Re: [mv] MV4 - State/Province field produces runtime error (long)

[Heinz Wittenbecher <heinz@bytedesigns.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Heinz Wittenbecher <heinz@bytedesigns.com>     ******

on 05/24/00 5:52 AM, Holm Tiffe at holm@freibergnet.de wrote:

> ******    message to minivend-users from Holm Tiffe <holm@freibergnet.de>
> ******
> 
> Heinz Wittenbecher wrote:
> 
>> ******    message to minivend-users from "Heinz Wittenbecher"
>> <heinz@bytedesigns.com>     ******
>> 
>> Thanks Cameron.
>> Now I have places to start chasing. I realize it's a problem external to MV
>> itself but as it's used in the demo I consider it MV related and had hoped
>> that perhas someone else has come accross it as it happens on the demo cat
>> 'simple' as installed, i.e. no changes made. (I keep an untouched 'simple'
>> as primary reference).
> 
> Heinz, forget about the demo as a reference, I have had some discussions via
> Mail with Mike H., he say's the demos are totally unsupported and he is'nt
> responsible to problems in the demos. He is only responsible to bugs found
> in Minivend itself. period.
> 
> There are so many mailings from beginners on this list about the difficult to
> install minivend an the poor documentation, so the people are using 'simple'
> as
> a reference (including me).
> 
> But this seems to be the wrong way to go.
> 

It may be the wrong way to go but as many of us learn by example it's the
only option available. I'm sure that the many mailings from beginners would
be reduced quite dramatically if the demo, even a smaller demo, would work
so that one can make and observe changes while shaping and forming MV into
ones' own flavor.

The docs are really not too bad, except that they also lack examples. They
are a great reference, but before one can refer, one has to know.

This by no means is meant as a mark against Mike as in my opinion he has
already gone above and beyond the call of duty to even make MV available to
us in the first place.

> 
> 
> We are a little Isp and we are selling those Linux Penguins and BSD Daemons
> to. The timeframe that I could use to track bugs in minivend and the demos
> are very small, and many bugs I've found are already found by others, but they
> got never fixed.

My feeling exactly. I can only imagine how many times the demo has actually
been fixed, but it never gets back into the distribution or even gets
distributed via mailinglist. Again, I do not expect that this is a task that
Mike needs, wants or should be saddled with.

I heard mention of a depository of snippets... that would solve many a
problem. A simple email to a mailinglist or? with a reasonable subject line
and limited to snippets and comments only, i.e. no questions, only answers.
Little pieces of "this is what I did", "this worked for me". Perhaps a
maillinglist is not the answer, but rather a site where these snippets could
be 'deposited' via email and searched for as required.

> 
> Minivend is great software,

It is not only great, but supergreat.

> but the buggy demos are on of the greatest
> culprits
> of minivend.
> 
> Holm

Yes indeed and as every MV newcomer uses it as a starting point the same
frustrations are vented over and over via newbies asking the same questions
and the veterans saying "oh no, not again", read the documentation, go to
the archives while forgetting that they were there themselves not too long
ago.

It's no wonder this list projects a tense tone. It is actually quite
intimidating even to someone that's been in the computer racket for some 20+
years.

Again, no wonder the list seems somewhay tense as most, if not all, on this
list are using MV as a vehicle to enhance ones well being, i.e. make money
in some way or other.

I don't know how many have dropped MV once it's up and running. I would
venture to say not very many as it is an excellent product. No free lunches
though, we all pay our dues in one way or another and with MV it's blood,
sweat and the many toothpicks required to keep them eyes open well into the
many nights required before a grand opening of the first MV storefront.

Sorry to be so longwinded.

Getting back to the possibility of a co-op depository... if there are folks
out there that agree it's a good idea and if there are some volunteers out
there to help me get it started I'd be happy to host it, during it's startup
phase anyways. I can make some space and bandwidth available... for a while
anyways (probably quite a while :-).

But if someone else wants to do it or has perhaps already started I'll
gladly revert to user status.
If you think this has merit and you want to help, etc. email me offline and
we'll see if we can't help each other in a somewhat organized fashion.

Mike, thanks for an excellent product. It's better than many carts I've seen
and I did do a little looking before deciding to continue/renew with MV.
Flexibility means complexity. Complexity means much head hurting but
eventually the scars will heal.

Buggy or not, mis-used or not and certainly not perfect... my first MV site
is up. It's certainly still a work in progress, but it's up.

Heinz
first (of hopefully many) Byte Designs MV store: www.trackermall.com - Auto
Parts Xpress (www.autopartsxpress.com)

heinz@bytedesigns.com




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