B
Beth Melton
Perhaps its our definitions of corruption and bug. 
To me, corruption when the bits in a file or Registry are placed in a
state that they can no longer be read, such as in the case of the
missing toolbars caused by a corrupt Toolbars value in the Data key. A
bug, OTOH, is when the program doesn't function as it was intended:
issues that result in a crash or hang or a "buglet" if you will,
something that doesn't cause an error but it isn't functioning
correctly, due to how it was coded, such as the Ruler display Suzanne
has encountered.
If a third-party add-in modifies the Registry or another Word
component then I don't classify that as a Word bug or corruption. The
application is functioning exactly as the creator of the macro
designed it to function, whether they intended to add certain
behaviors or not, which in that case could be classified as bug in the
add-in - but not a bug in Word. Now, do I agree with using a macro as
a workaround for issues like this? But of course!!
My primary disagreement is chalking issues up to bugs or corruption.
Doing so gives the impression that Word is full of instabilities when
it fact it isn't. I'm tired of comments things like "Word is full of
bugs" or "Word is unstable". The "blame" belongs to the developer of
the add-in causing the issue and I think users should know why their
application is not functioning as they expect it to function. Perhaps
if users held the creators a little more responsible for the issues
their add-ins cause then they just may create a better add-in. (I
know, it's a pipe dream but you never know! <g>)
Also, regarding the SnagIt issue. The add-in was an older version (the
one that modified Normal.dot) and it caused issues in the status bar -
page number, section, etc would be blank. I think this was corrected
in a later version due to our feedback.
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
To me, corruption when the bits in a file or Registry are placed in a
state that they can no longer be read, such as in the case of the
missing toolbars caused by a corrupt Toolbars value in the Data key. A
bug, OTOH, is when the program doesn't function as it was intended:
issues that result in a crash or hang or a "buglet" if you will,
something that doesn't cause an error but it isn't functioning
correctly, due to how it was coded, such as the Ruler display Suzanne
has encountered.
If a third-party add-in modifies the Registry or another Word
component then I don't classify that as a Word bug or corruption. The
application is functioning exactly as the creator of the macro
designed it to function, whether they intended to add certain
behaviors or not, which in that case could be classified as bug in the
add-in - but not a bug in Word. Now, do I agree with using a macro as
a workaround for issues like this? But of course!!
My primary disagreement is chalking issues up to bugs or corruption.
Doing so gives the impression that Word is full of instabilities when
it fact it isn't. I'm tired of comments things like "Word is full of
bugs" or "Word is unstable". The "blame" belongs to the developer of
the add-in causing the issue and I think users should know why their
application is not functioning as they expect it to function. Perhaps
if users held the creators a little more responsible for the issues
their add-ins cause then they just may create a better add-in. (I
know, it's a pipe dream but you never know! <g>)
Also, regarding the SnagIt issue. The add-in was an older version (the
one that modified Normal.dot) and it caused issues in the status bar -
page number, section, etc would be blank. I think this was corrected
in a later version due to our feedback.
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/