FM2019 - Can't launch the ExtendScript IDE

[Russ Ward]

Hi,

FrameMaker 2019, v15.0.1.430, installed with several previous versions.

The File > Script > New Script command does nothing. I can run a script with File > Script > Run. If I launch the IDE with FM2015 and switch the target to FM2019, again I can run a script. Any ideas why I can't launch the toolkit with FM2019?

Thanks,

Russ

[Stefan Gentz · Accepted solution]

Hi Russ,

this was a bug. It is fixed by now. Please install Update 2 for FrameMaker 2019.

Cheers,

Stefan

[Russ Ward]

Well, how about that. Thanks Stefan.

[rombanks]

Hi Stefan,

As far as I can see, the availability of update #2 has not been officially announced yet.

I evaluated FM19, with update#1 installed, and it currently is the most buggy version I've seen so far, after FM9.

What does the QA department do?

[Wiedenmaier]

Hi Rombanks,

can't unterstand "FM 2019" is the most Buggy Version. What does this mean for you?

FM 2019 is completely new under the hood, and of course there are Bugs as they exist in any other software too.

But for me 2019 is the best release ever and at least not worse than any version before.

I think you should deliver more details to this statement, so bugs can be fixed. Otherwise Nothing will change

Markus

[rombanks]

Hi Markus,

Apparently, it largely depends on the use case/environment. If you work on some light-weight projects, whether in structured or unstructured mode, FM19 may do the job. This is different in case of large-scale projects including thousands of pages. In my case, FM19 failed where FM15 did what it was supposed to do (slowly but surely) - I am mostly talking about PDF distilling and HTML5 generation. With the trial version of FM19, I couldn't even customize the HTML5 publishing settings - it crashed. I couldn't distill more than 61 pages.
I use FM on Win7. I guess you have already moved to Win10, right?

The product should be tested in different environments and at different stress levels before it is released to the market.

I am sure Adobe has enough resources to fully test the product, without me pinpointing the issues. I've spent enough time working with the Adobe support in the past and showing them the issues I had. Nowadays, I can't allow myself wasting my time on that anymore.

[Wiedenmaier]

Hi,

if FM crashes at page 61 this is a light weight project:-)

And yes it's a pitty when FM crashes on what you describe. That's not my experience and also not that of my customers, and be sure some of them are also large scaled projects.

There was a very big beta phase, with a lot of internal and external ressources, so I can say, it's tested and it's tested in a wide range. But there are always circustances (Plattform, FM Document != FM Document a.s.o) which can't be tested by no one. Unfortunately it's still software.

I'm sure you are also wellcome to take part in beta programs for major releases or perhaps updates.

But I think, we are getting off topic here. You should report these issues to Adobe, so they can and will take care to solve this issue. I you want me to give you a hand, please contact me off list (markus.wiedenmaier@practice-innovation.de)

Bye

Markus

[Stefan Gentz]

Hi rombanks,

I will be happy to look with the team at your file set and test printing/distilling and HTML5 output on our side.

Please feel invited to share the file set with me (gentz at adobe.com).

*Stefan.

[Wiedenmaier]

Hi rombanks​,

there is a new Update 2 for FM2019 released.

Also some crashes are fixed (see Issues fixed in FrameMaker (2019 release) ).

Perhaps this update may help you

Markus

[rombanks]

Hi Markus,

I appreciate your response.

Update 2 won't help me much as my trial version has already expired. I've already uninstalled it.

I've looked at the list of bugs fixed since FM19 was released, and I just can't understand how come they were overlooked before the release. If the Save as PDF option doesn't work, how can you overlook that?

I actually requested access to the beta program several times in the past but haven't gotten it.

I don't really care already as I've decided to move on to other, more stable authoring tools, with better support.

[4everJang]

"I just can't understand how come they were overlooked before the release"

I can say the same about all Windows versions, especially 7. But it seems you are still clinging to that version. I suspect that many of the problems with FM2019 are really caused by having a 10-year old operating system. I have been running FM2019 - and driving it to extremes with my programming - since I enrolled in the prerelease program and it is by far the most stable release. If a Ssave as PDF did not work in the earlier release that is not a show-stopper either, as everyone is using the Publish pod nowadays. Yes, it should have been found before the release, but then there are 1000s of features to check. At least they found and fixed it, which is something I cannot say about a number of Windows 7 glitches and hiccups.

Your style of screaming about how bad FM is but then refusing all suggestions and keeping on with your FM bashing really bothers me. I suggest you upgrade to a decent operating system verion (64-bit Windows 10) before you ever try FM again. Good luck with your "much more stable authoring tools". They do not come with all the publishing methods that FM has in the box, so you will need that support once you get to creating PDFs and HTML5.

[rombanks]

Hi Jang,

Win7 64bit has been a very stable Windows version so far. I never ever had problems with it. It's officially supported by Adobe as an OS on which you can install FrameMaker 2019. So FrameMaker should work on it impeccably. Fm2015 works on Win7. So FM2019 should work even better, shouldn't it?

[Stefan Gentz]

Hi rombanks,

rombanks  wrote

If the Save as PDF option doesn't work, how can you overlook that?

Why do you think the Save as PDF option did not work? Release notes can be sometimes misunderstandable due to the way they are usually written. In Update 1 for FrameMaker, we just changed the way "Save as PDF" works. The way we had designed it was not appreciated by a larger user group. Adobe reacted quickly on this feedback and redesigned it based on the user feedback, and released Update 1 with this change (and many others) within less than 2 months after the release.

