[WriteLog] Some perspective

[Ford Peterson]

Scott wrote:

> And come on guys, at $30/year this software is probably one of the cheapest 
> parts of your contest setup and relative to the use it gets, the single best 
> value around. 

I have no idea how the notion that $30 is overpriced got wrapped into this thread.  It is not a notion that I put forth.  Quite the contrary.  What is a bit difficult to stomach is the notion that we must go begging on both knees, bowing down to the mighty Wayne and crying "I am not worthy" when we report bugs.  Stuff that is obviously broken only acquires a priority when the great one deems it.

Even a simple question results in the inquiring party being subjected to repeated insults and public humiliation--with a large contingent of people pissing all over each other in an attempt to suck up to Wayne.  It's enough to make a fella want to puke.  As the only game in town, WL remains a great bargain at $30, or even $300, that is if you can place any sense of self-esteem on the back burner long enough to ask a simple question about how the heck you are supposed to make it work.  Just don't piss off Wayne or you'll be in tech support hell.

After reading the so-called step 2 about 50 times, and discussing it with as many people.  Questions remain when interpreting it into XP.

Step 2: share and copy a common WL file

All stations participating in the network must be logging the same contest 
and the same exchange format. An easy way to ensure this is for at least one 
workstation to place a WL file in a directory shared on the network. 
Important: the workstation that creates the WL file must do a Setup Register 
to accept network connections before saving the WL file. Then a new 
participant should do a File Open on that WL file to get started. But it 
must immediately do a File Save As... to create a local copy because each 
WriteLog installation is designed to keep its own redundant copy of the 
entire log on its own disk so that it can carry on logging in the event of 
network failure. 

"At least one workstation" must mean at least one computer, which may or may not be an operating position actually pumping Qs into the log as well.  "in a directory shared on the network" is a notion that remains subject to interpretation.  "immediately do a "file save-as ... to create a local copy..."  A local copy where?  On that shared subdirectory?  In a directory that cannot be shared?  What must it be called?  Is the file name important?  Is this the file that appears on the opening screen when you reboot WL?  This is an opportunity to get it right  with flawless logging or have an absolutely horrible weekend trying to fix what cannot be fixed.

If you interpret that to mean all workstations must point to that shared filed, you will be in for a HUGE surprise.  Does it mean that only one file is shared and all the rest are hidden?  XP does things substantially different from 98SE.  The firewall behaves in strange and mysterious ways, even when you disable the darn thing.  Early versions of XP behave differently as well since the Service Packs alter the procedures as well.

I would love it if somebody could take 4 machines and describe the file names and subdirectories where they have their local copy stored.  One of the 4 machines must be different from the rest (apparently) and be located in a shared directory.  

Thanks for the help.

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com