Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ames!killer!tness7!texbell!ssbn!carpet!bill From: bill@carpet.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Problem with MKS Toolkit 2.3 on DOS 2.X (and solution) Summary: Go to DOS 3.X Keywords: mks Message-ID: <136@carpet.WLK.COM> Date: 21 Aug 88 18:06:38 GMT References: <798@helios.ee.lbl.gov> Reply-To: bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) Distribution: na Organization: W.L. Kennedy Jr. and Associates Lines: 38 In article <798@helios.ee.lbl.gov> forrest@ux1.lbl.gov (Jon Forrest) writes: >I just received version 2.3 of the MKS Toolkit. I immediatly >noticed that certain commands were having trouble finding files >that both DOS and version 2.2 of MKS had no trouble with. I >called MKS and found that this is a known bug and that they >would send me a new set of floppies right away. [ concern for MKS' testing, DOS 2.X compatibility ] >door without this being tested. Maybe they didn't test the toolkit >under DOS 2.X. If so, then they shouldn't say it works on DOS 2.X. A year ago I had a similar experience, I think the Toolkit was 2.1 at the time. The situation was greatly aggravated by trying to run MKS and UULINK at the same time, I forget which version of 2.X DOS I had. Both Vortex (UULINK) and MKS (Toolkit) urged me to upgrade to 3.X but I was furious with each of them because they claimed 2.X compatibility. Lobbing grenade after grenade at each of the vendors produced the firm but polite reaction, "try 3.1, what do you have to lose?". OK, I had another system that was already running 3.1 so I installed MKS and UULINK on them and behold! They each worked flawlessly, separately and in concert. In retrospect my reluctance to upgrade was just plain old laziness. I never felt the need to upgrade because the 3.X features were of little interest to me. I overlooked the benefits of improvements (environment space, fixes and changes to COMMAND.COM, etc.). I still don't use the 3.X features but I wasted no time upgrading to get the benefits. Also in retrospect both Vortex and MKS were more patient with me than I deserved. Was I reasonable to expect them to back up three revisions from the current release? Should I have expected them to exhaustively test an OS version they never run any more? None of the above should be construed as a flame for Jon, but rather a (hopefully plausible) explanation of how our expectations can differ from the results we achieve when we don't stay reasonably up-to-date with the rest of the marketplace. I'll bet a quick trip to 3.X would mend not only the MKS Toolkit but also some other things that have been nagging nuisances. -- Bill Kennedy Internet: bill@ssbn.WLK.COM Usenet: { killer | att | rutgers | uunet!bigtex }!ssbn!bill