Mesa 2 Frequently Asked Questions Sundial Systems Corporation This FAQ is a compilation of questions frequently posed to our technical support staff. It is intended to cover important points that are not in the User's Guide (for example, items of a time-varying nature) but it is strictly customer question-driven, and was not compiled with the intention of being a comprehensive User's Guide supplement. It is merely intended to provide quick answers to common questions and problems without the need to contact us. This FAQ is organized into the following sections: Policies and non-technical Mesa questions, Mesa versions, What's new, Installing and licensing Mesa, Performance issues, OS/2 Desktop issues, File format issues, Printing issues, Scripting issues, and more. Thanks, and enjoy! Sundial Systems Support Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Policies and non-technical Mesa questions: ------------------------------------------ Q. How do I get in touch with Sundial Systems? Sundial Systems Corporation can be reached at: Sundial Systems Corporation 909 Electric Ave., Suite 204 Seal Beach, CA 90740 310-596-5121 (area code 562 beginning January 1997) For registered users of Mesa, technical support can be obtained by email at mesa@ibm.net or mesa@sundialsystems.com. (The old support address, m2-support@athena.com, should no longer be used). Or, you can fax your questions to 310-598-9851 (area code 562 beginning January 1997). Feel free to use these addresses and numbers for non-technical questions as well. And, Sundial Systems provides technical support in its section (Section 5) of the OS2AVEN forum on Compuserve. Type GO OS2AVEN to get to the forum. You can also visit Sundial Systems on the web at www.sundialsystems.com. You'll always fine the latest available information there. Q. What happened to Athena Design? Many of the folks at Athena Design, Inc., original developers of Mesa for OS/2, have moved on to bigger and better things -- and some have moved over to Sundial Systems Corporation, the new developers of Mesa 2. Mesa 2 currently ships with the original Mesa 2 User's Guide, and the guide thus contains references to former addresses and policies of Athena Design. It is important that this information be ignored. All questions and comments regarding Mesa 2 should be directed to Sundial Systems at the above address. Q. How and why should I register my copy of Mesa for OS/2? Registering your product helps us notify you of new releases and other information you should be aware of, and it helps us better predict our support and sales needs over the next several months. In addition, technical support is provided to registered users only, so if you don't send your registration card, we'll probably insist you do so if and/or when you contact us for technical support. Please send in the registration form that arrived with your product. If you no longer have the form, please let us know and we'll email or fax or send you another one. When you do fill out the form, please send it back to us at the above address. (If, for some reason, you still have an old form with an Athena Design address, you can still use it to register but you should mail it to Sundial Systems at the above address.) Please note that we CANNOT ACCEPT EMAIL REGISTRATIONS. Mesa versions: -------------- Q. What is the current version of Mesa 2 for OS/2? Version 2.1.6. Q. My copy of Mesa has a version number of 2.D.0. Is that really the version number? Yes and no. Version 2.D.0 is a "special edition" version of 2.0.4 and corresponds in feature and function to that version. Q. My copy of Mesa is labeled as being version 2.1 (or 2.1.0 or 2.1.1 or 2.1.2) but you never mention that version anywhere. What gives? These version numbers were assigned to various BETA releases from Athena Design that were never formally released. In particular, these versions are not supported and may contain significant problems. You should strongly consider updating to a supported release (2.1.6 or later). Q. My copy of Mesa is labeled as being 2.1.4 or 2.1.5. What's the story? Ok, we did it too. If you have 2.1.4, you need to tell us where you got it. If you have 2.1.5, you have a Beta version issued by us prior to finalization of our testing on OS/2 Warp 4. Because of changes that we needed to make for Warp 4 compatibility, we decided to change the number to 2.1.6. Thus, 2.1.5 was never formally released and has been replaced by 2.1.6. Q. What happened to 2.1.3? Skipped it. Q. Ok, ok, so what versions of Mesa are there? The formally released versions, in order, have been: 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, and 2.0.4 (from Athena Design) as well as 2.1.6 (from Sundial Systems). There was