Dec. 21, 2010
I began using the predecessor of WordPerfect in 1980, when it was known as Satellite Systems International. It ran on a Data General Nova minicomputer. I bought the first edition of WordPerfect for my IBM PC in 1981. I have written about 50 volumes of books with WordPerfect for DOS. I have typeset least 20 volumes with WordPerfect 8 for Windows. So, I know a lot about WordPerfect.
I have just discovered a bug in the X5 edition. I started using it two days ago. I discovered it in the third paragraph of my second article. In short, this is no minor bug buried deep in the bowels of the code. This is an up-front bug.
I wanted to check a PDF graph in a publication of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. I have that page available at all times on my site. It is in the department, Federal Reserve Charts.
It is the live link to the Adjusted Monetary Base: Short-Term.
I clicked it. Internet Explorer 8 asked me if I wanted to open it. I did. Then up popped a screen from the new WordPerfect program called Lightning. If this was intended to imply speed, then it is poorly named. If it was intended to imply getting hit by lightning, then it is perfectly named. I was informed that the page was password protected. I had to type in the password, it said.
There is no password. The file is a public document.
So, I tried Firefox. Same message.
So, I tried Google Chrome. This time, the page opened.
I immediately uninstalled WordPerfect Lightning.
I tried again. Same message in IE8 and Firefox. WordPerfect Lighting popped up again, blocking access. Gone, it still lived!
I closed WordPerfect. I tried again. Same message.
I shut down my computer and tried again. I rebooted. Same message.
What was going on? Why could two of my three browsers not open this page?
WordPerfect has always had great features. The big one is reveal codes. You can see what the document looks like beneath the printed page. You can fix the formatting by removing an unwanted code.
WordPerfect has loyal users. New users rarely arrive. OpenOffice is free. Microsoft Office is universal. But users of older versions of WordPerfect do buy upgrades. I am such a person.
This new bug threatens to undermine Corel's marketing for WordPerfect. When a program has a major bug, and this bug can be evaded only by downloading Chrome or else uninstalling the program, the marketing department faces a major problem. The programmers let a bug get through that compromises the program.
This is another example of the power of the programmers. Unless senior management adopts a policy of extensive and expensive beta-testing, it risks the survival of the company. A high-tech firm should spend as much money on beta-testing and the production of users' manuals and videos as it spends on programming. But high-tech companies rarely do this. They assume that their programmers do not make big mistakes. They wait for users to call bugs to their attention. But this mandates the creation of an information-delivery system in which no one at the bottom or anywhere in the chain of command has an incentive to keep bad news from senior managers.
Senior managers want to manage, not get involved in bug correction. They do not design and implement such information systems.
How a bug this bad could get into X5 is something that Corel's management should investigate. The chain of command failed to beta-test the program thoroughly.
This information should not come from a public Website like mine. It should come from inside the company before a program is released to the public.
It is not enough to release a program that the programmers say is ready. Programs are far too important to be left to programmers. Users should have a shot at de-bugging the programs.
My son, a technician, found the origin of the problem. WordPerfect had established Lightning as the default program for opening PDF files. When he switched this to Adobe Reader, the problem went away. So, if you use WordPerfect X5, be sure you do not have the Lightning program set as the default PDF reader.
On the whole, WordPerfect X5 beats Word and OpenOffice Writer. But you had better use Adobe's Reader as your default reader.
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