ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) (03/03/86)
I'm starting to hear this question a lot now: "If SSI provides
conversion to Navy DIF (Document Interchange Format) with their
"Convert" routine, why is IMS marketing a $100 WordPerfect-DIF
conversion package?". The answer is simple: ours works. SSI
knows about as much as can be known about writing word
processors (they produce the best one on the market), but
apparently little or nothing about media conversion. They simply
took a literal copy of NAVDAT 17.11 (the preliminary specs for
the Navy DIF standard) and wrote up a conversion routine as if it
were merely a one-to-one table look up kind of thing.
There are at least a hundred reasons why that won't suffice,
one of which is the following: that WordPerfect requires tab
stops for indenting while many other word-processors don't; a
DIF formatted document coming from a DataPoint system, for
instance, cannot be counted on to have tab stops set at every
column on which indents occur.
The difference between conversion routines which take this
factor into account and ones which don't may be seen by viewing
the following tabular document (actually document 1-G from the
Navy's official set of DIF test documents) as it appears
originally, as reproduced by the IMS WordPerfect-DIF package, and
as reproduced by the SSI "Convert" routine.
.............................................................
Document 1-G as it was originally created
TABLE 9-3
PV WITHOUT INFLATION
Cumulative
Discount Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954 $381.6 $381.6
2 2500.0 .867 2167.5 2549.1
3 600.0 .788 472.8 3021.9
4 700.0 .717 501.9 3523.8
5 700.0 .652 456.4 3980.2
The PV = $3980.2
The next step is to perform the analysis in terms of current
dollars. The differential inflation rate for ADPE is -3%. Using
the second year joint inflation/discount rate in Table 3 of
Appendix D, the present value for the project is calculated in
Table 9-4.
TABLE 9-4
PV WITH -3% INFLATION FOR ADPE
Cumulative
Discount Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954 $381.6 $381.6
2 500.0 .867 433.5 815.1
2 2000.0* .833* 1666.0* 2481.1
3 600.0 .788 472.8 2953.9
4 700.0 .717 501.9 3455.8
5 700.0 .652 456.4 3912.2
...........................................................
Document 1-G as reproduced (from the Datapoint version) by the
IMS WordPerfect-DIF conversion routine. Notice that WordPerfect
cannot handle decimal-tabs followed by a dollar sign rather than
numbers, but that other than that, nothing was missed.
TABLE 9-3
PV WITHOUT INFLATION
Cumulative
Discount Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954 $381.6 $381.6
2 2500.0 .867 2167.5 2549.1
3 600.0 .788 472.8 3021.9
4 700.0 .717 501.9 3523.8
5 700.0 .652 456.4 3980.2
The PV = $3980.2
The next step is to perform the analysis in terms of current
dollars. The differential inflation rate for ADPE is -3%. Using
the second year joint inflation/discount rate in Table 3 of
Appendix D, the present value for the project is calculated in
Table 9-4.
TABLE 9-4
PV WITH -3% INFLATION FOR ADPE
Cumulative
Discount Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954 $381.6 $381.6
2 500.0 .867 433.5 815.1
2 2000.0* .833* 1666.0* 2481.1
3 600.0 .788 472.8 2953.9
4 700.0 .717 501.9 3455.8
5 700.0 .652 456.4 3912.2
................................................................
Document 1-G (from the Datapoint version) as reproduced by the
SSI "Convert" routine.
E
TABLE 9-3
PV WITHOUT INFLATION
Cumulative
Discount
Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954
$381.6 $381.6
2 2500.0 .867
2167.5 2549.1
3 600.0 .788
472.8 3021.9
4 700.0 .717
501.9 3523.8
5 700.0 .652
456.4 3980.2
The PV = $3980.2
The next step is to perform the analysis in terms of current
dollars. The differential inflation rate for ADPE is -3%.
Using the second year joint inflation/discount rate in Table 3
of Appendix D, the present value for the project is calculated
in Table 9-4.
TABLE 9-4
PV WITH -3% INFLATION FOR ADPE
Cumulative
Discount
Discounted Discounted
Year Costs Factor__ Costs_____ Costs_____
1 $400.0 .954
$381.6 $381.6
2 500.0 .867
433.5 815.1
2 2000.0* .833*
1666.0* 2481.1
3 600.0 .788
472.8 2953.9
4 700.0 .717
501.9 3455.8
5 700.0 .652
456.4 3912.2
#
.............................................................
Example three looks pretty tacky, doesn't it? The Navy DIF
figures to see use in transmitting documents around the globe
via phone-lines and satellites, but in order to do that, you
have to be able to believe that the document will look right on
the target system; the guy in Germany or New Zealand doesn't
have a copy of the original document and hence won't know how to
correct something like example 3 by hand. The SSI "Convert"
routine, which is provided free with the WordPerfect package,
should be regarded as a good faith efford on SSI's part and as
an extreme example of getting what you pay for in life. As far
as I know, it is the ONLY thing in the WordPerfect package which
doesn't work.
The only true working gateways into the world of large scale
and interchangeable word-processing (via DIF) from the realm of
PC word-processors are the IMS DIF conversion routines for
WordPerfect and for the Mark Software WordMarc (Muse) package.
The package for WordPerfect is available now and the one for the
WordMarc package will be available shortly for $100/copy from
Integrated MicroComputer Systems Inc.
6110 Executive Blvd.,
Rockville, Md. 20852
DIF Development Group
Suite 750
The DIF packages for PCs should be thought of primarily as a means
of integrating the PCs with larger scale office equipment; i.e.
for purposes of transmitting documents from one PC word-processing
system to another it is simpler (especially at $200/copy for
WordPerfect) simply to have a copy of the other guy's word processor
around. As a GENERAL PURPOSE word processor, WordPerfect has left
the pack so far behind that, given the street or real-world price
of $200, it makes no sense to fool around with the others. The
WordMarc (or Muse) package is not entirely genral purpose. It
lacks the huge number of features found in WordPerfect, but the
handfull of extra features it DOES have are doozies, such as
multiple sub/super scripts, on screen fonts including Greek and
math symbols (you can make up your own Gothic or Cyrillic fonts
etc.), and the fact that it runs on a large class of machines,
including but not limited to the PC.