no 2.0.3. Version 2.D.0 is essentially the same as 2.0.4. What's new: ----------- Q. What is new or improved in Mesa for OS/2 version 2.1.x? See the README.TXT file for a complete list of new features found in the current version of Mesa 2. If you don't have the latest version of Mesa, you can find the README.TXT file for the current version on our web and ftp site: www.sundialsystems.com. Q. Is this the latest version of the FAQ? Maybe it is and maybe it isn't -- we are always updating the FAQ. You'll find the most recent version on our web and ftp site: www.sundialsystems.com. Installing and licensing Mesa: ------------------------------ Q. What happens if I install Mesa but don't have a license? Mesa will run in "demonstration" mode giving you full access to a 32x32 spreadsheet. Q. I've entered my license number, and Mesa doesn't complain, but all I get is a 32x32 spreadsheet. That's the default size of a new spreadsheet, but you aren't limited to that size. If you press the down arrow key toward the bottom of the sheet, you'll get more rows. Similarly, if you press the right arrow key toward the right hand edge of the sheet, you'll get more columns. If you want to add a layer to the workbook, use File->Workbook->Add Layer. If you want to change the default size of new spreadsheets, you can do so by using the Preferences item on the Options menu to change the default number of rows, columns, and/or layers. Q. Do I need to retype my license number into Mesa when I upgrade? Typically, the answer is no. Mesa stores your license string, among other things, in encrypted form in your OS2.INI file. When you install an upgrade, you should not have to retype your license number as a result. The old license number, provided it is one that is accepted by the upgrade, will be read from OS2.INI. If your OS2.INI file has been corrupted, and/or you rebuild the file from a default configuration, and this removes the license string, then you will have to re-enter the license string. Otherwise, Mesa runs in demo mode (32x32x7 rows/columns/layers). If Mesa mysteriously starts running in demo mode, loss of the license string in the OS2.INI file is the probable cause. Q. My old copy of Mesa didn't require a license number (and I don't have one) but since I installed the new Mesa, it now wants me to enter a license number. Why? Some previous "special editions" of Mesa came with a built-in "generic" license -- these display some name, rather than a license number, in the Product Information dialog. The standard edition of Mesa requires an actual license number. You should contact Sundial Systems for information about purchasing an upgrade that includes the necessary license number. Q. When I unzip Mesa from an ftp site, I get junk. Why? The Mesa for OS/2 package can be downloaded from various ftp sites, including our own (ftp.sundialsystems.com) in a .zip file. The most common problem with bad downloads occurs because the ftp transfer was done in ascii mode, instead of binary mode. Please try downloading with the ftp transfer mode set to binary. The command at the ftp prompt is "binary". If that is not the problem, please make certain that your unzipping utility is capable of unzipping files produced by the OS/2 "ZIP" program. PKUNZIP will not work properly due to OS/2 extended attributes. You can get a good unzip utility from hobbes.nmsu.edu. Q. I just installed an upgrade of Mesa, and now when I start it, I get a SYS2070 error and Mesa crashes. What gives? SYS2070 Errors are almost always caused by duplicate .dll (dynamic link library) files that are from older, previously installed versions of Mesa. DLL files are version-specific, so you must use the 2.1.6 dll's with the 2.1.6 MESA2.EXE file. If you encounter a 2070 error, try the following command at an OS/2 command prompt: dir c:\mesacore.dll /s where C: is the drive where Mesa 2 might be installed. (Please do this for all the drives in your system.) If you do discover additional dll's, delete them if you are not using them, or rename them. Also, check your CONFIG.SYS file's LIBPATH variable to remove any unnecessary paths. The default entry from the Installer for Mesa 2 in the LIBPATH is: C:\MESA2\DLL C: is the default drive used by the Installer program; change C to the appropriate drive if you chose a different drive using the Installer. Q. Why can't I install Mesa 2! There are several potential problems. 1. If you delete Mesa 2 without using the Installer, then try to re-install, the Installer can sometimes get confused. The solution is to delete all the EPF files in the OS/2 system folder, as follows: C: cd os2\system del epf* If you're getting messages about EPFIXXXX errors when you attempt to install, this is likely the cause and the solution is to do take the above steps. 