🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm on FM6(p357) and Win2k(sp2). The video card and mouse are Matrox Milennium G400 and IBM ScrollPoint II, respectively. Both are running with their latest (greatest?) drivers. 

I've had this exact same problem since I first installed FrameMaker (a week after the release of FM6). It happens intermittently when I mess with the scroll bars--drag a bar to a new location, release the mouse button, CRASH! Internal error, dump file generated, please to kindly report this problem to fmerror@blah.blah... FrameMaker will then start right back up again without OS reboot or anything like that. I'd say the crash happens between 20% and 100% of the time--depending on how important it is that I finish my work and how complex my last 5 mins of changes are. 

I've sent two detailed reports on this to  the friendly people at Adobe, but FrameMaker (and only FrameMaker) still crashes when I touch the scroll bars. The only reason I read this discussion group is to hear about other instances of the problem. 

My working theory (rampant speculation fueled by madness) is that FM's basic code that deals with mouse input is flawed and/or inadequate. I'm guessing it was written before there were "scroll point" or "click-wheel" mice. The mouse I have uses a little "joystick" (like on IBM laptop keyboards but not rubberized or covered with sandpaper) for its scroll-around mechanism. 

My suspicion is that the scroller doo-dad has some hysteresis in it--so it still sends commands to creep along after you release it if you've pushed it "too far" in one direction or another. FrameMaker crashes intermittently because its mouse-handling code doesn't know how to interpret the occasional conflicting commands to scroll one way (me dragging scroll bar) and the other way (mouse-scroller hysteresis). People who use a scrolling mouse with a little click-click wheel wont have any hysteresis. Since most of the mice in the world are of that type, the problem will never get fixed. 

So get used to it, JSchnack (or, assuming I'm on the right track and you have a similar mouse, get a new mouse). It's really not so bad having to stay away from the scroll bars. You'll eventually train your mind to hesitate *every time* you reach for a scroll bar, not just in FrameMaker. It's a real joy--you'll be insane before you know it. 

Why don't I get a new mouse? Stubborn, mostly. I also believe that when a $$$ computer program can't play friendly with a $20 mouse (that otherwise functions splendidly), it's the job of the $$$ programmers to make things right.