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From: neice@nando.net
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.beta
Subject: A couple of Merlin observations
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 96 12:10:14
Organization: Nando.net Public Access
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Message-ID: <4qh5v1$35c@castle.nando.net>
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Here are a couple of Merlin observations:

1. Sounds on sound events are much faster--i.e. they do not
   lag behind the event

2. The single-click close button is NOT an X. It's a box with
    a slash through it.

3. Double clicking on a wave file for midi file no longer
   launches the multimedia player. The file just immediately
   plays, which is a great feature.

4. Modal dialogs, at least file open dialogs, do not have a close
   button! For instance, if you open the audio player, a file
   dialog automatically opens and there is NO cancel button
   or close button. You have to double click in the top left
   corner. Same thing with the settings notebook for the
   Dial Other Providers dialer.

5. The uninstall utility only uninstalls features from the old Warp
    and none of the new items in Merlin. (I'm sure this will be fixed)

6. I can't get DOS to work (the OS/2 VDM version). I don't know if I'm
   the only one or not. When I double click on the DOS window icon
   it says it cannot find DOS (even though I made sure I selected it during
   install and I installed the Merlin beta 3 times in an effort to get DOS).
   Then 30 seconds later I get a trap error.

7. The install program works well, but installation takes FOREVER. It installed
   close to 150 megabytes of stuff.

8. The voice navigation is cool, but it is not immediately intuitive as to how
    to navigate the workplace shell. But once you get started it gets 
   kind of addictive.

9. The install selected features option reports not enough room on drive C
    even when the components you just selected for installation are on
    a different drive. Go figure.

10. Currently there is no option to install directly from the CD. You must
     install from 3 diskettes. It seems like there should be an option for
     current OS/2 users to just open the drive and click on an install.exe
     program.

11. I expected a big lag time between a spoken command and the action,
     however, it's amazingly quick. (I'm using a Pentium 120 with 48 mb RAM).


I'm currently working on a bug report and haven't used Merlin a whole lot.
See ya later!

Michael Neice
neice@nando.net