2. You may have to delete existing versions of the mesacore.dll file. Typically, a 2070 system error occurs when older versions of mesacore.dll are hanging around. To find these, at an OS/2 command window, type: dir c:\mesacore.dll /s where C: is the drive where Mesa 2 might be installed. (Please do this for all the drives in your system.) Then remove all copies of mesacore.dll except the copy that you most recently installed. (See the question on SYS 2070 errors in this section of the FAQ for more information.) 3. One known problem with installation has to do with search paths and different versions of "unpack" in your system. If you have multiple versions of unpack on your system, or if you are installing Mesa from something other than an OS/2 system window, please try reinstalling it from an OS/2 command window. 4. If all else fails, we suggest the following manual method of installing Mesa 2. Step 1. Copy all the files to an empty directory on the hard drive. Step 2. Use the OS/2 UNPACK utility to unpack all of the files. Step 3. Create a MESA2 directory with the following directories below it: DLL EXAMPLES Below the EXAMPLES directory create a SRC directory that contains the two directories FEED and PAGE. Step 4. Move all of the files to the directories listed below: Directory \MESA2 autoload.m2 m2bmodel.ico m2model.ico Mesa2.exe mesa2.hlp mesa2.ico mesa2doc.inf readme.txt Directory \MESA2\DLL Mesacore.dll Mesafeed.dll Mesalic.dll Directory of C:\mesa2\EXAMPLES feed.exe feed.ico page.exe page.ico All *.m2 except autoload.m2 Directory MESA2\EXAMPLES\SRC\FEED feed.cpp feed.def feed.dep feed.h feed.mak Directory MESA2\EXAMPLES\SRC\PAGE os2h.h page.cpp page.def page.dep page.mak page.rc Step 5. Delete any other remaining files that you have not moved. Step 6. Edit your config.sys; add an x:\MESA2\DLL entry to the SET LIBPATH line and an x:\MESA2 to the SET HELP line, where x is that the drive on which you installed Mesa (typically C). Step 7. Create a Mesa 2 folder on the OS/2 Desktop. Next, create a shadow of the Mesa2.exe file and one of the mesa2doc.inf file in this folder. Step 8. Reboot your system. Performance issues: ------------------- Q. Is the latest version of Mesa 2 any faster than previous versions? Yes. Mesa 2.1.x features an entirely new recalculation engine (compared to Mesa 2.0.x) which significantly reduces the recalculation time. It also has new memory management routines and optimizations to significantly reduce the memory footprint of the application and thus keeping it out of the swap file much longer. Q. Is there anything I can do to get Mesa 2 running even faster? For starters, here are our hardware requirements and recommendations: -8 MB of RAM (required) -486 or Pentium CPU (recommended) -math co-processor (highly recommended) Mesa 2 is designed with an eye to the future (i.e., it trys to take advantage of features in newer, faster machines). We have made performance improvements in version 2.1 that will help regardless of your hardware, but software that is optimized for faster, newer configurations will always be suboptimal on machines at the opposite end of the spectrum. In these requirements and recommendations, we hope we have struck the proper balance of advanced technology and practicality. Turning off the status bar has been a way to improve speed of data entry in the past. This may still be the case with some slower, older machines (386 machines, mostly), but entry should be substantially faster in version 2.1. Turning off the toolbar can also speed up data entry on slow computers. If the buttons continuously grey/ungrey, this can be a performance problem. Hiding the toolbar can help. (This will be addressed in a future version) OS/2 Desktop issues: ----------------------- Q. How do I get Mesa worksheets to show up as icons on my OS/2 desktop? This has been a point of confusion amongst many users. The Mesa folder visible on the desktop is created during the installation process, and the icons within that folder (Mesa 2, Read Me!, Mesa 2 Online Documentation, etc.) are SHADOWS of actual files on the filesystem. The actual files were installed in the directory chosen when the Installer was run (with the default being C:\Mesa2). The shadow files/icons are located in the Desktop\Mesa2 folder, which is usually located on the OS/2 boot drive. To see the file connected to a desktop icon, right-click on one and choose Settings (or Properties) from the pop-up menu. Click on the Program page tab. The path and file name of the actual file the shadow represents will be shown. Mesa can be started from the OS/2 Desktop by double-clicking the shadow, or Mesa can be started from