I^ll stop using RR9

[mike]

I have used RR in last 6 years with Visual Foxpro, but after the last problems i have encountered i have decided (also because my chief is pressing me to change) to stop using RR. I^ll use Visual Foxpro Reports Designer. All my new reports will be designed with this tool and in the next week i^ll redesigned the old one.__I have too much problems without specific cause. The problem is always the famous "RRW32 ha caused a problem and the app will be closed....." that appears sometime. The same report runs correctly on some machine and on others i have the error. I have to designe my reports using the same printer i have on customer machine. I have seen that if i use in my office an HP LaserJet4 and i rename it as "Printer" and on my customer^s pc i call his printer as "Printer" the problem is solved in 90% of situations. I have also seen that sometime if i don^t confirm the printing immediately, but i enter in Properties windows of my printer without make changes and confirm with ok button and then i print the error is bypassed. I have comunicated this suggestions to RR Discussion Forum, and i hope this can be of some help to resolve the problem because i am sure there is a bug in RR not a big bug but a bug in comunications with windows printers. I have seen some messages with similar problems but the responses are always the same and not resolve the problem totally. I can understand the problem with some particular printers (The last problem i have had is with a multifunction sharp printer) but i have this problem with normal HP and Epson printers. I have customer wihout problems where i install an update of my app where no reports are modified or where i have added a field and the error appears.__So my and my staff decision.__I have here rel.10 but i have seen too much service pack to pass to it. RR is better than VFP Report designer but this is more stable. If i see Service Pack to resolve this problem i^ll change my decision. I know also that Liveware can loose a customer like me and survice but i think this is not good.__I hope that other customers can answer to my message to show that i am not the only one to have problems.______

[kfleming]

I am assuming that you are using running and setting RI_WPTR to a ? so that the user is prompted to select a printer.____I fully agree that this problem is present in some system configurations but the difficulty on our side is that we need to reproduce this problem in a controlled situation so that we can actually debug the root cause. And all efforts so far to do this have failed to date. We have gone to customer sites and remotely accessed problem machines and every time the problem cannot be reproduced. So my frustration with this problem maybe even greater than yours. This is the number one issue on my plate that I would really like to solve..______Kathleen__R&R Support

[Michele]

I understand your frustration, but you have to undertstand my problems with this error.__I can reproduce the problem every time i want.__I have designed a simple report with one table and if I use Sharp drivers in Win2000 or XP i have the error.__I can put a zip file containing th report, the table used and the printer^s driver.__You have to install the drivers (even if you have not the printer), open the report and from the print option of the File menu change the printer and select preview. You have immediately the error.__I can also understand that this is a driver problem, but all the office application runs without problems and R&R has to do the same.__If you want to verify the problem i^ll give you the acces to my ftp area to download the file.

[kfleming]

In the past I have not had success in reproducing problems when I have only the driver but not the actual printer but I am certainly willing to try. Please email the FTP info to me and I will give it a go.____Kathleen__R&R Support__kfleming@livewarepub.com

[pdempsey]

Mike,____Are you renaming the printer from the installed name to "Printer". It could be that there is some kind of reserve word problem there.____We probably have 20,000 runtimes installed running V9.009 stand alone and on networks and use the DEFAULT for the printer, letting Windows do the choosing for us. If the user wants to change the printer, they can use the control panel. We also use a Set Printer button on the screen and use the win api to change the printer from inside VFP.____I^ve seen a few problems on a few systems with "?", so we have stayed away from that and have not really had any serious complaints.____...for what it^s worth.

[Michele]

I use the name "Printer" for example. Really it is "Stampante" (printer in italian).__I don^t use the default Option because i have seen that some users after my application use office programs and use other printer than my app.__So my program don^t change the default printer.__

[Michele]

I think it may be a permissions problem. Your user needs to be a "printer operator" so they can dynamically install the .pdf printer driver.____For fun, temporarily make the person an Administrator. If the problem goes away, it is definitely a permission problem.____