting archives. 28 of those are
self-extractivng Zips, one is a self-extracting RAR. FC/2 reads all 29 of the
self extractors correctly. OS/2 Commander says that 18 of them are not
archives. That is a _long_ way from adequate, let alone perfect.

I don't like self extractors. They always strike me as being dangerous. Which, 
in my view, makes it more important that my file manager handles them so I am
not exposed to potential problems when trying to extract them. In this area,
OS/2 Commander can only be described as a dismal failure.

The FILES.BBS and long filenames bug is an oddity - if that was the only
problem, I could ignore it as unimportant. The failure to correctly handle
self extracting archives is (IMHO) a major problem. 

 JS>> I've been using OS2C for years, and thats about the only two 
 JS>> "bugs" I've noticed, both are very minor.  I generally don't 
 JS>> use his editor anyway, and he doesn't really expect you to use 
 JS>> his, he allows 2 other external editors plus his assigned to 
 JS>> hot keys, so that one is a non-problem.  

I don't expect an enormous amount from the internal editor - I've got others I 
can use. The one area where the limitations of his editor are annoying is when 
editing FILES.BBS (TAB when one panel is in Info mode). The internal editor
does not handle long lines very well, and some FILES.BBS entries can be up to
1024 characters. Anything of that sort, you have to avoid using the internal
editor or end up with line wrapping that you don't want...

 JS> There are some bugs, none that would preclude me from using it.  Most
 JS> of them are quite obscure.  Another one you haven't mentioned is
 JS> cutting and pasting from the command line.  For some reason, and I'm
 JS> not certain it is OS2C fault, I can't cut and paste to the OS2C
 JS> command line any more.  I'm pretty sure this used to work, so I don't
 JS> know what happened.  I saw that Bat mentioned this also, so maybe it
 JS> is a problem with OS2C.  It is the only one that particulary bother
 JS> me.

"Obscure" depends on usage. For me, a number of the bugs mentioned are not
obscure, since they occur regularly during my usage. YMMV

 JS> I blame the whole mess on IBM, MS, INTEL, ZIFF-DAVIS and the DOJ.  A
 JS> clear  case of a giant cartel run amuck, screwing the public at will,
 JS> and the DOJ too corrupt to do anything about it.

:)

Maybe its time people registering shareware enquired about the availabilty of
soruce should the author decide to halt development. If registration decisions 
were based in part on availability of source, users prepared to back shareware 
might be less often left in the lurch.

regards, paul

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