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I fail to understand your reasoning as to why Master Document fails. First, the comparable FrameMaker feature has worked splendidly for *years*. Second, the Master Document "feature" was *designed* to run on 32-bit processors. If it didn't work properly, and if Microsoft was unable to engineer a solution that *does* work, they should never have released it to begin with.
As for "none of us have enough memory to keep all those documents open"--are you *sure* about that? Machines with 1-2 GB of memory are increasingly common on the desktop, and when you add virtual memory there is surely enough memory for most docs?
Next, the notion that OLE and other applications were invented to "drive" our need for bigger machines...I'm afraid that is even a bit too insidious to believe of Microsoft. Instead, I think it is more fair to say that Microsoft seeks to add features that drive *software* sales. The fact that many of them push the limits of the architecture is largely incidental, surely.
All your comments have succeeded in doing for me, I'm afraid, is to underscore the basic flaws in the Microsoft architecture. There is nothing they are trying to do that seems particularly better than has been done for many years by others. What I'd rather see is some signs of additional competence among their design and development staff, so that the marketing hype might become more accurate in describing actual, usable features in the software.
And I'd vote that they start with Master Document and Autonumbering.
David
-----Original Message from David Locke <dlocke -at- texas -dot- net>-----
The Master Document feature fails, because 32-bit processors can't manage
enough handles, and because none of us have enough memory to keep all those
documents open. It may work with a 64-bit 2-processor or larger machine,
which we will all have in a few years....
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