info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (12/02/84)
From: Sam Harbison <Harbison@TL-20A.ARPA> I bought a copy of MacProject this week at my local computer store. It's a spectacular program, with good documentation (manual and Guided Tour). In MacProject you draw boxes representing tasks and milestones, indicate dependencies, and provide times, costs, and resource (e.g., people) consumptions for the tasks. It then calculates earliest begin/latest finish times and critical path information. Results are presented in three major ways: your original schedule "roadmap" with various bits of computed information; a task time line, and a resource timeline (times each resource is occupied). Costs and cash-flow breakdowns are also available. Particularly nice is the ability to write annotations anywere on the schedule or timelines. Editing the project with the mouse is quite powerful and natural; you scroll the main window on the (usually much larger) schedules and charts. There is a built-in calendar facility to note holidays, working hours, etc. I have been using Harvard Project Manager on an IBM PC for the last several weeks, and I consider MacProject superior. However, MacProject is not a superset of HPM's functionality. HPM has facilities for tracking actual versus estimated times and percent-complete data. It also allows a master schedule to be composed from separate smaller schedules (e.g., a company plan from individual project plans). MacProject allows none of this. However, HPM does not allow tasks to consume resources other than dollars, and I find the ability to assign and track people on projects to be a big plus in MacProject. Also, MacProject is more flexible in the permitted interconnections of tasks and milestones, has much sexier displays and charts, and in general has a smoother, less surprising user interface. (Actually, it's a complement for HPM even to be in the same league.) HPM lays out the schedule roadmap automatically (and often awkwardly); MacProject allows (forces) you to sketch the relative location of the boxes yourself. MacProject also prints the charts faster and is cheaper ($120 vs. $400). -------
info-mac@uw-beaver (01/28/85)
From: Tom.Wood@cmu-ri-fas.arpa
I just received a copy of MacProject as part of the "MacDraw/MacProject
Redemption" program (MacDraw, btw, is not yet ready according to the cover
letter.)
I made a copy of the MacProject disk (it is not copy protected) and
threw away the System and the Finder as I tend to keep a big system disk in
one drive and applications in the other.
Alas, MacProject doesn't work very well without "its" System file. In
particular, the chart size started out at 0 inches by 41 inches, and I found
it impossible to change the 41 inch dimension. I did not notice if anything
else was damaged.
MacProject seems to work fine with the supplied System file. So, I
suspect either (1) there is a new(?) version of the System file and/or (2)
there is some resource tucked away in the MacProject System file that it is
not in my System file.
Has anyone else noticed behavior like this? If so, any thoughts on how
to remedy things? Thanks.
Tom Wood
taw@cmu-ri-fasinfo-mac@uw-beaver (01/30/85)
From: Steven B. Munson <sbm@Purdue.ARPA>
I have noticed that there is a new system since I bought my Mac
three months ago. It is required for the new MacPaint (version 1.3).
Steve Munson
sbm@purdue
----------info-mac@uw-beaver (02/04/85)
From: olson@harvard.ARPA (Eric Olson) Please tell us all what version number the finder has in the new system you got with MacPaint 1.3. Better yet, what version the system file has (which is in the string-like resource ZSYS in the system file, I think). Thanks Eric
info-mac@uw-beaver (02/04/85)
From: Steven B. Munson <sbm@Purdue.ARPA>
I have had a couple of requests for the version number of the
system that goes with MacPaint 1.3. It turns out that these are not as
new as I had thought. MacPaint 1.3 is about 9 months old; I guess the
Macintosh I got 3 months ago was old stock. Anyway, the finder is
version number 1.1g, just like the one I already had, and, after
looking around in the system, I found no ZSYS resource and the MACS
resource had nothing in it I could distinguish as a version number
(MACS is the creator of the system).
So don't get too excited about MacPaint 1.3 or the system that goes
with it. It turns out that the latest version of MacPaint is 1.4, which
someone at this very moment is working on BinHexing and sending to
info-mac at my request.
Steve Munson
sbm@purdue
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