the command line of an OS/2 window by typing "MESA" in the directory where MESA2.EXE resides (again, the default being C:\Mesa2). Both are equivalent. When starting Mesa via the Desktop icon, there is a natural tendency to think that saving Mesa workbooks will iconify them and place them in the same folder as the Mesa icon. When issuing a save command in Mesa for a workbook, the working directory will be shown in the file dialog (again, this is usually C:\MESA2). Saving a Mesa file here will not create a icon in the Desktop\Mesa folder. To create an icon, open the Drives folder in the OS/2 System folder, click on the icon of the drive that has the Desktop folder. Navigate to the location of the file you wish to iconify. Click on the file, then right-click. Choose Create Shadow, and select, on the boot drive, the Desktop\Mesa folder as the target. The icon of the file should appear in the Desktop\Mesa folder. There may be a temptation to simplify this process by saving Mesa files directly to the Desktop folder. This is risky, because the Desktop is far less stable and more dynamic a storage environment than the underlying file system. Desktops can become corrupted, and thus potentially corrupt the Mesa files contained within. We recommend against doing this, as it is not standard OS/2 procedure, whereas creating shadow files is the accepted way, and has little associated risk. File format issues: ------------------- Q. What file formats (filters) does Mesa for OS/2 support? Mesa 2 supports .wk1, .wk3, .wk4 (Lotus), .wb1 (Quattro Pro for Windows), .xls (Excel v3.0 and v4.0 worksheets), and .xlw import, and .wk1, .wk3, .wk4 and .xls (v3.0 and v4.0 worksheet) export. Mesa 2 currently does not support Excel version 5 file formats. Mesa 2 also imports ascii text files with tab, space or comma delimiters. (Comma delimited files are sometimes referred to as comma-separated value files, or .CSV files). The line termination character(s) is also selectable as either carriage-return, line-feed, or both. (These choices are made after selecting a file to import.) Contrary to what is implied in the User's Guide, Mesa 2 does not currently export ascii text files. We plan to correct this in the future. As a workaround for now, try selecting a range of cells, copying them to the clipboard, and then pasting them into a text editor. Each row appears on a separate line and the columns are separated with tabs. Q. Why isn't my file format listed in the File Type menu? The "File Type" drop-down menu in the Open and Save As dialog boxes determine the extended attributes that OS/2 looks for (i.e., acts as a search filter). However, you can still import and export files in the above formats regardless of the File Type menus. (For more information about extended attributes, see the OS/2 system documentation.) To import a file, simply select it from the list box of files in the Open dialog. If it is not visible, check the File Type to be sure you have the desired format, or simply select "All Files" as the File Type. To export a file, simply change the extension -- for example, save a file with the name "export.wk1" to create a wk1 file. You can have Mesa 2 ignore the extended attributes of files by turning off Extended attributes in the Preferences panel (Options->Preferences). Note: some elements of a Mesa workbook, such as graphs or graphics do not export in certain formats. If this is the case, closing the document window of a file that is only saved in an export format will cause a pop-up panel to indicate that changes to the document need to be saved. Save in a Mesa file to retain these elements, and the pop-up menu will no longer appear. Printing issues: ---------------- Q. How do I print just a graph in Mesa 2? The formal way to print a graph is to select the cells underneath the graph, by entering a range of cells using the Range->GoTo command (control-g), or with the mouse by dragging/highlighting. This was not adequately documented in the User's Guide, we realize, and we apologize for the oversight. If you need to print a graph repeatedly, and wish to avoid the above steps, try the following work-around: place a singe space in the cell that is just lower and to the right of the bottom-right corner of the graph. If you then print the whole spreadsheet (no specific, highlighted range) the graph will be included. Just remember that the space in the cell could cause confusion if you save your document and forget that one cell is occupied. You may wish to empty the cell after you've finished your work with the graph. Q. I'm having problems printing to my _____ printer. What's the problem? There are a few models/categories of printers that have problems when printing from Mesa. The