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