xmetal 4.6 with windows 7

[tero]

Hi!

Do you know if there are any issues with windows 7 enterprise and XMetaL(R) Author 4.6 Service Pack 2. (Version#: 4.6.12.152)(I know its an old version of xmetal....)

The thing that happens is that xmetal freezes while marking a text block with the mouse. This doesn't happen all the time so it's difficult to test what might be the problem. I haven't seen that problem before in windows xp. When it freeses I have to restart xmetal and start all over again.

/tero

[Derek Read]

There are bound to be many issues when running XMetaL Author 4.6 release on Windows 7 as the product was only tested on XP and earlier versions of Windows. We don't have a list of OS-specific items we can provide but it would be quite long and mostly related to UAC and "per user" permissions that make our older versions (before 5.5) incompatible.

Please also note that our policy is to support our current release plus one full version back (currently that includes versions 6.0 back to 5.0). You may wish to consider upgrading if you wish to obtain support through our support channels. All upgrades are free for clients with a maintenance agreement.

I am familiar with this particular issue however, and it is no longer present in our 6.0 version.

Details for this Particular Issue: "hang after select text without mouse up for approx 5 seconds"
This issue was first reported by clients running XMetaL Author Enterprise 5.5 running on Vista (this was the first release to support Vista which is when we began to hear reports).

Microsoft introduced a new feature to try to detect when an application has "hung" in Vista. Windows 7 inherited this (or a very similar) feature.

These versions of Windows now monitor an application's main "window" to see if it is sending messages to the operating system. If no messages are sent for more than about 5 seconds the OS takes a screen capture of the application, stops allocating CPU cycles to the application (even though it might be fine) and displays the screen capture instead of the application itself -- making it appear as if it has actually hung. It then initiates the standard Windows "this program is not responding..." sequence where you typically have options to report the problem to Microsoft and errors are logged for your IT people to look at.

This is actually a fairly elegant solution but one that we did not anticipate Microsoft implementing.

The only way we are aware of to trigger this issue in XMetaL is to hold the mouse button down and keep it held down. Since XMetaL has nothing to do in this instance (it is waiting for you to do something like release the mouse button, move the mouse, or press a key) it will not send any system messages, making these versions of Windows assume that it has hung. In our 6.0 release we have addressed this issue by forcing the application to continue to "ping" the OS in this particular case so that Windows knows it is still functioning.

This OS feature does not exist in XP and earlier versions of Windows and so you will not see the problem there.

You have a few options:
   1. Upgrade to the 6.0 release which was designed specifically to run on Windows 7 and has been thoroughly tested there.
   2. Be aware that holding the mouse down for 5+ seconds will trigger the problem and avoid doing that.
   3. Try running your XMetaL Author 4.6 release using "XP Mode": http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

[tero]

thanks for the detailed answer! We are planning to upgrade but I don't know when. This might speed up the process.

[LeeHart]

You have a few options:
   1. Upgrade to the 6.0 release which was designed specifically to run on Windows 7 and has been thoroughly tested there.
   2. Be aware that holding the mouse down for 5+ seconds will trigger the problem and avoid doing that.
   3. Try running your XMetaL Author 4.6 release using "XP Mode": http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

There's another option - using the application compatibilty shims. The default application compatibility shims for XP apps will cause the application to run elevated. If that's not acceptable you can use the application compatibility toolkit to assemble the set of shims you need. I used the XP shims and then removed the 3 (I think) shims that require elevation. Unfortunately it's been several years since I did this and I don't remember the names of the shims I removed. (This was also for XMetaL 4.0, not 4.6.)

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971&displayLang=en>

Lee
Not speaking on behalf of my employer.

[Derek Read]

[Thanks Lee, this could be a viable option for some people.]

You may wish to try a shim, however, please keep in mind that we cannot help at all with this. Nor would we support running the software this way. That last point is somewhat irrelevant in this case however, as we stopped supporting all 4.x releases the moment we released 6.0.

That having been said, the Microsoft site has a wealth of information about Managing Shims in an Enterprise.
This particular article may be of special interest if you are not familar with the idea: Deciding When to Use Shims as a Compatibility Mitigation

[tero]

ok, thanks!

I'll let you know how it works, I will test it in the beginning of may.
regards

tero

[LeeHart]

You may wish to try a shim, however, please keep in mind that we cannot help at all with this.

Not for 4.x but perhaps for 5.x.

To be completely clear, 4.0 with the shims is NOT as stable as 6.0. I do firmly encourage anyone not using 6.0 to plan to move.

Lee
Still not speaking on behalf of my employer