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Please report help file bugs to the official reporting station at [email protected]
A better way than [email protected] is needed. When I contact support with a bug, I get into an email conversation about needing to provide my serial number. Yes, even if I am just reporting a bug. I guess they want to make sure you have a legal copy.
Although I don't like passing my serial numbers around, I'll include my serial numbers in the first message to avoid the unnecessary email conversation. I was trying to avoid this. But you're right it should go through official channels.
They never ask me for serial number. I just get a 'thank you for letting us know' note in reply, and the bug gets fixed in next release; i.e., "it works here."
Then again I just may have submitted more such 'doc error' reports than have you and they recognize my name now.
Personally I would chalk it up to who receives the email and how well known you are in the forums, vs. "If it does not ring a bell" then they ask for some verification (and who can blame them???? so to not ill to bots and what not).
It can also depend on part on the info provided on the original email.
(That and if the person you are talking to, has had enough daily coffee to keep up with you )
A while back I reported what I thought was a bug (only reported 2 in my time) and sure enough, the upcoming version addresses exactly my problem. But I too was asked about my serial number (which I did not have at the time because the disk was at home and I was at work) I replied with other information that showed it was me. (Aka....info on who bought it, where it was shipped etc...) until I could get home.
Alas, it turned into less than 5 minutes, a reply showing records match and the reason I never got to Beta-Test before. (I was on the list, but dropped because I was not the one that bought the product, but I am the one that uses the product).
To PB and anyone else, that could be a tip-off of a possible hacker (and who could blame them, I would do the same) unless provided SOMMMMME sort of proof I am a legit user, and not wasting time needlessly.
Suffice to say...even though I was stressed out under a time crunch and no where left to turn, PB suprised me with beyonnnd PROMPT replies (few minutes or less, and most of that could be accounted for by my email checking times)
If you send something to PB and they request some sort of verify your id, I would tend to give it from a "TRUST" point of view and not very likely someone stealing your information
Engineer's Motto: If it aint broke take it apart and fix it
"If at 1st you don't succeed... call it version 1.0"
"Half of Programming is coding"....."The other 90% is DEBUGGING"
"Document my code????" .... "WHYYY??? do you think they call it CODE? "
Just speaking kind of philosophically, any report of an error seems to be kind of "source agnostic" and the folks in Florida should be happy to receive them.
I'd surmise that all such reports get logged and then checked out by competent and responsible parties, and if something is broken, it needs to get fixed anyway.
Is there the possibility that some competitor or perhaps just some troublemaker would be submitting a blizzard of reports just to cause PB extra work? Sure, but I can't see that lasting all that long even from the most juvenile offenders.
Of course, the sheer number of such reports would be reduced if only keeping the PowerBase Forum up to date had a little higher priority. If I can read about it there, I know PB is aware of the issue and I don't need to bother them with the same report.
The reason you were asked for your serial number when you wrote to support is because you purchased from a third party reseller. When you purchase from a reseller we have no record of who the reseller sold the product to. This is why it is so important to send in the registration card that came with the product or online by using our secure registration page at https://www.powerbasic.com/shop/register.asp. It also not possible to log a request or bug for someone that is not a registered user, the system just will not let this occur. Once you registered the product, you were not asked for your serial number when writing to support again.
Just a little story from this past week in which I am the featured bad guy....
I was working on an application using PB/Win 9x, and had a problem with one of my program resources. I thought to myself, "Gee, this problem seems familiar to me for some reason."
So, I inserted some debugging code and did some quick tests and found that indeed, PBRES version 1.86 has an error in it..which triggered my memory.
I dug thru my old code and found where I had created a demo for myself, and that I had found a workaround, (use the prior version (1.61) of PBRES). So I tried that with my current application using PbWin/9 and now everything worked perfectly.
I figgered I should be a good citizen and report the error, but I was sure I had done that before, so I simply asked PB Support if they had this report on file. They said no.
Oops. I must have found my workaround and forgotten to report the problem.
So, I ginned up a fresh demo, sent it in, and sure enough Support confirmed the bug quite promptly.
Now why is this relevant? Because I had first found this bug in September of two thousand five (2005).. more than three (3) years ago.. using PBWin version seven (7).... two MAJOR releases ago.
But since it never got reported, it never got fixed.
The moral of the story is, never assume 'someone else' has already reported a suspected bug.
Although I must confess... it is really really (REALLY!) hard for me to believe I was the ONLY person to encounter this bug in the past three years.
Really??? or is it more likely it occurred before and fell into the category of "Well SOMEONE must have seen this and reported it"
Meanwhile all the other people thought the same thing
Hence it never got reported, and it should have been
I will admit...I have been in the same situation, found what I I considered a "Bug", and reluctant to submit, but further testing, looked to see if anyone reported a similar, and finally submitted. (When it would be much simplier to submit and confirm not a bug, but a mis-coding (or on the RARE occurrance it be a bug)
Engineer's Motto: If it aint broke take it apart and fix it
"If at 1st you don't succeed... call it version 1.0"
"Half of Programming is coding"....."The other 90% is DEBUGGING"
"Document my code????" .... "WHYYY??? do you think they call it CODE? "
Really??? or is it more likely it occurred before and fell into the category of "Well SOMEONE must have seen this and reported
I don't know, but I suppose that is a possibility.
I was quite surprised PB did not have a report on file, since 'reporting bugs' is just something I do. I guess that one time I must have set it aside to 'do later' and then just totally forgot. Heck, I was back in business, wasn't I?
looked to see if anyone reported a similar,
Where did you look? It's pretty obvious to anyone who is, well, "breathing" that keeping the PowerBase Forum up-to-date is not in the Top Ten Things To Do Every Day in Venice FL. Although... we can hope this is on a certain someone's list of New Years' Resolutions.
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