Upgrade to Paradox 10

[wsinder]

I recently upgraded from Paradox 8 (actually Wordperfect Suite 8 Professional) to Paradox 10 (actually WordPerfect Office 2002 Professional). I now have too many problems with Paradox to count (not to mention all of the other applications). I've applied all the patches and hot fixes; I've re-installed a couple of times; I've gor it on three different boxes (running WinXPpro or Win2K). I'm pretty much convinced I've got a bad copy (which Corel won't replace), but I'm wondering if anybody else that's done the upgrade has this partial listing of problems on WinXPpro -
1. The position of the cursor has no relationship to where the next character will be inserted/deleted (it's not even cosistently off).
2. Code will not change the Working Directory (setWorkingDir and writeProfileString don't work).
3. Code won't change some properties of some UIObjects.
4. The field definitions in Forms and Reports are CHANGED whenever you try to modify a design document and then resave it.
5. Unbound text Fields (fixed width) are DELETED when code sets them to the empty string (luckily, for some reason you can change the "visible" property instead in this case).

Anybody out there having similar problems? Oh, in case you haven't guessed, I'd give version 10 a very big thumbs down.

The problems listed above seem to be common to my using version 10, no matter what version the document was originally designed in, whether or not it's delivered, and what version any bound tables were initially designed in.

 

[rmcmorris]

I assume that you have opened all of your forms and reports and saved them in Paradox 10.

My main problem has been with printing. I spent two weeks trying to get a label printer to function, that worked just fine in PDX 8. I finally had to resort to calling a Microsoft Word template with a built-in macro to print the labels. The macro taps into the Paradox tables via ADO.

I have also found that Paradox 10 intercepts some keystrokes for external (3rd Party) dialog boxes. Very frustrating.

 

[footpad]

wsinder,

It does sound like something's seriously messed up. I've not seen these types of problems, but I'll admit that I haven't used v10 heavily. I have an application I've been meaning to port and I'll try to work on that over the weekend; I report any major problems I run into.

In the meantime, here's what I would try to do:

1. Completely uninstall Paradox 10 and then reboot.

2. Reinstall and reapply the service packs. Be sure to reboot after installing each piece.

3. Make a copy of your application specifically for v10 and then resave all documents (forms, reports, scripts, and libraries). A document saving script (example available from

http://techtricks.com/paradox/fsrecurse.php3)

is useful for this.

4. Verify the stylesheets on all forms and reports; see the related articles at

http://techtricks.com/paradox/styleprobs.php3

for details and reasons). Yes, this is important, even if you don't specifically use stylesheets in your documents.

By this point, you'll hopefully have dealt with whatever is messing things up for.

Final Note: I have heard that the document file format changed between Paradox 9 and 10. Use care to always resave documents immediately when opening them in a new version. This isn't the first time the format has changed, but it may be the most significant change.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[wsinder]

Thanx folks,
I've already re-installed and re-patched a bunch of times - no problem's resolved. I can't open and resave without many fields being rebound (even if I do, no problem's resolved).
My copy of version 10 seems most stable on my Win2K box, so I used it to design a new form and a new report in version 10, bound to newly designed and populated tables. No problem's resolved.
I've tried swapping out style sheets - no change.
Everything (PW program files, documents, tables, style sheets, ...) is on the "C" drive.
Maybe it's time to cut my losses and move to Delphi over Interbase? That seems to be what Corel and Borland want.

 

[footpad]

wsinder,

Hm. At this point, I'd chaeck the tables and indexes for corruption. Since the fields are becoming unbound when you save, it sounds like the linking indexes may be damaged.

Usually, things become unbound when Paradox cannot properly re-establish the relationships defined in the data model. Unfortunately, it doesn't display an error message in this case, so your only warning is when things start acting up.

At this point, I'd probably try to create a new form with the same data model and see if Paradox lets me do that. If not, then you know that the indexes are damaged.

If the indexes are damaged, then the best strategy is to delete them with Windows Explorer (remember: only delete the .PX, .X??, and .Y?? files) and then re-create them with the restructure dialog--after verifying the table(s).

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

P.S. While Borland might prefer you to port your stuff to Delphi/InterBase, I seriously doubt Corel would encourage you to do that; otherwise, they wouldn't be continuing to update Paradox. That's not much, I know, but it might be worth thinking about.

P.P.S. You might also try posting a note to the other newsgroups. Perhaps someone else has run into the same problems and knows how to fix them.

 

[Lewy]

Wsinder,

I too have just upgraded to ver 10, today infact! So far I haven't had any problems at all, apart from paradox taking a lot longer to load. What I did however was to remove all traces of P7 & P8 before installing the suite. I have yet to try any printing, but all the 'automatic' parts of the forms appear to be working.

I will keep you posted on how things progress.

Regards,

Paul

 

[jlockley]

I upgraded over 8 and could not use it. Corel was to say the least not helpful. I finally chucked the disk and returned to version 8.

 

[Lewy]

I have now printed off some reports and have had no problems so far with paradox. The only thing that sometimes happens is that the screen doesn't refresh properly when closing the odd form. However I haven't had time to sit down and really play with it yet.....will keep you posted.

At least it hasn't crashed..yet!

Regards,

Paul

 

[footpad]

Hm. I wonder if the printer driver isn't somehow causing problems. Perhaps replacing it would make a difference?

-- Lance

 

[Eviltwin]

Wsinder,
I have been experiencing many of the same problems you are describing. I solved alot of the printer problems with some help from Rick Kelly's code and libraries.

http://www.thedbcommunity.com/code/

I highly reccomend you look into it. We aquired some low-end Lexmark printers (which I have learned to despise)and we had all sorts of hassles with them and Paradox 10. Reports would get mangled after printing them. Very annoying after having spent much time designing the form only to have it totally rearranged.

Ricks solution is very cool and solved my problem with the Lexmark's I am still fighting to get control over the Dot Matrix tractor printers.

I too installed over the top of Pdox 8. My forms definately behaved differently on opening and closing. I went through the forms and consistently applied this code in the arrive method of the form

MenuAction(MenuPropertiesZoomFitWidth)
Maximize()

If any one could figure out how to make the cursor behave as it did in earlier versions it would be wonderful.

Hope this helps a little
Eviltwin


That approach works very well on systems with single monitors --though is a little strange on my dual monitor setup.

 

[Lewy]

I am pleased to say that after several weeks of use P10 appears to be working well (kiss of death writing this). Reports have printed ok., albeit only consisting of one page. The only difficult time I have had was trying to do a mail merge onto DL sized envelopes through Word. In the end I used a mail label through the experts and it worked fine. I have noted however that the problems mentioned above and previously seem to be on machines running WinXP/2k. I am still using W98se......

Regards,

Lewy