Re: clip will not work on new win98 installation

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Paul Breeze  on Tue, 31
Aug 2004 13:28:23 +0100

Paul Emailed me privately...

> When I try to copy from the clipboard in XY3 [under Win98]
> I get the message 0 bytes pasted.

I never before tested CLIP in Xy3 under Win9x, only NT. I see that Win9x does
not wait for file allocations & writes to be completed before returning control
to the parent process -- on my (old) 9x machine, this means that CLIP sometimes
works and sometimes doesn't ("0 bytes pasted"). So I added a bit of code to
CLIPWXY3.FRM that waits for the file to appear in the FAT table (a precaution
already built-in to the Xy4 version). Xy3 was simply getting ahead of the file
system and the OS (as usual). Fixed.

> In XY4 the behaviour is different.

Hmmm. First of all, VBS is faster in 9x, while EXE is faster in NT (although
both work in both OpSyses), so you might want to use VBS under W98. But EXE
does work fine for me under W98.

The Xy4 version already performs a "WaitFile" procedure before trying to paste,
so it isn't a timing issue as above. If Xy4 is saying "Cannot find CLIP.VBS"
but "EXE_or_VBS=E", then something is probably bolluxed up. Maybe you have
more than one copy of XYWWWEB.REG in the Path? Old copy of CLIP.EXE? Old VB6
runtime (MSVBVM60.DLL)? Old U2? Or, if using VBS, an unregistered
AutoIt3X.DLL? Whatever, I cannot reproduce any problem with EXE on 98 or NT.
If you can give me more information... do a little debugging... I can perhaps
determine whether the problem is in the program or the configuration.

Update to the newest frames (/XY3/CLIPWXY3.FRM and /XY4/CLIPWXY4.FRM) in the
ZIP dated today:

http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/CLIPW32.ZIP

Replace existing frames in either [Xy3] SHORT|LONG.HLP, then SAve, LOAD
SHORT.HLP; or [Xy4] U2, then LOADHELP.

P.S.: Some (many) of U2's frames are not transparently easy to understand
(although the Save/Get spaghetti in DLG is much worse). An invaluable
mechanism for me, when trying to diagnose problems, is a frame that has been in
U2 since the very beginning and even before, called IFENDIF (shortname IFEI).
Primarily it checks for balanced (including nested) IF...EI statements. It
only works in Xy4, but it can display clearly the conditional structure of any
Xy2-Xy4 program. DeFine the *whole frame* in U2, CoPy it to a separate window,
run IFEI, and then when asked "View structured list?" respond "Y"es.
This, along with TABLE VARIABLES, XRAY, the DEBUG command, and other built-in
or U2 tools, can really clarify the code.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------