[Spambayes] Outlook add-in is SICK and needs help!

[Paul Farley]

I have a machine that is consistently giving that error, I don't see a log
file, is there any other information I could collect that would help in
figuring out what's causing the problem?

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Peters [mailto:tim.one at comcast.net] 
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 18:10
To: Robert K. Coe
Cc: spambayes at Python.org
Subject: RE: [Spambayes] Outlook add-in is SICK and needs help!


[Robert K. Coe]
> I don't mean to be facetious, but is the Outlook add-in still
> being supported? Over the past several weeks (at least as long
> as 0.81 has been out there), literally dozens of people have
> reported the "Unable to register the DLL/OCX ..." error and the
> (related?) error in which Spambayes sometimes quits working
> and/or prevents Outlook from working for one or more users.  It
> would seem that these are serious problems,

Yes.

> and they're certainly real.

Yes.

> I've seen them both, and I'm not a clueless newbie.

So what caused them <0.1 wink>?

> But through it all I can't remember seeing a single comment from
> any of the developers.  No acknowledgement that they've confirmed
> (or not been able to confirm) the errors. No promise to get out a
> fix. Nothing. (Unless I'm getting senile, which isn't out of the
> question; I'm not getting any younger.)

Everything known about such things is recorded in the project bug tracker.
There have always been reports of this kind, since the first alpha release.
The developers never see them happen, so, no, can't confirm any of 'em.  So
long as they remain mysteries, also no, no fix is forthcoming so long as
that remains true.  "Literally dozens" seems hyperbolic to me, but even if
it's hundreds, that's a small percentage of the people who have downloaded
the Outlook addin.

If you haven't noticed before <wink>, that's what Windows is like:  no
matter what piece of Windows software you may look at, a small percentage of
users never get it to work.  Sometimes an extremely persistent user figures
out why (kinda -- this is the "well, I installed a new mouse driver, and
suddenly it works!" kind of pseudo explanation), but often there's never a
resolution.

Every problem reported that Mark could reproduce has already been fixed.
Likewise every problem I've ever seen has already been fixed (across 3
distinct installations).  The only real hopes remaining for others are that
(1) enough reports accumulate on the bug tracker so that a previously
unsuspected pattern appears (like "ah, they're all running ZoneAlarm version
XYZ with its mail quarantine feature enabled"; and/or, (2) someone
knowledgeable about Outlook quirks who experiences a problem digs into it,
and figures it out themself, or can at least relate it to the (often
undocumented) details of the Outlook API; and/or, (3) Mark installs a new
version of Outlook or Windows and sees the problem himself.

Keep in mind that we didn't write Outlook, Microsoft keeps the Outlook
source code secret, and that Mark already fixed dozens of problems stemming
from undocumented, reverse-engineered differences among Outlook and OS
versions.  When working with a Microsoft API, you're working blind (you
can't look at *their* code, you can only guess at the truth about the bits
they didn't reveal, or documented incorrectly, or forgot to update the docs
when some new version or service pack changed behavior).

> ...
> I fully realize that this is free software and that those who
> wrote it have to spend some time on their day jobs.

I can make about one hour per week for spambayes, and since I have no
problems of any kind with the Outlook addin, usually spend it analyzing
"high unsures", looking for tricks we may be missing.  If I had a problem
with the Outlook addin, I'd spend my hour on that instead.  Someone who does
have a problem is going to have to volunteer to track it down to the bitter
end, or pay someone to do that for them.  Another possibility is to give the
Inboxer trial version a shot, and pay for it if it doesn't have the same
problem (I don't know whether they see the same kinds of mystery problems,
but it's possible that they don't).


_______________________________________________
Spambayes at python.org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes
Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html