emuroga@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (12/09/85)
I have questions for anyone familiar with Living Videotext's
"Thinktank". If anyone is using this product or is familiar with it,
I would appreciate any comments.
I am very interested in using Thinktank as an interactive writing
tool. I would like to be able to be able to keep an outline as I write,
and be able to change the outline as I write. I would also like to be
able to troff the final output. What sort of format is the text stored
in? Can I upload the output to a vax and insert the troff commands
there?
E. Murogaral@pyuxqq.UUCP (R A Levenberg) (12/12/85)
I've used ThinkTank on many occasions and found I liked
organizing thoughts in outline format. The user interface is,
shall I say, fair at best. It uses a sort of 1-2-3 style of menu,
near the bottom of the screen, but unlike 1-2-3, typing the first
character of a a displayed command does not always work.
(It usually does, but sometimes only the cursor positioning technique
works.) Despite this, and the failure to provide full control over
color (only foreground colors can be changed, not background, so this
feature is insufficient for my taste), it is a useful tool. The outline
is not stored in ascii (i.e., printable) format, but you can use the
"port" command to output to a file in ascii format. In fact, you
can send it in formatted style (with section numbering and indenting)
or in the so-called structured style. The structure style can very
easily be translated to troff source text using, say, the -mm macros.
(Nothing more than a 1-line sed command is needed). This is certainly
true about the headlines, but I'm not sure about the text that you
can add to a headline in paragraph form (called a document in ThinkTank
parlance.)
ThinkTank is copy-protected. You must insert a key disk in drive A
whenever you bring it up (a real pain in the *%$$@ and I hope LVT
corrects this situation).
--
U. S. Mail: Ron Levenberg
Bell Communications Research
3 Corporate Place
Room 2C-315
Piscataway, NJ 08854
UUCP: ..!{ihnp4,allegra}!pyuxqq!ral
Voice: (201) 981-6178dmimi@ecsvax.UUCP (Miriam Clifford) (12/13/85)
In response to the questions and comments on ThinkTank, I thought I'd share my experience with another outliner/organizer. I've been using MaxThink (MaxThink, Inc., 230 Crocker Ave., Piedmont, CA 94610, 415-428-0104) and am very pleased with it. It's commands are reasonably intuitive, the manual is quite clear (on most things), there is no copy protection, and they answer their phones.
edg@micropro.UUCP (Ed Greenberg) (12/17/85)
In article <785@pyuxqq.UUCP> ral@pyuxqq.UUCP (R A Levenberg) writes: >I've used ThinkTank on many occasions and found I liked >organizing thoughts in outline format. The user interface is, >shall I say, fair at best. It uses a sort of 1-2-3 style of menu, >near the bottom of the screen, but unlike 1-2-3, typing the first >character of a a displayed command does not always work. When you select an option with the cursor positioning mechanism of ThinkTank you are shown what character WILL work. It's not always the first character of the command, but that's probably acheive a balance between First-Letter commands and totally rediculous mnemonics. There comes a time when you can't have all the functionality you need and still maintain totally mnemonic commands. Some TT commands are on non alphabetic codes. >ThinkTank is copy-protected. You must insert a key disk in drive A >whenever you bring it up (a real pain in the *%$$@ and I hope LVT >corrects this situation). Registered owners of ThinkTank 2.0 are offered the opportunity to purchase a non copy protected version, which is a real pleasure to use. >U. S. Mail: Ron Levenberg -edg -- Ed Greenberg; MicroPro International Corp. (disclaimer) UUCP: {hplabs,ptsfa,glacier,lll-crg}!well!micropro!edg {ucbvax,decwrl}!dual!micropro!edg AT&T: 415-499-4096
halff@utah-cs.UUCP (Henry M. Halff) (12/18/85)
> From ral@pyuxqq.UUCP (R A Levenberg) Thu Dec 12 01:03:23 1985 > Newsgroups: net.micro.pc > Subject: Re: Questions about Thinktank > Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ > > ThinkTank is copy-protected. You must insert a key disk in drive A > whenever you bring it up (a real pain in the *%$$@ and I hope LVT > corrects this situation). You can get a nonprotected version of ThinkTank for an extra $40. Far too much if you ask me, but the program to begin with is pretty cheap for what it does. -- Henry M. Halff Halff Resources, Inc. halff@utah-cs.ARPA 4918 33rd Road, N., Arlington, VA 22207