Re: Startup Messages

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to note from "John H. Kessel"  Fri, 04
Aug 2006 17:44:11 -0400

John:

First of all, welcome! Always nice to meet another long-time Xy
user (though I suppose that's about the only kind of Xy user
there is anymore), and a budding U2 aficionado, to boot. Like
you, I started with XyWrite in 1985 (v3), which makes us
newcomers compared to some others here. (As for "counter
sorters in a unit record environment", I suppose that means
you're one of the few people left who actually used punch
cards.)

With regard to the error messages you're seeing during startup,
one of them is not an error at all. The PRompts with "BX"
followed by numbers are generated when the Speedo raster font
files are loaded. These files are named BX followed by a
6-digit number and the extension .SPD, and are often collected
in a directory called BTFONTS, located one level below the
directory that contains EDITOR.EXE. (To find out where they're
located in your system, command VA/NV OL; or, with U2
loaded, issue AE/X DIR 'VAOL' to display the Speedo
directory.) Editor is simply reporting the names of the files
as they are loaded. Typically, the Speedo fonts are loaded via
a SETP command in STARTUP.INT; alternatively, it might be a
LOAD, LP or LDPRN command. In any event, these status messages
are normal.

"Invalid default setting" means that there is an error in
SETTINGS.DFL (or possibly in STARTUP.INT, if you set default
values there). To locate the offending default command, you'll
need to inspect the error message in its entirety. Try this:

First, command:

D WA=72

This forces Editor to WAit for the specified length of time
(measured in 1/18's of a second) after an error occurs. A
setting of 72 will cause the error message to stay on screen for
4 seconds or longer, time enough to read it.

Next, ChDir to the directory that contains EDITOR.EXE. With U2
loaded, you can simply issue GXD. Otherwise, use the
appropriate CD (a/k/a CHDIR) command.

Now, command LOAD SETTINGS.DFL and inspect the error
message. It should look like "Invalid default setting xx=blap".
CAll SETTINGS.DFL (or CA$ DL) and SEarch for "DF xx="
(substituting for "xx" the default setting identified in the
error message). If you can't figure out what's wrong with it,
report here and we'll help.

When you're finished debugging, restore your normal WAit
setting. For best results with U2, set the interval to zero:

D WA=0

Hope this helps -- let us know.

P.S. Your e-mails are padded with spaces on the left of each
line, which makes them difficult to read and is, in any case,
nonstandard. I recommend that you set your mail program to
format the message body flush left.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx