Established 1991
Custom XTensions for QuarkXPress®
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Company Special Purpose Macintosh Freeware Windows Freeware |
In late 1999 I was comissioned by Dorling Kinderley to write a set of XTensions to help with the production of multiple versions of their books. These were the LokPik XTensions, one of which was called LokPik Repro. The first version of the LokPik XTensions was produced over the next six months, undergoing two months of beta testing, with a final 1.0 version being delivered at the beginning of May 2000. Despite the beta test period there was a serious problem with LokPik Repro 1.0, which was reported to me at the end of May 2000. I immediately fixed the problem and delivered LokPik Repro 1.0.1 on 31st May 2000. The problem with LokPik Repro 1.0 was that it assumed that any file opened was a file from Dorling Kindersley, and added a requirement to the file that meant it could only be opened with one of the LokPik XTensions loaded. I thought that was the end of the matter. The problem was now fixed, and the version with the bug had only been used at a small number of test sites. At the end of April 2001, I got the first indication that all might not be well, when someone posted a message about LokPik to the QuarkXPress mailing list. However, it seemed that was just LokPik doing its job correctly with Dorling Kindersley files. I received a similar message directly in August 2001, and I again passed it on to Dorling Kindersley. I heard nothing more about any problems with LokPik until May 2003, when I received in email in Italian about LokPik Repro 1.0. Unfortunately, since it was two years since I'd done much work on LokPik the version number didn't ring any alarm bells, and I just advised them to contact Dorling Kindersley. In June I received a similar message, although in English, and in July I received another. I received a couple of messages in July and August asking about LokPik 2.0. That re-assured me. LokPik 2.0 was supposed to stop people moving items in documents that they should not move, so it was just doing it job correctly. Then in September 2003, I got another email from an Italian company asking about LokPik Repro 1.0. A follow-up email from them in response to my reply directing them to Dorling Kindersley told me what was going wrong. I immediately checked back in my archives, and found what I've explained above - that LokPik Repro 1.0 had a nasty bug, and that it had been replaced by 1.0.1. I was puzzled - I hadn't heard anything about LokPik 1.0 for two years, and yet here it was causing problems. However, I immediately checked my email archives, and sent out LokPik Repro 1.0.2 to anyone who might have been reporting problems with LokPik Repro 1.0. I hoped that this would be enough. But in the months since then, I've been receiving more reports of LokPik Repro 1.0. Sometimes from people unwilling to add in a strange XTensions module without knowing what it does and whether it's free. More often from people who have installed a copy and only made contact after they've found out about the bug. Emails about LokPik Repro have been becoming more common. I received two in October, one in November, four in December, five in January, and four in February. I decided something had to be done. But what? A 'LokPik Killer' would mean that the LokPik XTensions written for Dorling Kinderley would become much less useful to them, as anyone would be able to remove the protection from their documents. It was this consideration that had prevented me from producing something when I first found out about the existence of LokPik Repro 1.0 'in the wild' back in September 2003. But after studying the situation a little more closely, it turns out that there are ways to tell whether a document has been accidentally affected by LokPik Repro 1.0, rather than being a document originating with Dorling Kindersley. But I couldn't just make an 'install and forget' XTensions module, since it must share the same XTensions ID as the LokPik XTensions. So here's my solution. LokPik Antidote adds a menu item to the Utilities menu and disables all the other menu items. It should only be installed long enough to remove the LokPik requirement from any files that have been affected by LokPik Repro 1.0, and then it must be removed. Selecting the menu item brings up a 'select folder' dialog. Selecting a folder containing affected QuarkXPress documents removes the LokPik requirement from the QuarkXPress documents in the folder, including any QuarkXPress documents in sub-folders. I strongly advise anyone using LokPik Antidote to apply it to copies of the original files only, and then to check all the files that have been changed. I do not know of any bugs in LokPik Antidote, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Please report any problems to info@durrant.co.uk. Documents originating from Dorling Kindersley may legitimately require a LokPik XTensions module to be installed. LokPik Antidote has no effect on such documents. Any version of LokPik Repro after 1.0 is perfectly safe to use.
Download Instructions in French for use of LokPik Antidote
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Last updated Saturday, 12 January 2008
