I guess I'm stupid but...

[Dan McDonald]

that's interesting. I used Firefox to download, so that's consistent.

Dan

[Craig Maier]

Yup - we also noted that Firefox worked. So that is good feedback. Rick and I are trying to narrow the interaction down. We are looking at the Diamond Cut software vs. the Forum software. We should know the answer to that one shortly. My suspicions are leaning towards an interaction between some browsers and the Forum because Quartet87 was successful in importing the presets taken directly from my e-mail to him.

But that does not explain Lord Theo's situation. Maybe there are two bugs, one in the Forum and the other in Diamond Cut.

[Lord Theo]

Firefox

will install it tomorrow & let you know how it works out.

[cromag]

I'm using Internet Explorer -- not proud of it, but I admit it.

[Lord Theo]

Good News!

Able to download & install presets when using Fiefox, so this may be an MS Internet Explorer issue

[mightymic]

i have found the last 5 or 6 years from time to time all my differant DC programs have started to get a little flakey, and all i have done is delete it and then do a fresh install, and everything gets back to normal, now before i get to far i think it has alot more to do with "windows" than it has to do with the DC programs. so all of you having a problem with the presets i'd do a fresh install and then try it again. its worked for me everytime

[cromag]

I'm RARELY in the position of defending Microsoft products, but this really has to be described as an INTERACTION issue between DC and I.Explorer. Within the past two months I've downloaded two "freeware" packages in Zip format and they unpacked fine.

One tip-off that I noted when trying to download the Preset Zip files was that the "Byte count" displayed in IE didn't agree with the Byte count that IE reported at the conclusion of the transfer.

Good luck, guys!

[Craig Maier]

Rick and I have come to the conclusion that the interaction is, most likely, between this forum software and Internet Explorer. So - - - what we are planning to do is to purchase the Forum Software upgrade package. This will also provide improved security on this forum as well as some new features and - - - hopefully - - - fix the presets issue with Explorer.

Let's see what happens.

[quartet87]

I have had Firefox on this pc at the office for quite a while and bounce back and forth between it and Internet Exploder, so for grins I just downloaded my "Test Preset" to this (office) pc. Successful installation, whereas on my home web pc, using IE, I could not install my downloaded Test Preset. So the browser is a factor. BTW, I have ver 6.04 on this pc. As an aside, a few minutes ago when I was reading the posts concerning Firefox, I was using IE. I closed IE and opened Firefox to try my experiment. When I did, I was slapped in the face at the speed difference in loading the DC pages. IE usually takes nearly 10 seconds to open a DC page...Firefox took less than 2 seconds loading the same pages.

[quartet87]

Just installed both updates...now I'm on ver 6.14 on this pc. So I deleted my previously installed Test Preset downloaded using Firefox as well as deleting the zip file from the folder. Downloaded my Test Preset again using IE...unsucessful installation. Closed DC6, deleted the zip file, opened Firefox and once again downloaded my Test Preset to the same folder. Successful installation. As far as I'm concerned, the problem seems to be browser dependent.

[Craig Maier]

That is good news; it looks like a lot of things are pointing in the same direction (IE + BBS/Forum). Hopefully, we will have time this week to upgrade the Forum Software.

[Brian]

These BBS guys market software that doesn't work with the leading browser - and then want you pay for their "fix" in an upgrade? It sounds like they could take a lesson from Diamond Cut when it comes to customer service!

[Audyossey]

These BBS guys market software that doesn't work with the leading browser - and then want you pay for their "fix" in an upgrade? It sounds like they could take a lesson from Diamond Cut when it comes to customer service!

Actually IE is known in the industry for ignoring or altering industry programming standards. That's one reason that Firefox has been coming on very fast and strong. I don't remember the numbers, but it has already achieved a strong No. 2 position. The forthcoming IE7 goes a long way toward addressing these issues, but not completely. Some things have been compromised in order to maintain compatibility with previous releases.

Opera is the best browser in terms of compatibility with XHMTL standards but even it has a variation here and there and sometimes following the official standards isn't a good idea because the page won't work in any other browser. (Since you need to be compatible with what's out there, the newer standards seep in slowly. There's a substantial number of "deprecated" coding routines that will likely be supported for a decade or more.)

Professional HTML coders have lots of tricks for dealing with browser-specific variations. For example, they write "correct" code that one browser will ignore and provide an alternative routine that a nonstandard browser like IE will see and execute. For casual coders the solution is generally to stick to the older HTML 4 standard which works on almost everything. The main problem is that it isn't as efficient as the current industry standards. And even then, there are a few small areas where you need workarounds that detect which browser is being used.

As for the older BBS software having problems with IE, keep in mind that IE is a moving target. What works in an older implementation doesn't necessarily work in a newer one. That isn't vBulletinBoard's fault. (That said, I don't know why downloads would be affected, nor do I know whether IE7 will address that issue. But that sort of thing isn't my bag. Obviously they are.)

Overall, the problems aren't as great as they once were. There was a lot of mismanagement at Netscape as well, even after they made their browser free. They were loathe to give up proprietary implementations even after bowing to the open source industry standards and micromanaged themselves into a corner pretty much up until 8.0.

For myself, I actually use Netscape 8. It has both Firefox and Netscape display engines and you can switch easily between them without having to copy URLs from one browser to another. I find it works quite well. If the display is corrupted or some link doesn't work properly under the Firefox engine, 9 times out of 10 it does work with the IE engine. Downloads are done through the Mozilla routines, so there would be no problems with the DC6 presets.

HB

[cromag]

Microsoft's concept that "If we do it this way it IS the standard" is one of their many less-than-endearing qualities. Still, I use IE, Outlook, etc., because sometimes it seems the only thing worse than using Microsoft's programs is using a mix of Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs.

I keep threatening to re-animate my Amiga one more time.

[Dan McDonald]

yes.. my Commodore 64 is on its last legs, but never will I bend to Microsoft!


Dan