IBM 40X9 series/Lexmark 40X9 series of printers (printer made by Lexmark, and marketed under both companies' names) have a driver problem which can produce mirrored, reversed, or upside down printing. Athena brought our customers' reports to Lexmark, and a new, patched driver was subsequently issued. This driver is available on: ftp://ftp.pcco.ibm.com/pub/os2_drivers/ibm4019.exe Also, a number HP printers, have also had trouble printing with Mesa. The drivers included in pre-Warp OS/2 (2.XX) are known to have had problems. The drivers were improved with OS/2 Warp FullPak, though some problems still occur. Here is a brief list of known printing misbehaviors that sometimes appear: Row and column headings inverted Colored text prints as black Non-outline fonts print slowly Landscape printing doesn't work on HP IIIP PostScript printer (Apple LaserWriter Plus emulator) Blank pages added to the ends of files on HP DeskJets and LaserJets We will continue to monitor the situation and keep our customers informed, and improve our code with workarounds, whenever possible. Several such enhancements have been made in Mesa 2.1.x (as compared to Mesa 2.0.x). Scripting/Macro issues: ---------------- Q. What scripting capabilities does Mesa for OS/2 have? Mesa 2 supports the OS/2 REXX scripting language. By using REXX as our scripting language, instead of a macro-like language specific to Mesa, the user gains a great deal of flexibility to work with the OS/2 environment and existing OS/2 tools. Take a look at the OS/2 documentation to learn more about REXX. An additional benefit is that VX-REXX, a graphical user interface extension of REXX, can be used. Please be certain that you are using version 2.0.4 or later of Mesa 2, as prior versions had a problem that could crash Mesa when invoking VX-REXX. Other third-party REXX products are available, though we haven't done testing on these products. We'd love to hear from you if you have experiences with other REXX products and Mesa 2. Q. Can Mesa run my Lotus or Excel macros? Sorry, no, and there are a number of reasons why that are too complex to discuss here. As noted above, REXX (and the MScript extensions to REXX) serve as Mesa's macro language on OS/2. Other issues: ------------- Q. My toolbar icons show up black! What is wrong? There is a bug in the Mach 64 drivers that ship with some versions of OS/2. You can get new drivers from ftp.atitech.ca that don't have this bug. Unfortunately, just installing the drivers won't fix the situation. You also need an INI editor to delete the TOOLBAR entry of the Mesa section of the user INI file (prior to Mesa 2.1.6) or MESA.INI file (Mesa 2.1.6 and later). You can get an INI editor from hobbes.nmsu.edu. Please contact technical support if you need assistance with this. Q. Why do I get a SYS3175 error message and what do I do about it? SYS3175 error messages are generated when a program attempts to place or retrieve data, or retrieve instructions from a location in memory that does not belong to the program's address space (address space=the portion of RAM allocated to the program). Mesa 2.1 is significantly less prone to this type of error than earlier Mesa versions -- in fact there are now quite rare. However, for this reason, it is very important that you send us the following information if you get a SYS3175: 1) Your hardware configuration. This would include: -CPU type and speed -Amount of memory -Video resolution: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc -Video chipset type, if known -Printer type, if printing was involved -Additional hardware installed, such as cpu accelerators. 2) Your operating system information, including: -Version of OS/2: 2.X, 3.0 (Warp), 4.0 -If Warp 3, is it plain Warp, Warp Connect, or Warp Server? -If Warp 3, is it Warp for Windows or Warp Full Pack (with Win-OS2)? -Is there a FixPak installed? Is so, which FixPak number? 3) The register info, which will state, among other things, in which executable file and function the error occurred. An example: SYS3175 A program generated an access violation at 1bdaf32c. PMMERGE.DLL 000:000af32c This is the most important part of the register information. 4) What you were doing in Mesa at the time of the error message and, very importantly, which version of Mesa were you running. Q. How do I "lock" certain rows (or columns) in place so that my headings stay visible when I scroll? Oddly enough, you can't do this in Mesa today. We (Sundial) are well aware of this requirement, however -- it's probably *the* most frequently asked question -- and we are planning to address it in a future release. Similarly, there is currently no way to have certain rows or columns repeat on multiple pages when printing.