I have written a blog post for Update 1 some time ago, that gives a little bit more background than the release notes:

FrameMaker 2019 Update 1 – Adobe TechComm Blog

I, of course, do not want to follow the "Good luck with other tools" Instead I would like to invite you together with the support team for a chat and look at the challenges you are facing and how they can be addressed.

Kind regards,

Stefan Gentz

[rombanks]

Stefan, Hi!

As a product evangelist, you are doing a great job, no doubt about that!

The Save as PDF option didn't work for me just because it did nothing when clicking it, de facto. It only started doing something after installing Update #1. As I told Markus, I had numerous sessions with the Adobe support team in the past, while debugging FM10 issues I had. The support guys confirmed that they managed to reproduce most of the issues I had, but that was about it. I didn't get any patch and until this day, I didn't get access to the beta program. I had to wait for a long time, till FM12 was released, to see if some of the issues I had were resolved. So this time, I'll let you guys sort things out on your own, without me spending my time on debugging your product.

[Wiedenmaier]

rombanks  schrieb

As a product evangelist, you are doing a great job, no doubt about that!

yes indeed. and he does much more evangelizing. He is one reason why things at Adobe change in the last few years that much...

rombanks  schrieb

I had numerous sessions with the Adobe support team in the past, while debugging FM10 issues I had.

... so it's not comparable to that 10 year old stuff. My experiences are different nowadays. Adobe Team listens to any chat about FrameMaker, even the German ones. Patches/Updates are release in a two month periods.

And these experiences I and my customers made in the younger past give a good feeling to me, that FrameMaker is a very good software, for that use cases it is designed for. Of course there are other tools, and these are also integrated in my Projects, but this is not due to support or Bugs; this due to different use cases and other scenarios, where FM doesn't fit in gerneral.

And as I told you, FM is still a piece of oftware as any other authoring tool, and unfortunately software is buggy by definition. This is because any user is different and has different use cases; due to this unique circumstances software behaves differernt, even if user means this is standard and has to work in his environment perfectly.

In May this year Microsofts shipped a patch for Windows 10, for example. This patch was that kind of buggy, that you wasn't able anymore to create PDF out of FM and other authoring tools. All the webehelps we produced before didn't work any more, due to a bug which doesn't support import of CSS anymore. Strange... who has tested this? It was tested, I'm sure, but not the fact that HTML5 Webhelp can also be installed locally, so on web Servers that worked but not on a local machine and this is due to guys hadn't techcomm usecases in mind.

So come on, and try to be fair. I can understand your complaints and that you are very angry about that. But take Stefan's offer and chat with him and his team about your issues, and I'm sure they will find a solution for you. And then there are other guys like Jang, me and many other, which are always open do discuss things on and off list.

At this Point I can't resist to quote Volbeat: "Mr. Perfect doesn't exist my little friend…" 🙂

And yes you are right: If Win7 is official supported by FM it has to run on Win7 as well as on any later versions. But I personally don't understand why people are working with 10-20 year old Software, like Win7, FM 2015 and lower, Word 97. It's logical that there will be problems and it's understandable that no one will care about that anymore. In the meantime, I personally reject projects that use old software or let me pay very, very well.

Solution for that: take the Subscription License for FM/TCS and you will Always have latest versions, with latest bug fixes and Features.

Thanks for listening.

Markus

[Wiedenmaier]

rombanks​

By the way: there's a public issue Tracker for FM, where you can file Bugs Tracker at any time. and find issues already reported Tracker

So you can always see which issues are reported by others and track your own issues.

To file an issue, I would recommend to check this with latest FM Version, and report it if it still exists there. Fixes are always made to latest Version. Furthermore describe your issue very clearly, provide sample files if possible, so your issue can be reproduced very easily. The clearer your description is the higher is the Chance to get a quick fix.

Markus

[rombanks]

Hi Markus,

I appreciate your inputs!

Yes, I read about the Win10 patch that caused big problems with Framemaker. In addition, I know that on Win10, there are compatibility problems between MS Visio and Framemaker, caused by the order of installation. I saw that happening.

Win7 was indeed released 10 years ago, but it is actively being updated and I experienced no problems with it during all these years. Framemaker 2015 was released just 3 years ago. It has its own weaknesses, especially with HTML5 generation that takes ages. But it is by far better than what I experienced with FM19 so far.

I am ready to give it another chance and quickly test FM19 with Update #2 but as I said earlier, the trial version had expired and I uninstalled it. If Adobe is interested in giving me a temporary license valid for additional 30 days, that's fine with me. 

Tschüss!

[frameexpert]

I have been watching this thread from afar and just want to say, Roman, if you decide to leave the FrameMaker world, I will miss you. I have enjoyed our interactions on this forum. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2019!

Long live FrameMaker, warts and all.

[rombanks]

Hi Rick,

I appreciate your response! I knew you were watching behind the scenes. 🙂

I am not leaving the FrameMaker world for now - I will keep it for distilling small docs.  I am just staying with my antique tools - Win7 and FM2015. 🙂

So I hope we'll keep interacting in 2019 as well.

Long live FrameExpert and his friends! (Let's leave all the warts behind us, in 2018.) 

[Wiedenmaier]

rombanks  schrieb

I am ready to give it another chance and quickly test FM19 with Update #2 but as I said earlier, the trial version had expired and I uninstalled it. If Adobe is interested in giving me a temporary license valid for additional 30 days, that's fine with me. 

Yes this would be great. Never give up 🙂

I think Stefan will help you out here.

As FM is designed for large scaled project, at least by my definition, they should be able to fix your Problems, for you and perhaps others.

Good luck to you.

Tschüss, Servus, Ciao, CU

Markus