Message-ID: <369@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Dec-84 13:46:31 EST
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.369
Posted: Sat Dec 15 13:46:31 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Dec-84 02:47:54 EST
Organization: NC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 28


If you try to run SPSS/PC (a wonderful product - but more about that in a
future article) after having run dBaseIII without first re-booting, your
system completely locks/freezes up, requiring a cold boot! (A pain in the
royal XT with 512K+ RAM.)  Letters to both Ashton-Tate and SPSS, Inc.
about this problem produced an almost immediate reply from SPSS.  They
had some helpful suggestions, but nothing that worked.  So, their
"techies" contacted Ashton-Tate's, and (as I learned in phone calls last
week from both Ashton-Tate and SPSS) the culprit was traced to Prolok - 
dBaseIII's "infamous" copy protection mechanism!  Seems as though Prolok 
leaves behind some garbage in RAM that doesn't effect the majority of 
software packages out there, but is fatal to those that it does effect.

The solution:  Ashton-Tate has said that, beginning next week, registered 
users of dBaseIII will receive upgrade notices for replacement of Prolok.  
(They didn't say if there would be any charge.)  In the meantime, those
of you with both dBaseIII and SPSS/PC, the problems you've been having
are not the fault of you or SPSS/PC.  Just remember for now: if anyone 
might have been using dBaseIII on your machine, re-boot before starting 
SPSS/PC.


Jim Gogan (ncahec@ecsvax)
AHEC Program
UNC-CH School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514
(919) 966-2461